CONvergence - Day 3

It's after midnight again, and I'm home from CONvergence. I attended the guerrilla slash panel, which was severely hampered by the fact that they did, in point of fact, have to occupy a space by force. They moved the crowd they'd gathered in the North Tower's atrium into a space that used to be a coffee shop, but was just a big empty room. There were no chairs, tables, microphones or any of that, so the acoustics were horrible. I did manage to learn about some 'meta' trends that are happening in various fandoms. I hadn't heard of alpha/beta/omega, for instance. The other interesting thing that was brought up was that apparently there's been a lot of marriage fics across fandoms, and it was speculated that it had a lot to do with the rising of marriage equality.

I actually left the panel before it was finished, however, because midnight slash panels always seem to devolve into semi-drunken babbling squee that I have no hope of following because people are shouting out shows I don't watch and Anime I've never heard of and crying about OTPs I don't know.

But, today was a weird day for me in general. I woke up in a crabby-ass mood and it never entirely improved. I spent most of the day at home, in fact, away from the convention, trying--unsuccessfully--to write. But, eventually, I decided I wanted to go back if for no other reason than I might as well be grumpy surrounded by fabulous cosplay. And, CONvergence always has amazing cosplay, particularly on Saturday, since it's the night of the masquerade. It think the most astounding (and not necessarily in a GOOD way) costume I saw was the guy who was crawling around convention dressed as the Human Centipede (if you don't know it, DON'T GOOGLE IT. There are things that can not be unseen!)

I heard rumors of Renji cosplayers, but only saw the one Urahara.

I went to listen to the one-on-one with Charlie Jane Anders, who I first met at a WisCON years ago. She's delightful and entertaining as fuck, and the interview was being done by haddayr so the whole thing could have been a comedy routine (with heart and soul.) I initially followed Haddayr and Charlie to the "Space Lounge" but they hadn't opened yet, and I still wasn't in the right mood for crowds so I left them to do the party circuit without me. Instead, naomikritzer and I hung out and compared con notes.

I suspect I could call the day a win, but I'm not sure, given my in ability to shake the grumps.

Tomorrow, I have my final panel of the con, "Neil Gaiman's Sandman," which I'm not entirely looking forward to. I loved the comic books (which I read as comic books, rather than as collected graphic novels for the most part), but I'm not a squeeing Gaiman fangrrl. I suspect the other panelists will be. If I were more organized, I'd be tempted to bring along my signed copy -- signed for Shawn, actually -- of the Arabian Nights Sandman stand alone issue and tell the story of how Shawn, who was working at The Book House in Dinkytown at the time sold Neil the full several volume set of Arabian Nights and had it shipped to his-then home in London. But, that's really the whole story, so perhaps not. More likely, I'll tell about how Gaiman's Morningstar inspired my own.

CONvergence - Finale

It's after twelve (noon) and I'm home from CONvergence. I had my Sandman panel this morning. It went better than expected--MUCH better. In fact, I would say it was pretty darned good. I'm not sure there's a whole lot left to be said about Sandman, but we talked about graphic media in general, too. Though I wasn't entirely firing on all cylinders, I am 100% more interesting at 9:30 in the morning than I am at 9:30 at night.

As I was leaving I ran into my publisher/editor at Dybukk Press, Tim Lieder, who was signing with Dana Baird and Michael Mirriam, so I stayed a while and tried to entice people over to the table to buy books from them.

Of course, I brought my camera today, but most people were out of costume as the majority of people were checking-out and heading home. So, I didn't even take a single picture. I also entirely skipped the dealer's room this year, partly because last year it was sooooo crowded, but also because I was operating on a budget of $0 and there's always a lot of temptation in the dealer's room.

I would say it was a good con. It's impossible to top last year, but being a GoH is a once in a lifetime experience, so it's really not fair to compare.

I will say that listening in on the villain panel yesterday made me think I might like to revisit (and finish!) my superhero novel/novella. Villains are fun, is all I'm saying, and Dr. Doom gets no respect.

Today is another stupid-hot day. I probably should have contrived to spend the rest of the day inside the air-conditioned hotel, but we've compromised by setting the sprinkler up in the back yard and running through it a few times. Mason is still back there with some friends and our supply of water guns. So good times are being had. I'm tired, but much, MUCH happier than yesterday.