A Weekend, A Pizza, and a Bunch of Costumes

Because I couldn't figure out what else to use

This last weekend Mr. Eliza and I took a little trip down to SeaTac, to attend NorWesCon, the Seattle area’s biggest science fiction and fantasy convention. The weekend before NorWesCon we spent about half a day at the Emerald City Comic Convention, which I will get back to in a moment.

After a brief bit of Google Fu I was unable to find numbers for this year’s attendance. Three years ago the attendance was at 3,030, and it has only grown since. That is a hell of a lot of people. The con itself takes place all over the SeaTac Doubletree hotel. An entire hallway of meeting rooms are dedicated to the panels, with topics ranging from Victorian Sex, the new wave of energy, general writing topics and polyamory. There’s also a large gaming room which is always hopping. We played a rousing game of Call of Cthulhu on Sunday.

A few bigger conference rooms host things like a showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show with the Vicarious Theater Company, and a Survey of Medieval Weaponry panel/demo. The bottom floor of one wing of rooms hosts things like the coat check, the hospitality suite, and the Flashback Arcade. (Leave your quarters at home and prepare steep in 80’s geekdom. I lost spectacularly at DigDug.) The Grand Ballroom gets dominated first by the Phillip K. Dick awards, and then by the Fannish Fetish Fashion Show. This year, for the first time, NorWesCon got free run of Maxi’s, the bar on the top floor.

The art room is huge, four long aisles of mixed media. John Picacio was the artist GoH this year. If you’re a fan of Song of Ice and Fire, check out his new calendar. I’m especially fond of his painting of Bran. Across the way from the art room is the dealer’s hall, with everything you’d expect to find at an SF/F con.

Whew…that’s a lot of stuff. Throw in room parties and any number of attractions that I missed, and you have a veritable barrel of monkeys for damn near everyone.

My favorite part of the con? Drinking whiskey and coke in my hotel room, watching Splice (a nice bit of WTFery) and eating pizza. With Mr. Eliza. And no one else.

I think there are a couple reasons I enjoyed this con less than I hoped. One-the writing panels (I went to a few) are really geared towards beginners, and I left having not learned a whole lot in most cases. The panels on things like weapons and history were more interesting and informative, but acted as jumping off points, more than anything. A hazard of the format, I know.

Additionally, and I think more importantly, I wasn’t very socially active. Cons are great times to spend with other people, but when you don’t know/aren’t comfortable with those people it makes things less enjoyable. I thought being a CW grad, and having met the people I’ve met over the past few months, this aspect would be different than the first time I went to NorWesCon. And it was. A little. But not enough to make the camaraderie a fulfilling part of the con on its own.

At ECCC, my expectations were different. I had two goals- Buy some Espionage products, and go to the panel on Ready Player One Wil Wheaton was hosting with Ernest Cline. I got my makeup, and Wil had to cancel, but I spent two hours listening to Cline talk about the path he took to writing this book (which is awesome and super highly extra recommended to any and all geeks, writers and readers in the world), and the response he received to writing something that was, at its core, him ‘geeking out on the page’. The panel was entertaining, and inspiring, and ultimately fulfilling.

I think the point I want to make is that, when going to a con, have realistic expectations. Maybe if I went into NorWesCon with a couple really cool things singled out (spending some time gaming, going to the fetish show, etc.) I would have been happier with the time I spent there.

Then again, maybe not. I don’t know. I have to take into account the incontrovertible fact that I am an introvert. I do best with tiny doses of crowds, and larger doses of really awesome people. I got the opposite of that this weekend. Lots of crowds, little bits of awesome.

I will go to NorWesCon again, I think. But not until I’m doing panels, and am more involved with the inner workings of the con. Not until I have a purpose for being there.

I’d like to hear about the convention experiences you’ve had. Tell me the good, the bad, the ugly, the exquisite and the awesome.

Photo used under creative commons license from jm2c.

Updating!!!

Okay, after a week and a half long absence, this seems like a good time to update.

1. Steampunk X is on undefined hiatus while I work on more engaging projects. As I was feeling rather meh toward Caedin and crew, I have few hard feelings about this. I may resurrect Caedin in a future, more mature period of her life. We shall see.

2. The story “A Kind Of Death” which I sent to Writers of the Future last quart got an honorable mention!!! I am psyched. This is the first, very first piece of fiction I have submitted since I was in middle school. We’re talking more than a decade here people. And it gets an honorable mention in one of the most prestigious Sci-Fi contests in the world! The longer this has to sink in, the happier I am about it.

3. I then promptly submitted what may well be an underpolished version of another story to WotF, for the second quarter. I like this story better, and am at the same time more nervous about it. Because of aforementioned possible underpolsihedness. I let my boss read this story, gave him a copy yesterday (right before I heard some sad but relieving family noise and promptly left work before he even got in the office). The day before (Monday) he’d pointed me to s tory a relative of his had written. He said he didn’t even get halfway through it before giving up, so I was trepidatious about handing out my baby. But, one does not become a world famous award winning author by giving in to trepidation, right? Long story shortish, he liked it. Read the whole thing. Gave some critiques. Then asked if he could keep it, so that he might show it to his wife! I thin k this is a great reception from a man who doesn’t read fiction, much less science fiction.

4. I picked up my copy of “I Am Not a Serial Killer“!!! Finally released in the US, after having been available in the UK for an ungodly amount of time. The author, Dan Wells, will be at the University bookstore in about a week, and I am getting this sucker signed! Hey-oh! *Moment of Sadness- the hardcover release was cancelled. I was only able to get my sticky fingers on a paperback.*

And, for your viewing pleasure, “I Am Not a Serial Killer” in the wild. IE: my car.

5. Lastly, for those who scrolled past the giant picture, I will be at NorWesCon this weekend, attending a bevy of delightful and informative panels. If anyone who reads this plans on going, hit me up. I’ll give you a high five!