#convergence2016

[bearwear319-blog]

#morethanjustbears #bearwearps #convergence2016 Got Balls? Sun Swim Sexy! (at Wyndham Orlando Resort International Drive)

[bearwear319-blog]

#convergence2016 #morethanjustbears #bearwearps Vendor hall open to all big and small!!! Wyndham Hotel International Dr Orlando (at Wyndham Orlando Resort International Drive)

[fix3r-j0e]

Can you see him? I sure can't. My bro @therealjamespaschall as John Cena. And me as Jotaro Kujo. #cosplay #johncena #jjba #convergence2016

[skjam]

The latest post at my blog is about recommended web comics from the panel at ConVergence 2016.

http://www.skjam.com/2016/07/06/open-thread-webcomics-you-might-enjoy/

[street-trash]

This is probably the best cosplay I’ve ever done

[fix3r-j0e]

Nothing like a night of gaming to fight off that con hangover.

[sashaforthewin]

More from Convergence

[skjam]

ConVergence 2016--A Partial Report

Sadly, I had to work the full week if I wanted to get paid, so I missed Thursday and most of Friday.  I went straight from work to the Doubletree in Bloomington (the central hotel of the convention, affectionately known as the RadiShTree for historical reasons) and registered.  Then I dropped some books off at the Free Book Exchange (they were all gone by Sunday morning, so I think people liked them) and had time for one panel before I had to rush out to catch the bus home.

I picked “Judging by the Covers” in which two teams are shown a book cover that has had the words removed and must guess the plot from the clues on that cover.  One of the books was “Bear” by Marian Engel, who won the Canadian Governor General’s award for Literature.  It’s about a Canadian librarian who meets a bear and likes the bear very much.  Very much indeed.

When I got home, at about 11 PM. I quickly visited Facebook and discovered there had been a hotel room glitch.  A bunch of rooms had been reserved by another event up until Thursday, so they weren’t counted as available for ConVergence.  Now they were empty!

As soon as the buses began running the next morning, I was out the door with convention supplies and arrived in time to snap up one of the rooms for Saturday night.  This was a crimp in my budget but better than my original plan of not sleeping all weekend.

This accomplished I had the time to go to breakfast at the Consuite and enjoy talking to the people who get up early or hadn’t gone to bed yet.  I also got the chance to study the program book.  I really liked that ConVergence tried even harder this year to be inclusive, safe and accessible.

My first panel was “Time Travel in Literature” where by popular vote of the panelists, we did not actually define what time travel is.  We managed to cover quite a few topics, including that the Time Traveller  from The Time Machine had the disadvantage of never having read a time travel story, so makes a lot of rookie mistakes.  There was also a discussion of how the Ancient Greeks understood Time, and the reason time travel would not even be a concept for them.

I toured the Art Show; as always many fine pieces; sadly I was outbid on everything I wanted.  (This happens a lot; evidently I have exquisite taste.)  The Dealer’s Rooms and Artists’ Alley were in the Sheraton (formerly Sofitel) Hotel next to the RadiShTree.  Nifty stuff, but short on booksellers (one of the local mainstay stores bailed altogether because of the changed location.)  Some Tor-published authors had taken out a collective sales table and I got a nice deal on an assortment of their works.

Uo to my room for the first time to drop off my extra stuff and a quick lie-down.  (I am of an age where a quick lie-down is very helpful.)  When I arrived back in the main space, I noticed the convention merch area, and discovered that they had several books by the guests of honor for sale.  I picked up “Rayla 2212″ by Ytasha Womack as that was my priority buy.  I then proceeded to her panel, “”Why Afrofuturism?”which talked about what Afrofuturism is and why it’s important.  Afterwards, I got in line for her signing.

There were a bunch of other folks doing a group signing in the Garden Court, and I picked up a book on Kaiju.  Wandered around a bit, talked to people, hit the Consuite, then off to “Superficially Strong Female Characters” which among other people had Greg Weisman.  This one talked about works that make a token effort to include female characters as more than a prize for the male protagonist, but fall well short of giving them actual agency.  “If you could substitute a cat for the woman and it would make no difference to the plotline, it’s not really a well-written woman.”  

Mr. Weisman talked about trying to deal with the toy marketing people who don’t want too many girls in the cast of kids’ action cartoons for fear that girls will watch the show and then boys won’t buy the toys.  Another panelist expressed her frustration with Remington Steele when it changed focus from “competent woman is saddled with incompetent male partner but must pretend that he’s someone she respects” to “when will they kiss?” Which informed her decision not to watch Castle after the first episode.

I got in line for the Masquerade,seating, completely forgetting that it would be televised and I could have watched it in the comfort of my room.  Ah well, I got to talk to people and make some headway in the Rayla book.  The Masquerade had as always some lovely costumes and acts.  My favorite was “Queens” which was a bunch of fantasy book queens (and Marie Antoinette) rocking out to the music of Queen.  Also pretty awesome was the roller-skating version of Lumiere from Beauty and the Beast.

Hit the Consuite again, then a couple of parties, but had to get ready for my second panel, “Uphill Both Ways.” which is about stories where the characters spend most of their time on foot..  Lots of examples, from Lord of the Rings (there’s a Fitbit app called “Walk into Mordor” apparently) to The Long Walk by Richard Bachmann (Stephen King) and for the more energetic version, Run Lola Run.

More parties, and then off to bed.  I regret to say that there were people shouting in the hallway about 2 AM, which is not good manners, especially as it was not a party floor.

Slept in Sunday morning, but did get down to Consuite for breakfast and more chatting. Then checked out of the hotel room so as not to deal with overage charges.   I went to the “Lovecraft Was Wrong” panel, which had Mark Oshiro among others.  While H.P. Lovecraft has had a lot of influence on the fields of horror and dark fantasy, he was also a xenophobic racist (even by the standards of his time--there are letters in his papers from other racists of the day asking if he could tone it down a little.).  And that can make people reading his work or hearing him lauded or being handed a bust of him as a writing prize very uncomfortable.  So we had a discussion about problematic content, problematic creators, and respecting of difference of opinion.

Then it was off to the third hotel for the convention, the Crowne Plaza, where the musical events and a few panels were held.  Thank you, dedicated shuttle driver!  I arrived in time for the riverboats panel, which had Emma Bull and Ruth Berman.  They highly recommend Fevre Dream by George R.R. Martin, in which a Mississippi riverboat captain is hired by a mysterious man who never comes out in daylight.  The mysterious gentleman is exactly what you’re thinking, but that’s not the twist.

I moderated the “Star Blazers” panel that followed.  I had made myself a “Captain Avatar” hat, and you may be able to find a picture of me in it floating around somewhere.  Sadly, due to the remote location, the panelists outnumbered the audience, but we still had fun and a singalong of the first season theme song.

Back to the RadiShTree right quick for my last panel, “Web Comics.”  Kathryn Sullivan provided a handout of her favorites, we mentioned many more and I hope to do a post on my main blog with a list at some point.

Then it was Closing Ceremonies (I got an excellent seat!) and seeing all the GoH I had missed...then alas, time to get to the bus stop and head home to recover.

How was your Con?