Category Archives: fandom

It isn’t that complicated…

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occam-300x179Many years ago the fanzine I edit won an award. It was not anything as prestigious or as well-known as the Hugos. It was an Ursa Major Award, a fan-nominated and fan-voted award which was consciously set up to be an anthropomorphics-fandom version of the Hugos. And because I also write stories that are published in those sorts of ‘zines, I have had one or two of my tales receive enough nominations to make it onto the ballot some years. I didn’t win, but it was an honor just to be nominated. And that isn’t just something I say to be polite, it really was an honor.

I would have been much more excited to win, obviously. I certainly was very pleased when the fanzine won the award. But, the two years my ‘zine won, there were other publications on the ballot who didn’t win, which was a disappointment for their editors, I’m sure. That’s what happens with any kind of award. Someone wins, and a bunch of people don’t.

It so happens that when you make it on the ballot but don’t win, you often find yourself receiving a lot of condolences from friends, acquaintances, and random fans on the internet which include some variant of the statement: “I can’t believe you didn’t win! I voted for you, and know several other people who did, too!”

And that is flattering. It makes you feel at least a bit better about not winning. Obviously, you received enough nominations to make it onto the ballot, so you already knew that there were people who liked your work. But something about having a person tell you directly is even more of an ego boo.

It so happens that one of the years that I didn’t have any story make the ballot, I received a lot of those sorts of condolence messages. After the award winners were announced months later, the committee that administers the award published voting and nomination statistics. Foolishly, I looked at them, only to discover that the only one of my stories published that year which was nominated received a grand total of exactly 3 nominations. I confess, that when I nominated that year I had voted for my own story (and I was fairly certain my husband had, as well). Which meant that only one person other than myself or my husband had nominated me.

But far more than just one person had seemingly sincerely told me—they had volunteered the information without any prompting from me—that they had nominated me. Which means that most of those fans told a little white lie. It wasn’t malicious. In some of the cases, the person probably had meant to participate in the nominating process but put it off until it was too late. A few of them may have been misremembering: they had nominated me, but it was the year before. Others simply were trying to be nice, having noticed that I didn’t make the ballot and assuming that I was disappointed.

When you realize something like that has happened, what can you do but laugh, shrug it off, and try to move on?

Some people are not so philosophical… Continue reading It isn’t that complicated… →

Fake geek guys

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After yesterday’s post, this was too funny not to share…

(If embedding doesn’t work, click here.)

Don’t forget to check out:

The Fake Nerd Guys Tumblr

The Fake Geek Guys Tumblr

Sometimes I want to kick fate in the…

fandom,

I didn’t know Bobbie really well. I mean everyone knew Bobbie. If there was a sci fi/fantasy/nerdie convention in the region, Bobbie had been on staff at one time or other. If she wasn’t on staff at a particular convention, she was either volunteering, or helping someone presenting at the con, or helping run someone’s table in the dealer’s den, or helping run someone’s fan club table, or she was running a fan table that was raising support for a WorldCon bid.

We were never on staff at the same convention the same year, but we interacted frequently. Either she would be in charge of a department I was interacting with as an attendee or a guest, or I was working in a department of another con where she needed to work with me as an attending or panelist or guest. A few years ago she wound up running a table in a dealer’s den selling artwork by a mutual friend, and it was the table right next to mine. So we finally got to have conversations that lasted more then a few minutes, and most of them weren’t about a problem that needed solving or an event that one of us was rushing off to.

So while I think it would be wrong to say we were great friends, we were more than merely acquaintances.

Of course, Bobbie was a very friendly person, so it was difficult to come away from the most superficial interaction without feeling you’d just spent time with a friend.

