Con report of sorts
I need to quit going to cons. I don't attend that many panels, and my friends are busy running around like crazy people so I don't actually see them. That's a lot of money to not get what I'm looking for. I should spend it on solo vacations.
(I love solo vacations.)
WFC was entertaining by utter coincidence, however. It was scheduled at the same time as the annual meeting of Rolling Thunder, the veterans' rights motorcycle group. They do charitable things for struggling vets, but also lobby their congresscritters on behalf of veterans, and do good things such as get between the Westboro assholes and veterans' funerals. But yes, they are bikers, of the vest-wearing, tattoo-sporting, beard-growing kind. (Most of them are veterans themselves. They grow non-regulation beards, but most of them still have military-regulation hair. And a LOT of really good posture.)
Both groups were the sort to spend the evenings in the bar. :) We all kind of looked at each other, shrugged, and said, "Okay, this can work." Thanks to my friend Rachel who is utterly fearless about meeting new people, I spent every night of the con hanging out with bikers in the bar. It was pretty awesome.
The only panel I can remember offhand was not particularly good, but not through fault of the panelists. (Though some needed to learn to SPEAK INTO THE MICROPHONE AND ENUNCIATE. Also, the moderator seemed completely unprepared. At least the panelists were good about self-regulating and sharing time.)
The late-night panel on "What's up with all the sex and violence in fantasy these days?" was, I thought, clearly supposed to be addressing grimdark and perhaps romantic fantasy. However, it was completely populated with horror writers, so instead of being anything close to the panel description, it was all about the violence in horror novels.
Seriously, NOT EVEN CLOSE TO THE DESCRIPTION IN THE PANEL LISTING. But like I say, I suspect this was entirely because none of the writers on the panel were "regular fantasy" writers. Naturally the panelists are going to talk about what's near and dear to them. This was really a programming error. If I were interested in horror writing, I probably would have enjoyed the panel, but as it was, I felt like I had stumbled into the wrong room.
(Alas, it was in a not-crowded room with a layout that prevented anyone from leaving without being SUPER CONSPICUOUS to everyone there. It would have been just plain assholeish to leave. So Rachel and I sat through it, passing notes back and forth.)
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Anyway, seriously debating if I will be going to any more conventions for the next few years. I've been feeling this way for some time. When I go to cons I don't feel unwelcome in any way--everyone seems glad enough for my presence--but I also don't feel as if anyone would miss me if I didn't show up. (At WFC I didn't have a single meal with anyone except Rachel.) So given the costs, yeah, this is a thing. I don't need to spend that money.