Happy Thanksgiving!

I wish you all a wonderful weekend full of family, friends, too much food, and hiding in your house or apartment or car or under the bridge, not having to stand in line anywhere in the cold just to get $15 off a TV or 2 for 1 Hello Kitties or something.

But if you do have to do any of that shopping stuff, I wish you godspeed. AND I have a recommendation for you below! Read on!

LOSCON

No, that’s not a typo, that word makes sense.

This weekend is the 49th year of Loscon, and back in the day, many cities apparently just had ONE convention, named after the city they were in. CHI-CON, STL-CON, I don’t know. SEACON? TUCCON! Anyway, Loscon was LA’s Sci-fi/fantasy convention, founded by the likes of greats in the genre like Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, and others.

Why am I mentioning this?

Because I was at Loscon last year as a panelist, and I guess I didn’t embarrass myself too badly, so they asked me back. This year, I will be speaking on panels with so many amazing people, including some of those sci-fi legends, who continue to attend to this day. There will also be tabletop games, and scifi movies and ice cream and parties!

If you’re in the LA area, come out and say hi! Or heckle me at the panels, I don’t know. Whatever makes your day, I guess.

ALSO… while there, we will be selling…

PARALLAX PRE-ORDERS

The perfect gift? Maybe not. But it is pretty good, if I do say so myself.

This weekend is special and exciting for us.

We’ve just started taking pre-orders for our first novel, Parallax: Origin coming in April. So if you haven’t picked one up yet, and you like rise-against-the-machine, anti-capitalist, genome-splicing, cybernetics-wielding space adventures, well, you know what to do!

Yes, I see the irony in asking you to buy a thing to support the cause of anti-capitalism.

But you still should.

The Kindle version is available now for a mere $4! It may be the cheapest thing you buy all season. And still have the greatest effect on making somebody happy.

The reader, I mean. Not just me. Though it will also make me happy. I’ll give you a hug next time I see you.

You deserve it. It’s Thanksgiving.

Still not convinced? Here’s a little more on Parallax…

From Aethon Books…

The Expanse meets Blade Runner in this riveting space adventure set in a gritty universe. Amidst deadly power outages, vanishing civilians, and stalled terraforming projects, a trio of corporate citizens unearths a cover-up of epic proportions. The revelation sends shockwaves through their lives, forcing them to confront their own identities and become unlikely heroes in the struggle against the very architects of the Terran race.

From debut authors Matt Conant and Lauren Cipollo, the Parallax series will transport you to a universe teeming with adventure, where ordinary individuals become beacons of hope in the face of oppression.

MST3K Turkey Day Marathon

Also, for those of you who ARE lucky enough to be sitting inside somewhere with an internet connection, be sure to check out the MST3K Turkey Day Marathon which is running today through Saturday!

Behind-the-Scenes (2013): Myself (left) and DP Michael Licisyn with Crow T. Robot and Tom Servo, apparently riding a sandworm.

Ten years ago, Cinevore worked with Shout! Factory and Joel Hodgson to produce a livestream of classic MST3K episodes, with new host segments we filmed of Joel and the bots, that was so popular it helped launch MST3K back to the airwave a few years later.

It was a dream project, and I was lucky enough that they asked me to write on all three seasons that have so far existed since the relaunch. Check them out on Netflix or the Gizmoplex.

AND if you haven’t heard, MST3K is crowdfunding a 14th Season right now. Go support them!

For now, I’ll let you get back to your turkey and such.

More from me soon! (You can’t get rid of me that easily!)

Matt