Even if you’re not heading over to StellarCon today (or Saturday, or Sunday) there’s enough to do in the Triangle this weekend to make a mini-con of it without straying too far from US-15/501. Meanwhile!

Mur Lafferty’s superhero novel Playing For Keeps is in the “Bundle of Holding”, a pay-what-you-want, DRM-free bundle of fiction ebooks from a big list of RPG writers including Mur, Matt Forbeck, Chuck Wendig, and more. Check it out: http://murverse.com/playing-for-keeps-in-the-bundle-of-holding/

Andy Magowan (“Freedom Acres”, Bull Spec #4) has a Kickstarter going for pre-orders and supporters for the first D-Town Brass albums of dirty funky dance jazz, with one album being “live” and the other sound engineered and all vinyl’d up. Check it out: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/400845409/d-town-brass-1st-album

MARCH 2013

1-3 (Friday to Sunday) — StellarCon37 at the Greensboro – High Point Airport Marriott with author Eric Flint, artist Richard Case, and game designer Steve Segedy. More info: http://stellarcon.com/

2 (Saturday) 11 am — McIntyre’s Books hosts Ariel Djanikian discusses her dystopian love story, The Office of Mercy. Facebook event here: https://www.facebook.com/events/503033603093082/

2 (Saturday) 1 to 8 pm — Durham’s Atomic Empire (formerly Sci-Fi Genre) hosts a “Mini Unpublished Games Festival”, free and open to the public. “Games being presented at this event include Roman Conquest by Josh Young, Dorobo by Rocco Privetera, Havok & Hijinks by Adam Trzonkowski, Fog of War by David Perry, and Cows vs. Chickens by Matt Wolfe. This event boasts a pair of games from the same family Hunting Dice by Zachary Gurganus, and Duck Blind by his father Tom Gurganus!” More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/140356026130296/

2 (Saturday) 2 pm — David Drake will be at Circle City Books in Pittsboro to sign the new paperback edition of The Road of Danger and read from a forthcoming book — the bookstore was recently written up in the LA Times for its fantastic mural of a bookshelf (which features one of Drake’s books, “With the Lightnings”: http://www.latimes.com/features/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-now-thats-a-wall-of-books-20130123,0,3947937.sto). Per The Herald-Sun’s Cliff Bellamy: “Drake’s visit will be co-sponsored by Davenport & Winkleperry Café. The reading will be at 2 p.m. at the café, with the book signing to occur across the street at Circle City Books & Music, 121 Hillsboro St., Pittsboro. For more information, call 919-548-5954″. Facebook event here: https://www.facebook.com/events/141226659379466/

9 (Saturday) 3 to 4 pm — Quail Ridge Books hosts: “Two NC authors share their visions of the strange with us on Saturday, March 9, at 3 p.m. Nathan Kotecki brings us The Suburban Strange. Celia discovers girls at Suburban High are having near fatal accidents on the eve of their 16th birthdays. Can 15-year-old Celia solve the mystery before her own next birthday? For ages 14+. PT McHugh presents Keeper of the Black Stones: Stone Ends, the first book in a new series. It’s a thrilling combination of fantasy and historical fiction with a likable, funny hero in Jason Evans. For ages 12+.” More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/301390523317829/

15 (Friday) 6 pm — Wake Forest’s Story Teller Book Store hosts “A Gathering of Authors” including paranormal fantasy author Steve Stone. More info: http://www.storystorewf.com/index.php/Events.html

19 (Tuesday) 7 pm — Quail Ridge Books hosts A. J. HARTLEY – With Children’s Fantasy Darwen Arkwright & The Insidious Bleck.