I mentioned that she often seemed to be working on a WolrdCon bid. WorldCon is the annual convention of the World Science Fiction Society, and is held in various cities around the world. Each con is run by a separate committee, and to get the right to host the con is a complicated process involving setting up a bid committee, drumming up support by selling advance memberships, and putting together a formal proposal which will be voted on at a WorldCon a couple of years before your proposed hosting date. It’s not a small undertaking, and you’re competing against other groups from literally all over the world (this year’s was in Texas, next year’s is in London, and recent cons have been in Japan, Australia, Canada…).

A few weeks ago the vote for 2015 WorldCon was held, and the Spokane committee was chosen. The co-chairs had subsequently been announced, and one of them was Bobbie.

It was a great triumph.

Then, this morning, my various social networks started sprouting mentions of Bobbie’s death. She hadn’t been sick, as far as any of us knew, so everyone was asking, “What happened?”

At the moment, all we know is that she died peacefully in her sleep, it was a complete surprise to her family. They aren’t going to know the cause for a while, and the family has asked that we all give them some space to deal with the shock on their own.

I was really looking forward to having a WorldCon practically in our backyard, and I was especially psyched because I knew several of the people who will be running it, so I was happy for all of them. Especially Bobbie.

Now, I just want to find Fate and give it a few swift kicks.

Update: File 770 has a nice article about Bobbie.

The Joi of Ponies

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A gold lamé rag doll pony
Gold Dust Applejack, from Equestria Rags.
Yes, I’ve already posted a con report. Plus a couple of other blog posts related to the convention. But I always have more to say, and in this case there are some photos I still want to put up.

I’ve mentioned before my friend, Joi, who makes these fun rag doll ponies. She makes them from scraps. Her rules are that she only uses fabric from scrap bins, remainder piles, and thrift stores. So she finds fabric and says, “Oh, that would make an interesting Twilight Sparkle,” or what-have-you. She makes ponies based on characters in the series, or on original characters (by way of commission), and she makes ponies based on other things. I’ve seen her make a pony version of Carl Sagan, the classic Roman poet Virgil, Neil Gaiman’s Death, or the Mars Curiosity Rover. And she sells them online at Equestria Rags.

Cropped picture of prototype pony doll.
The Mayor Mare pony by Joi.
The first pony I bought from her wasn’t for me. It was a pony version of Mayor Mare from the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic series. I had to plead a bit, because it was one of her early models where she was still figuring out how to make ponies, so she hadn’t started selling them, yet, and hadn’t planned to offer it for sale. But I really wanted to give it as a present to my husband, and I talked her into it.

A rag doll pony version of Carl Sagan.
A pony version of Carl Sagan that Joi made for Jared for his birthday.
We’ve bought more ponies since.

A few weeks before the convention, she posted pictures online of a new pony she had just finished: Applejack made from gold lamé-style fabric.

Of the characters on the show, Applejack is my favorite. Or most-favorite, since I’m the kind of person who always winds up with about five or forty favorite characters in any book or series that I get into. Anyway, of course I wanted to buy Applejack in shiny, shiny gold! Who wouldn’t?

But she was one of the ponies Joi was making explicitly for the convention. To be a successful vendor at any convention, you have to have a variety of stock. Since these are handmade (hand cut, hand stitched, hand painted, et cetera), each one is a serious investment in time. Since she makes them from scraps, that means it is very unlikely she’ll be able to make multiple ponies exactly the same.

I wanted that gold Applejack. But I also wanted her to have a successful sales experience at the con. So I had to wait until the convention to buy her, and technically I had to wait until the Dealer’s Room opened.

Another Derpy Hooves doll, with squeaker!
Squeaky Derpy was tempting me all day.
I had planned to just stand in front of her table starting a few minutes before the room opened (since I would be inside setting up my own table), just waiting there with money to hand her. This was before we discovered that we were at adjacent tables. Because of where we were, getting in and out from behind our table meant climbing over other people, so it would have been a bit awkward. At the two minutes ’til ten a.m. mark, I asked her if she was going to make me go to the other side of the table. She laughed and said we could just do the exchange now.

