Since 2011, PulpFest has hosted FarmerCon, a convention that began in Peoria, Illinois, the hometown of Philip José Farmer. Originally a gathering of Farmer fans figuratively, and literally, right outside Phil’s back door, FarmerCon offered presentations, dinners, and even picnics at the author’s house. After the passing of Phil and Bette Farmer in 2009, it was decided to take FarmerCon on the road to broaden its horizons. By holding the convention alongside events such as PulpFest, Farmer fans get a variety of programming and a room full of pulp and book dealers to enjoy. As always, PulpFest is very pleased to welcome its FarmerCon members to our joint conference.
We’re equally pleased that year after year, FarmerCon has asked to help with our programming. On Friday, July 22, at 7 PM, please join PulpFest as we turn our programming stage over to our FarmerCon XI members and “Collaborating with Philip José Farmer.” England’s Paul Spiteri, who served as co-editor of FARMERPHILE and the collection PEARLS OF PEORIA, and also collaborated with Phil, finishing the short story “Getting Ready to Write,”will be moderating the panel. Joining Paul will be Danny Adams, Christopher Paul Carey, and Win Scott Eckert.
Danny Adams collaborated with Phil on the short novel THE CITY BEYOND PLAY (PS Publishing, 2007) and has also just completed A HOLE IN WEDNESDAY, a work that Farmer began before he wrote the three novels DAYWORLD, DAYWORLD REBEL, and DAYWORLD BREAKUP. The latest Adams/Farmer collaboration will debut at PulpFest in July. Farmer’s Dayworld series imagines a severely overcrowded future that cures the overpopulation problem by “stoning” most of the population each day.
Christopher Paul Carey collaborated with Farmer on the novel THE SONG OF KWASIN, the third climactic volume in the Ancient Opar/Khokarsa series. He has continued the series with the prequel novella EXILES OF KHO, and the novellas HADON, KING OF OPAR and BLOOD OF ANCIENT OPAR. The latter will also be debuting at PulpFest in July.
Win Scott Eckert edited the anthology MYTHS FOR THE MODERN AGE: PHILIP JOSÉ FARMER’S WOLD NEWTON UNIVERSE and collaborated with Phil on THE EVIL IN PEMBERLEY HOUSE, the novel that introduced adventuress Patricia Wildman. He has continued the Pat Wildman series with the novella THE SCARLET JAGUAR, and will be finishing another incomplete Farmer manuscript, THE MONSTER ON HOLD, which will almost certainly debut at a future PulpFest. The latter features Philip José Farmer’s celebrated character, Doc Caliban.
To most pulp enthusiasts, the late Philip José Farmer is best known as “A prolific and popular science fiction writer who shocked readers in the 1950s by depicting sex with aliens and challenged conventional pieties of the genre with caustic fables set on bizarre worlds of his own devising.” In science-fiction circles, Farmer is most remembered for his novels. Called “sprawling, episodic works that gave him room to explore the nuances of a provocative premise while indulging his taste for lurid, violent action,” his best were set in the Riverworld and World of the Tiers series. He was named a Grand Master of Science Fiction in 2001. To those who know and love him the best — the members of FarmerCon who first joined our convention in 2011 — Philip José Farmer is revered for his work concerning the Wold Newton Family.
To learn more about Philip José Farmer, please visit The Official Philip José Farmer Web Page. It’s the Brobdingnagian collection of all things Farmerian! And join us at PulpFest 2016/FarmerCon XI from Thursday evening, July 21, through Sunday afternoon, July 24, in the Columbus, Ohio Arena district at the Hyatt Regency hotel and the city’s spacious convention center for “Collaborating with Philip José Farmer.” Start making your plans to join us at the “pop culture center of the universe” for PulpFest 2016/FarmerCon XI.
(DAYWORLD: A HOLE IN WEDNESDAY is a prequel to Philip José Farmer’s Dayworld trilogy about an overcrowded future that cures the problem by “stoning” six-sevenths of the population each day. Set between the events of the classic short story, “The Sliced-Crosswise Only-On-Tuesday World,” and the three Dayworld novels, the Farmer/Danny Adams collaboration — with cover art by Keith Howell — will debut at PulpFest 2016/FarmerCon XI.)
