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So, I went to Fourth Street Fantasy. Great convention. Um. Let me see. The highlights reel.
1) I attended a little over half the panels, because while most all of them looked interesting, I can only do so much Sit In Room Full Of People With Much Talking at a time before I start to twitch away from the crowds. And since I really wanted to spend a lot of time hanging out with people in smaller groups, panels were, alas, what got cut a bit. But I enjoyed the ones I was there for.
2) I was on a panel. The official description:
The Heroine's Journey, Revisited
What sorts of differences tend to crop up between heroic narratives based on the protagonist's gender? What sorts of consequences, in terms of tropes invoked and shifts in reader responses, tend to follow when we gender-swap characters, or put women into traditionally "male" roles (e.g. Nyx in Kameron Hurley's Bel Dame Apocrypha) and vice-versa?
Elizabeth Bear (Moderating), Dana Baird, Lois McMaster Bujold, Pamela Dean, Fade Manley, Lynne Thomas
The fact that I did not pass out or descend into gibbering out of sheer nervousness at being in the middle of that illustrious lineup was, I think, good form on my part. It was an excellent panel.
2a) I mean, I said good things on that panel too. (Though I don't think I was sufficiently clear on why I was bringing up Final Fantasy 13 as a useful example for the topic. Ah well.) I am trying to avoid the reflexive/nervous/false modesty thing, so. There. I said good and useful things on that panel. I was on topic.
2b) People came up to me after the panel and said that I had said good and useful things. And asked follow-up questions. And made useful comments as well. And I got to hang out with many of them and talk about Women In Fantasy and Heroic Journeys and Goddess Traditions and Dammit We Need More Heroic Journeys About Accountants, Not Just Warriors and other marvelous things.
And people listened to me talking and seemed interested.
I think it is entirely possible that I am an interesting person with interesting things to say. Just putting that out there.
3) There was a massive, deeply impressive storm one evening. Only a few feet of visibility in the pounding rain! Terrifying wind gusts! Lightning everywhere! Trees uprooted and debranched and tossed into the road! We ended up driving back with friends from dinner in the middle of it, which was...exciting. And exactly as we pulled up in front of the hotel, the electricity went out.
3a) About half the convention was spent with no electricity. It worked surprisingly well, though a sort of odor began to develop in the panel room after eighteen hours with no hot water. The hotel staff was excellent, and started handing out free flashlights to everyone after a point.
3b) I got into the habit of taking the stairs everywhere, which is probably a good thing overall, given just how many delightful things I ate while I was there.
4) Got to spend a lot of time talking to old friends and new ones, and it was never, ever enough time. Lots of wandering in and out of little groups, trying not to talk everyone's ear off about Euripides (the problem of Helen, let me show you it!), trying to catch friends who were already in other groups... At the end of the con I'm exhausted, and wishing I'd had another week to catch up with everyone.
5) Got to hang out with the beloved spousal unit, which was nice. Next year we'll just get him a badge. The part where we all ran out of battery power on every device ever was a bit hard on him, but that's what bagel shops with outlets turn out to be created for.
6) Caribou Coffee is way better than Starbucks coffee.
Lots of other things happened. I nattered at people an awful lot. But that's what I can think of now while the cat harasses me for more attention and I try to catch up on all the chores ever. So there you go. Lots of interesting things were said! Try the #4thStFantasy tag on twitter for some highlights.
1) I attended a little over half the panels, because while most all of them looked interesting, I can only do so much Sit In Room Full Of People With Much Talking at a time before I start to twitch away from the crowds. And since I really wanted to spend a lot of time hanging out with people in smaller groups, panels were, alas, what got cut a bit. But I enjoyed the ones I was there for.
2) I was on a panel. The official description:
The Heroine's Journey, Revisited
What sorts of differences tend to crop up between heroic narratives based on the protagonist's gender? What sorts of consequences, in terms of tropes invoked and shifts in reader responses, tend to follow when we gender-swap characters, or put women into traditionally "male" roles (e.g. Nyx in Kameron Hurley's Bel Dame Apocrypha) and vice-versa?
Elizabeth Bear (Moderating), Dana Baird, Lois McMaster Bujold, Pamela Dean, Fade Manley, Lynne Thomas
The fact that I did not pass out or descend into gibbering out of sheer nervousness at being in the middle of that illustrious lineup was, I think, good form on my part. It was an excellent panel.
2a) I mean, I said good things on that panel too. (Though I don't think I was sufficiently clear on why I was bringing up Final Fantasy 13 as a useful example for the topic. Ah well.) I am trying to avoid the reflexive/nervous/false modesty thing, so. There. I said good and useful things on that panel. I was on topic.
2b) People came up to me after the panel and said that I had said good and useful things. And asked follow-up questions. And made useful comments as well. And I got to hang out with many of them and talk about Women In Fantasy and Heroic Journeys and Goddess Traditions and Dammit We Need More Heroic Journeys About Accountants, Not Just Warriors and other marvelous things.
And people listened to me talking and seemed interested.
I think it is entirely possible that I am an interesting person with interesting things to say. Just putting that out there.
3) There was a massive, deeply impressive storm one evening. Only a few feet of visibility in the pounding rain! Terrifying wind gusts! Lightning everywhere! Trees uprooted and debranched and tossed into the road! We ended up driving back with friends from dinner in the middle of it, which was...exciting. And exactly as we pulled up in front of the hotel, the electricity went out.
3a) About half the convention was spent with no electricity. It worked surprisingly well, though a sort of odor began to develop in the panel room after eighteen hours with no hot water. The hotel staff was excellent, and started handing out free flashlights to everyone after a point.
3b) I got into the habit of taking the stairs everywhere, which is probably a good thing overall, given just how many delightful things I ate while I was there.
4) Got to spend a lot of time talking to old friends and new ones, and it was never, ever enough time. Lots of wandering in and out of little groups, trying not to talk everyone's ear off about Euripides (the problem of Helen, let me show you it!), trying to catch friends who were already in other groups... At the end of the con I'm exhausted, and wishing I'd had another week to catch up with everyone.
5) Got to hang out with the beloved spousal unit, which was nice. Next year we'll just get him a badge. The part where we all ran out of battery power on every device ever was a bit hard on him, but that's what bagel shops with outlets turn out to be created for.
6) Caribou Coffee is way better than Starbucks coffee.
Lots of other things happened. I nattered at people an awful lot. But that's what I can think of now while the cat harasses me for more attention and I try to catch up on all the chores ever. So there you go. Lots of interesting things were said! Try the #4thStFantasy tag on twitter for some highlights.
From:
no subject
sounds like a great con! Someday I'm gonna do a con. Not that I read. But they always sound so fun!
From:
no subject
Fourth Street is an excellent con. Small, focused, cheery. The hotel staff were all grateful that we were so nice about the outage, and we kept saying, but it's not your fault! (And they had free flashlights and cold water bottles to help people through the muggy afternoon sans AC. Lovely people.)
From:
no subject
Pamela Dean would have been semi-intimidating... but she's said lovely supportive things to me online when I was in my darkest spots, so a little less intimidating.
Bujold, though. I would have felt the need to gibber!
I'm really, really glad that the power outage didn't spoil your fun!
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no subject
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I mean, the person who created CORDELIA. Who is the person I wish I could be when I grow up. I don't think I'll ever grow up to Cordelia's level...
But if you say it's possible to interact with her without gibbering, I'll believe you.
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no subject
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Yes, yes you did. ;-)
From:
no subject