“The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do.”
-Amelia Earheart
Kitty Otto
Brad Wanik
Photography from the northeast U. S. and Alaska.
YenYorkCity Live at Wonderplace Alpha
YenYorkCity is a New York City based music podcast hosted by Yen York and Luna Soturi, where musicians from around the world share their stories, creative processes, and industry experiences. Through in-depth conversations, the show highlights diverse talents, offering listeners a mix of inspiration, behind-the-scenes insights, and real talk about the music world. Whether featuring rising artists or seasoned pros, YenYorkCity is a platform for authentic storytelling and meaningful connections in the music community.
For podcasts and more information visit: YenYorkCity.com
Scream Queens, Artists, Authors, Mad Scientists, and Other Odd Persons Collude: A Panel & Discussion – Wonderplace Alpha
“The only way to deal with this life is to find it absurd and love it anyway.”
— Donald Barthelme
Questions and Concepts
- Origins of the Peculiar
- What drives someone to embrace the strange, the macabre, or the unorthodox in their creative or scientific pursuits?
- How do childhood fears or fascinations shape the work of scream queens, artists, writers, and mad scientists?
- The Scream as Art
- Is there a universal thread connecting the scream in horror, the chaos of mad science, and the raw expression of art or writing?
- How do you harness terror or madness as a tool for creation rather than destruction?
- Blurring Boundaries
- Where does the line between artist, writer, scientist, and “peculiar person” dissolve—and does it matter?
- Can madness in one field (e.g., science) inspire genius in another (e.g., storytelling or performance)?
- The Monstrous Muse
- What role do monsters—literal or metaphorical—play in fueling your work?
- How do you decide whether to tame the monster or let it run wild in your creations?
- Subculture Synergy
- How do subcultures like horror, steampunk, goth, or surrealism collide to birth new ideas among scream queens, artists, and mad scientists?
- What’s the strangest collaboration you’ve witnessed or dreamed of between these worlds?
- The Ethics of the Extreme
- Is there a moral limit to how far you’ll push your art, experiments, or stories—or is the peculiar defined by its rejection of limits?
- How do you respond to those who call your work “too much” or “too strange”?
- Time, Space, and Weirdness
- How does the liminal nature of Wonderplace Alpha amplify or challenge your creative process?
- If you could pull inspiration from any era or dimension, where would you go and why?
- The Audience’s Role
- Do you create to provoke, entertain, enlighten, or terrify—and how do you handle when the audience reacts in unexpected ways?
- What’s the wildest reaction you’ve ever gotten to your work, and did it change you?
- Tools of the Trade
- What’s the one tool, concept, or ritual you can’t create without—be it a pen, a scream, a formula, or something odder?
- How do you adapt when your tools fail or the experiment goes awry?
- Legacy of the Peculiar
- What mark do you hope to leave on the cosmos as a scream queen, artist, writer, or mad scientist?
- If your work outlives you in Wonderplace Alpha, what should future travelers uncover about you?
Northern Song Tie Dye
“Technicolor dreams are grooving in my mind.”
-Jimi Hendrix
I make tie dye clothing for adults and children and I sell at markets and festivals.
Psycho Signs & Crafts
“The telephone is a good way to talk to people without having to offer them a drink.”
-Fran Lebowitz
Darkmusic.net – for Darklings
We are proudly a part of Darkmusic.net:
“Darkmusic.net is your ultimate hub for dark music events, connecting the global community with a one-stop platform to post, manage, and discover gatherings. From goth nights and industrial concerts to darkwave streams and oddities markets, this site caters to fans of the shadowy and eclectic. A passion-driven project, it’s free to use, fostering a space where bands, DJs, and enthusiasts can share and explore the dark music scene without the clutter of social media.”
DBCreations
Dawn Belknap of DBCreations presents artisan gemstone wire wraps , many featuring self collected Herkimer Diamonds.
Empathy ~ Gypsy Soul Artist
I am a modern day hippie gypsy soul artist of many forms. All my music is live n off energy n vibes can’t put me in a genre a little blues funk hip hop and jazz is my sound .
A Proclamation of Scribal Majesty: Richard C. White Reigns as Literary Guest of Honor
Greetings, wanderers of the multiverse, dreamers of the impossible, and seekers of tales that transcend time and space! Gather ‘round, for the cosmos itself has aligned to bestow upon us a luminary of unparalleled brilliance at Wonderplace Alpha. Behold, the heralded arrival of Richard C. White—fantastical scribe, master of realms, and weaver of wonders—as our exalted Author Guest of Honor! The very air hums with anticipation, the steampunk gears of fate whirring in celebration, as we welcome this titan of the written word to Lake George’s grandest gathering of the strange, the splendid, and the sublime.
Who is this Richard C. White, you ask, with eyes wide and hearts aflutter? He is no mere mortal penman, but a bard of the extraordinary, a conjurer of worlds where starships soar and shadows dance! A veteran of the literary cosmos, he has etched his name across the annals of science fiction and fantasy with works that resonate like thunder through the ages. From the hallowed decks of Star Trek to the echoing corridors of Doctor Who, from the emerald rage of The Incredible Hulk to the dark, twisting paths of Gauntlet: Dark Legacy—a tome so potent it claimed the mantle of bestselling tie-in for his publisher in 2004—Richard has forged a legacy that gleams like polished brass in a steampunk dawn.
At Wonderplace Alpha, where the Victorian elegance of yesteryear meets the boundless imagination of tomorrow, Richard C. White stands as a beacon of inspiration. Picture him amidst the whirl of corseted dancers and goggle-clad inventors, his presence a living testament to the power of story. His For a Few Gold Pieces More, a collection of dark fantasy tales, whispers secrets of rogues and riches, while Terra Incognito: A Guide to Building the Worlds of Your Imagination unfurls the very blueprints of creation—a gift to every aspiring architect of fiction. To have such a mind among us is to hold a key to the infinite, a lantern illuminating the shadowed corners of our own dreams.
But lo, it is not merely his works that elevate this occasion to the sublime—it is the man himself! A member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, a stalwart of the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers, and a guardian of craft through the Writer Beware committee, Richard embodies the spirit of Wonderplace Alpha: a fusion of tradition and innovation, of history and heresy. His wit, his wisdom, his tales spun from the ether—these are the treasures he brings to our festival, richer than any hoard of gold pieces, more dazzling than the brassiest airship in the sky.
Imagine the scene, dear travelers: Richard C. White, resplendent in the spotlight, regaling us with tales of interstellar voyages and medieval treachery, his voice a symphony of adventure that stirs the soul. Workshops shall bloom under his guidance, where eager minds drink deep from the well of his expertise—world-building secrets unveiled, narrative threads woven into tapestries of awe. The steamboats of Lake George, reimagined with gears and steam, shall seem to salute him as they glide, for even they know a master storyteller walks among us.
To call Richard C. White our Guest of Honor is to understate the grandeur of this moment. He is our literary lodestar, our captain through the mists of imagination, our maestro of mayhem and marvels! Wonderplace Alpha, with its kaleidoscope of genres and garb, its parade of the peculiar and the profound, finds its truest champion in him. So raise your goggles, adjust your top hats, and join me in a thunderous cheer: Hail, Richard C. White, sovereign of stories, and may his reign at Wonderplace Alpha echo through the ages as a triumph of the human spirit unbound!