We are not well into 2014. There is a lot going on and a lot to get ready for it.

My family is working on putting together costumes for us to wear at the various conventions we are planning on making it to this year. I will actually be going in costume this year with two different costumes I am working on.

Our first convention this year will be Anomalycon, which will be the last weekend of March. As I announced last month, I will be running the Doctor Who trivia contest as a DASFA promotion there. It has been interesting to put together the trivia questions for it. I am just hoping that I will have enough questions to make it work. I keep coming up with new ones and adding them to my list as I go.

I hope everyone enjoyed Smurf from Girls of Geek12 and his presentation on multimedia. If you have not checked out their site yet ( http://girlsofgeek12.com/ ), I highly recommend it as there is a lot of good stuff to be found there.

I will admit the Smurf being our guest was part of a plan I am working on for DASFA. One issue that has been brought to my attention on several occasions is that right now many feel that DASFA has no real purpose. One idea I have had to give DASFA a purpose is to take our little group into the next level and actually get involved in multimedia on line. The blogging part is easy and I am hoping everyone in DASFA could produce a blog or two every so often if we were to give this a try. I am also looking into the doability of producing a monthly DASFA podcast. We already have a website and that is one major aspect you need to get started with all this. Now we just need to get our members to start creating content. If you are willing to help with such content get with me, otherwise I will have to get creative in finding ways to ‘encourage’ our members. This content can be simple things like book and movie reviews or just talking about the past, present or future state of sci-fi. It really is wide open as to just what you can write about. It would be a team effort to get this up and going strong, so I am asking for your support in this once we get it started.

There always seems to be more proof that we are entering the digital age big time right now. E-books are a huge market right now and it looks like Marvel Comics is going to switch over to focus more of the digital format as well http://goodereader.com/blog/digital-comic-news/marvel-phasing-out-retail.... Should be interesting to see how that affects the collectability of print comics in the future. I think there will always be a place where the physical feel of the books is desired as there is just something to the feel of turning the page.

Our guest for March will be Peter Wacks, a local author with a good deal of interesting projects going on. Check out his website http://peterjwacks.com/ to learn more. He came highly recommended to me as local talent who looks to be ready to take off with his career.

And let us not forget about the big book release party at The Broadway Book Mall on March 23rd at 3pm. The book is The Time Traveler’s Almanac and will included stories from many well-known sci-fi authors, including Douglas Adams, Ursula K. Le Guin, Ray Bradbury, George R.R. Martin, William Gibson, Richard Matheson, H.G. Wells and local favorites Carrie Vaughn , Connie Willis and Jason Heller. Carrie, Connie and Jason will be signing and doing readings. For more information check out the Facebook event for it here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1442820782601756/?source=1.