So for the rest of the day I had my golden Applejack on my table as a second mascot and to show folks. I had to tell several people she wasn’t for sale, but that Joi had lots of other ponies right there, and she takes commissions.

While sitting at my table, getting some writing done and occasionally selling buttons and pony toys to people, I kept watching a cute version of Derpy Hooves (a supporting character from the cartoon series) that had a squeaker. The squeaky fruit bats and ponies that Joi had were very popular. People kept squeezing them to show their friends while deciding which one to buy. I had already abused my position as a Vendor to buy one of her ponies out from under customers. And she was selling well. I figure the more people who buy her things and tell their friends, the more business she’ll get online, right?

A collection of the rag doll ponies.
Ponies I’ve gotten from Joi: Bedtime Derpy in the back, then (l to r): Gold Dust Applejack, Mayor Mare, Pinkie Pie, Gift Applejack, and Squeaky Derpy.
Michael and I also already own a lot of plushies: scores of teddy bears, tigers, otters, ponies, and so on. We didn’t really need more, right? But when I asked Michael in the evening whether it would be okay for me to buy another pony to take up room around the house, he said fine. So the second morning of the con, when I saw that Squeaky Derpy was still there, I asked if I could buy her. Which meant I had two Derpies as mascots on the table Saturday.

It’s an addiction, I know. But I ain’t going to rehab! (And these are just the ones I’ve acquired. My husband also has several!)

Skipping the convention

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This will be the first time in 26 years that I have not attended NorWesCon (the Northwest Science Fiction Convention). Technically, the first one1 I actually attended was not NorWesCon, but was called Alternacon (the notorious NorWesCon IX2 having had so many disasters3 that the hotel canceled the next year’s contract, forcing the con into a smaller hotel, and a limited membership.

I’ve been to every one since. a couple of them I only attended for a day or a part of a day6.

Seventeen years ago at a NorWesCon I met Michael7. We didn’t see each other again until the next NorWesCon. It was a couple months after that that we started hanging out, and nine months after that before we went on our first official date. The next NorWesCon after that was the first we shared a room, and we’ve been to all of them since.

So while I think of the anniversary of our first date as our official anniversary8, he always considered NorWesCon as our anniversary9.

All of which leads to why I’m feeling a bit odd and sentimental about skipping NorWesCon this year. There are a few reasons—most of them just personal timing things, though also we haven’t really enjoyed ourselves as much as we used to the last couple of years. Certainly we both had a lot more fun at EverfreeNW last year.

Maybe we just need to take a year off.

I was shocked to realized today that the convention is this next weekend. Just a few days away10.

This also means that this is the first time in many, many years that we will be home for Easter. I should probably make some plans for that.

Of course, it is the first time that this particular anniversary has not happened while we were at a convention. Maybe we should just celebrate by ourselves…

Notes:

1. I had been wanting to attend the con for a few years before that, having several friends who regularly attended. It sometimes feels as if I vicariously attended a few earlier than my first.

2. When NorWesCon IX rolled around I was attending college nearby, but I couldn’t afford to chip in on a hotel room and so forth. The con happened during Spring Break, so I was back at my Mom’s (after spending a few days with friends caravanning down; it was a strange week). When we arrived at Mom’s place, she barely let us get unloaded before she and my step-dad were loading us in the car and dragged us to a nearby Community College. They wouldn’t say why, just that it was a surprise. The Guest of Honor at NorWesCon that year was Anne McAffrey, and she had flown into Portland to visit friends before going up to Seatac for the convention. And she was doing a reading and book signing that night. So I got to see the Guest of Honor that year, in addition to hearing about all the experiences of my friends who attended the con.

