At most of the science fiction conventions I've been to, the majority of people were there to meet authors, get books autographed, and such, but mostly to take in workshops and discussions with authors and editors. One gets the impression that everybody and his or her pet chicken want to write science fiction, get published, and become another Isaac Asimov or Arthur C. Clarke. It was the writers' workshops that attracted me (I have about four unfinished novels stored on disc, which someday . . . maybe. . . .)

But a lot of people attending are somewhat more into science fiction movies and television, often referred to as "sci-fi," which, among the cognoscenti, is not a particularly complimentary term because of the tendency in these media not to care much if they get the science wrong (in Battlestar Galactia, for example, the writers didn't seem to know the difference between a solar system and a galaxy!). These are the folks who are the most into sticking a couple of antennae on their foreheads, painting themselves blue, and coming as an Andorian, or dressing in a leather bikini, carrying a broadsword, and coming as Xena, Warrior Princess.

As I say, I've never been to a Ren-faire or an SCA gathering, so I'm not sure what the dynamics are there, but I feel fairly certain that there are some fairly strong similarities.

Don Firth