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Will Shortz Puzzle Day
Will Shortz, Crossword Editor for the New York Times, speaks at the Clinton School on May 30, a day which is now deemed "Arkansas Puzzle Day." Shortz lectures and leads word games after playing the documentary, WordPlay, a film in which he is a main character.
A Viking woman in gilded armor consults a map with a purple unicorn in the gardens of the Chattanooga Choo Choo while another woman pushes past a Graco stroller with two onesie-clad "were-babies." Must be Chattacon.
Some 750 people from Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia and the Carolinas are in town this weekend for the 40th installment of the annual convention that celebrates speculative fiction. According to the Chattanooga Convention and Visitors Bureau, the event brings an estimated $300,000 to the city annually.
Lee Sessoms, chairman of Chattacon, has been attending the event since 1981 and volunteering on and off since 1992. He explained that speculative fiction is any fiction where reality isn't fixed in an alternate time line, a more preferred term in science fiction circles. Sessoms said Chattacon is different from other conventions like Comic-Con, Con Nooga, or Dragon Con in Atlanta.
"We really focus on the literary side of speculative fiction, not so much other media like comics and films," Sessoms said.
Sessoms said that because this is Chattacon's 40th anniversary, they went looking for the "big guns," and no, he doesn't mean George R.R. Martin, because the "Game of Thrones" author is well out of the nonprofit's price range.
Instead, Sessoms said the convention targeted less-mainstream names, though well-known within the world of speculative fiction. Authors and artists like convention guest of honor Julie E. Czerneda, or special guest Adam-Troy Castro are speaking on panels throughout the weekend. Castro, a Phillip K. Dick Award-winning author living in Florida, said he was enjoying his first Chattacon.
"This convention has a very warm atmosphere, and I love the convention's emphasis on books," Castro said.
The convention also offers the Dealers Room, a space for up-and-coming self-publishing authors to sell their books and network with editors, as well as vendors selling science fiction books, Gothic jewelry, Victorian steampunk costumes, corsets and even plush Pokemon toys.
Lando Calrissian, Baron Administrator of Cloud City, was also there, holding court in the middle of the Dealers Room with two fellow convention-goers. A trip to Earth is rare for Calrissian; he was discussing pumpkin riots he'd recently seen on YouTube.
Lando is actually Tech Wilkerson, a truck driver from Murfreesboro, Tenn. This is Wilkerson's fourth or fifth time to Chattacon, and one of several that he attends each year to escape from the real world for a while. He has several costumes that he rotates, mostly handmade, but the sky blue Lando costume is his go-to.
"It's all about the 'L tres,' baby," Wilkerson said. "Ladies love the Lando."
More than the romantic possibilities the convention offers, Wilkerson said the experience is about camaraderie. He gestured to a vendor selling ironic T-shirts and chuckles at one depicting Godzilla's foot about to come down on a red Lego brick.
"Everybody here understands me," Wilkerson said. "And I understand them."
Contact Will Healey at whealey@timesfreepress.com, at 423-757-6731, or on Twitter @wfhealey.