3. In addition to the stories from my friends attending, and people I’ve since met who attended or were staff for that convention, I also got to hear about the con from a classmate who, at the time he was telling me about it, didn’t realize I was one of those “freaks.” He was a fundamentalist, and his wife worked in the management office at the hotel. She was also a fundamentalist, as were many of the employees there, because the Assistant Manager was a member of a very large nearby church, and had heavily recruited among the congregation for his hiring. When the Assistant Manager saw some of the costumes and pagan imagery on t-shirts and such early in the con, he had become convinced that the attendees were all Satanists (not to mention all those godless atheist science types, et cetera), and had instructed the employees who he trusted to go out of their way to document any bad incident that happened, because he was determined that those sinful freaks would never come back to their hotel.

The organizers of the convention were unaware of this. They were too busy dealing with about a thousand more attendees than their wildest dreams had expected, and they were woefully understaffed to deal with them. The physical layout of the hotel (it’s really a complex of several buildings interconnected with enclosed walkways, rather than one building), made patrolling difficult for con security4.

A bunch of bad things happened, such as damage to the rooms, people sleeping in the hallways, drunk people making a lot of noise very late at night, et cetera.

4. There are always some people attending any type of convention5 who do stupid and/or very inappropriate things. Sometimes it’s just being thoughtless. Sometimes it’s because they’re drinking. Sometimes it’s just because they are in their late teens and this is the first time they’ve been that far from parental supervision.

5. I can tell you stories from a high school journalism conference that will make your toes curl. And equally disturbing ones from a Bible conference I once attended.

6. While I was going through my divorce, a friend who had been through a few more serious breakups than I had advised that sometimes it best to let your ex “have custody” of fandom for a while, so that mutual acquaintances don’t feel awkward, if nothing else. So for at least two years I only made those brief appearances, rather than attending for the entire convention.

7. We have different recollections of where we met. I remember meeting him at a room party on the Saturday afternoon. He remembers meeting me at a specific panel on Friday morning. I remember participating in the panel, I just didn’t recall him being one of the other people there.

8. I can never remember the date of our commitment ceremony. For one thing, it was extremely informal. If you insist, I can go dig around in the filing cabinet and find our paperwork.

9. Of course, now that we’re officially married, rather than domestic partnered, I suppose our official anniversary should be December 9. Or maybe we should just celebrate all three.

10. Which means that a whole bunch of our friends will all be gone this weekend.

One day I will buy your things…

conventions, fandom

There’s a kind of encounter one has when staffing a table at a convention which happens so frequently, that it practically qualifies as an archetype. Every con several people stop at the table and explain how they’ve heard many good things about our publication, or that they read a friend’s copy of one or more of our books and loved it, or otherwise know that what we publish is something they would love, love, love, if only they had the spare cash right now to buy it.

I’m quite sure that most of them are being truthful (or trying to be). I certainly understand having a limited budget at a convention. I have only to look at the large pile of books I have yet to read to empathize with the “not gotten around to it” aspect of the explanation.

I also recognize that there is a social obligation aspect to it. They feel guilty for not buying stuff, whether because they’ve stopped to sample the free candy, or taken up a bunch of my time with questions about the project, or just because they made eye contact while browsing the table.

When the same person gives you the same excuse for many years at many conventions, it starts being a challenge to extend them the benefit of the doubt. Really, you’re so broke at every convention, year after year, that you don’t pick up things you desperately want year after year? I mean, yeah, I’ve often drooled over very expensive cars, then told myself that the higher cost of the car, insurance, and upkeep over the car I do own are not worth it.

But we’re talking about books that cost less than 10 bucks—some are only $5—not tens of thousands of dollars. Our stuff can be ordered online. They’re available from two different distributors, who occasionally offer them at discounts.

Which isn’t to say that anyone is obligated to buy any of our stuff. It is just difficult to believe the people who insist they are very anxious to buy them, but…

Not that I want to punish anyone for trying to be polite.

I do, sometimes, want to smack people with a wet trout for blocking other people from looking at our things because they are going on and on about how they can’t afford it, or can’t decide, or have been meaning to get around to us. A few moments is fine. Even just being social and asking how things are, or asking questions about the products is fine. But recognize that you’re taking up my time, your own time, and preventing someone else from browsing.

If you think five bucks is too much to scrape together for a book, then why are you squandering all this time, too?

Wrong in all the right ways

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Every convention I have ever attended has included conversations with people who do not seem to be on the same time-space continuum as I am. This has been just as true at the journalism conferences I attended back in the day, or the evangelical mission conference I once attended, or any tech conferences, not just the sci fi, comics, gaming, or anthropomorphics conventions.

I realize that it is mostly a matter of statistics: a certain percentage of the population could be categorized as odd or downright crazy, so any situation that puts you in contact with a bunch of people in a constrained time will include some of them. There’s also likely a correlation between certain personality types and enthusiasm. In other words, the sort of person most likely to choose or agree to attend a convention dedicated to any topic may be more likely to be a few standards deviations out from the norm in some way or other.

Often after conventions I summarize some of the conversations I had with random people while sitting behind my table in the dealer’s den. I do this for entertainment value, and so have usually picked the silliest, weirdest, or just most dumb-founding. Which creates the impression that that’s all the happens.

It’s not.

Also, for some reason, there were a lot fewer of the really odd ones this time.

So, I think this time I want to focus on the more positive fun encounters:

Fan #38: Points to my t-shirt. “Hey, is that a pony? Which one?”

I lift my badge up out of the way. “It’s Derpy!”

Fan #38: “Derpy! I need a Derpy shirt! Wait, why does she have a muffin?”

Me: “Why shouldn’t she have a muffin?”

Fan #38: “No, no, no! Derpy should have a chocolate chip cookie!”

Me: “Derpy can handle either.”

Fan #38: “True. More Derpy!”

———————

Fan #9: Stops and grabs friend’s arm. “Oh! This is one of the books I was telling you about!”

Fan #10: “What? Another comic?”

Fan #9: “No, it’s stories! Science fiction and stuff.” Makes eye contact with me. “I really like your stuff. Oh! Look, that’s a new issue!”

Me: “Just published last week, actually.” I look at the other guy, who has picked up one of our zines. “Do you want me to explain how the project works?”

fan #10: “Sure…”

I gave him the usual spiel about being a collaborative project, and that we’re a non-profit with a mission of fostering creative skills, and a bit about the universe.

Fan #9, meanwhile, has pulled copies of the most recent two issues from the racks. “I’ll take these.”

Fan #10 puts the issue he’d been looking at back down, and asks his friend, “I can read these, right?”

Fan #9: “Yeah, but if you like ’em, you should pick up the whole set.”

I rang up the sale, handled the change, then pulled out one of the blind bag boxes.

Fan #10: “You’re giving away ponies?”

Me: “One blind bag with each purchase, subscription, or renewal.”

Fan #10: “So I can come back tomorrow when I have money. Cool!”

(I don’t know if he came back, since I wasn’t always watching the table)

———-

Fan #87: “There you are! I was afraid you weren’t around any more when I didn’t see you last year.”

Me: “We were here last year.”

Fan #87 is picking up the last several issues from the racks. “Really? I looked and looked.”

I pointed out where we had been, and mentioned the posters.

Fan #87: “I don’t know how I missed you. Tell me about this Omnibus…”

———-

Fan #43: “Yeah, I picked up some of your books last year, but only really liked a couple of the stories.”

Me: “I’m sorry.”

Fan #43: “It happens. I really, really like those two stories, but some of the others just weren’t my thing.”

Me: “Do you remember which ones you liked?”

Fan #43 describes two tales. I ask some questions, he answers. We determine the stories were “New Queensland Station,” originally published in issue #2, reprinted in the Omnibus, and “A Shadow’s Kiss” from Eclipse. We talk some more about what he liked about them. Eventually I suggest he might possibly enjoy “Beside Himself” from Skulduggery, and point out a sequel, “The Shadow of Azrael” was printed in a more recent issue. He decides to pick them up.

The next day, Fan #43 stops by the table. “I haven’t had time to read them all, yet, but I really loved the story in the Special Edition. Thanks for recommending it!”

Amazingly amazing!

fandom, ,

I had a great time at RainFurrest this past weekend, despite several things that did not go according to plan.

Because of a mix up at Michael’s work, he didn’t get Thursday off. So I had to finish packing the car after he left for work. One of the events I was supposed to assist with involved a script that I didn’t receive until Thursday morning… and which needed some editing so I could read it. Which contributed to my being late. But wasn’t the only culprit. So while I had hoped to arrive in time to have a couple of hours to set up our table in the Dealers’ Den and get checked into the room, I arrived less than a half hour before the den opened.

Which meant I was still unpacking and setting up inventory when the first customers walked up. Both were people with lists of which things they wanted to pick up, and they wanted to get purchased early, before they’d spent all their money on other things. That was nice.

Chuck was sharing the project table again, and he made more sales in the first day that he had the entire convention last year. He was happy enough with how sales went that he’s talking about getting his own table next year.

Michael took the bus and light rail down after work, arriving at the restaurant as we were thinking of ordering dessert. It was nice to have my hubby, at last!

Friday was a good, bustling day. I had only one panel that day, but it was a fun one, and my co-panelists were cool. I believe Friday night was when a bunch of us gathered in our room to give Gloom a try. I definitely want to play it again, now that a few more of us have an idea how the game is supposed to work.

Saturday was my insane day. I had three panels in a row, one break, another panel, a break, and then I had to be at the Coyotl Award/Ursa Major Award reception at 9. It just made for a very busy day.

Sunday was slow in the dealers’ den. As it almost always is.

I got the most writing done on Friday. I managed to compose a song and write a couple thousand words of an accompanying story. I need to make sure I do a lot more ukulele practicing between now and the Christmas party, or this is going to be a disaster. Saturday was just a bit too crazy for getting any writing done. Then on Sunday, I realized that the story I was working on was just far, far too grim to be a Christmas Ghost story… and I came up with a different plot and got about a thousand words or so of that, instead. I also did a little work on some other tales in progress.

Several of our usual gang all had to be elsewhere very shortly after the den closed, so it was a smaller group than I would have liked (myself, Mark, Chuck, and Michael) who went out for dinner one last time. On the other hand, C.D., who had not been able to attend to con, joined us for dinner. So that was good.

This was the first year in a while that my actual birthday didn’t land during this convention. But it was close enough that it still counted, in my head, as an extended birthday party. And I had a great time.

I also learned that the other Gene’s birthday is the day after mine. That’s just… weird. But he agrees with me that September babies are superior.

Our sales were good, not great. But definitely good. I have some better ideas for next year’s table display. And yes, I’m making plans for next year, already.

It was a great con!

Be excellent

fandom

So last weekend we hung out with a whole bunch of crazy people.

We do that a lot. Most of our vacation are at conventions: general science fiction conventions, comic conventions, specialized conventions (furry, gaming, you name it). And last weekend we went to a local convention for fans of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (also known as MLP:FIM, or just MLP). Continue reading Be excellent →

A fandom is a fandom…

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I’ve recently become involved in another fandom. A new fandom which has sprung up around a television show which has just finished its second season. The fandom is in the early stages, where people are excitedly creating stories, artwork, music, and online communities to enthuse to each other aboutthis new thing they love.

A new thing which I love, too.

But I’ve been having to bite my tongue a lot lately, as I hear–again and again and again–how what’s so wonderful and unique about this fandom is how accepting it is. How it inspires so many people to create all this cool art, these cool videos, these awesome dolls, these incredible web comics, these wonderful stories. “Nothing else has ever done this!!” a 30-something engineer I met recently keeps saying again and again.

He (and the others) could not possibly be more wrong.

Every fandom that has ever existed does this. Every one.

Continue reading A fandom is a fandom… →