Hils' Adventures at Nine Worlds
OMG look an actual update that isn't a fic rec post!
So last weekend I went to the Nine Worlds convention down in London. While I knew some people who were going I was essentially there by myself. I used to do cons by myself a lot back before I had UK-based fandom friends but it's been a while. I wasn't so much worried as not sure what to expect, especially given several friends had said last year's wasn't the best.
I had the best time!
I won't bore you all with the minutiae but I'll summarise the best (and not so best) parts of my experiences at the con
Thursday
Things didn't get off to the best start when I tried to check in at the hotel and they said they weren't expecting me until tomorrow. Good thing I was prepared for problems and had my booking confirmation with me. Ended up with a twin room to myself instead of the single room I'd booked but that's not a complaint and the hotel resolved my issue quickly
Friday
Things got off to a good start when, moments after registering, a guy came up to me and said 'excuse me, is that a Pittsburgh Penguins t-shirt you're wearing?' We had a brief flail about hockey and then he told me to enjoy the con and went on his merry way. Lesson learned, no matter how obscure you think your fandom is (not that I think hockey is obscure but in the context of a British geeky fandom con) there will be people who want to squee about it with you. More on that later.
First panel was on 'fix-it fanon' and was more of a roundtable discussion than a panel. I ended up sat next to a girl wearing asexuality flag earrings and it really hammered home that I was among 'my people'.
One thing I really liked about the con, but I understand had mixed reviews, was the fact that the schedule had a 45 minute break between each panel. Personally I loved it. Depending on my mood I could either loiter in the bar and chat to people, or find a quiet corner for a breather and read my book.
The panels I chose to go to were a mixture of style. After the chilled out and open discussion of the first panel I went to 'The Caucasian Persuasion of Buffy the Vampire Slater'. This was more of an academic panel and was presented by a university lecturer. I think mixing up the styles of panel kept things interesting.
The panel on AUs was a mixture of a panel and a workshop which, again, was different and kept things interesting. Hockey fandom reared its head again when someone from the back of the room said 'Hey, I know you! You post on the Carl Hagelin tag on Tumblr'. And then a couple of us had a random conversation abot Evgeni Malkin as a werebear. Hockey fandom *hands*
Nearly missed out on The Philosophy of Dragon Age because the room was pretty much full when I arrived. Dragon Age is popular, yo. But I managed to get a seat and this was more of a classic panel with a series of speakers and a moderator. Interesting stuff, although things like this I kind of wanted to flail with people about Dragon Age but it wasn't that sort of panel
I went to the panel on 'How to Build an Inclusive Community' thinking I might get tips for the comms I moderate or ways to make writerconuk more inviting. It was okay but I think it was geared more towards RL groups rather than the sort of thing I had in mind.
Next up was the panel I was actually on which was about shipping. Those who follow me on Twitter will know that ever since I agreed to take part I have been slowly getting more anxious about it. But I pushed through. I wasn't terribly keen about having to stand up and talk into a microphone about my Check Please shipper feels but I think it's one of those things that gets easier the more you do it. In retrospect I probably should have practised a bit more and I got a bit flustered and forgot a couple of the points I wanted to make but overall I think it went okay. At least a couple of people came up to me afterwards and said they were going to look at Check Please so I guess it was a success?
I met up with so_shhy at the V&A Museum after that and we had some food and looked at the underwear exhibit. She asked about my panel and if I'd do it again and I was surprised to find that despite my vomit-inducing nerves that I would. Perhaps on the proviso that next time I do a panel I get to stay seated and can have my notes in front of me for reassurance ;)
Saturday
Started the day with a video on how to make fanvids. This was great! It was very much aimed at beginners and the panelist went through all the software needed and some tutorials on how to do the basics. She ended giving us a flyer with everything she had told us on it for future reference. I found it really useful.
The panel on 'How to Idea' was another one where I didn't get a huge amount out of it. It was a classic style panel with several published authors and a moderator. Some of the things they said were interesting but overall it wasn't really for me. Halfway through the panel the hockey fan I'd met during the AU panel messaged me on Tumblr and we arranged to get coffee later which was probably the best part of the panel ;)
I skipped the next two panels in favour of having some lunch with flickums and luckykaa and checking out the stalls. You'll all be shocked to hear I bought a book! But it was written by a friend so I had a good excuse :D
After shopping I met up with my new hockey friend. This is what I love about fandom, I have to say. I'm still friends with enchantersnight after me and my friends adopted her at a Supernatural convention several years ago. This time I happened to run into a hockey fan in a panel, we had a coffee together and she invited me for dinner with her and her friends. I was the adoptee and it was lovely.
There might be a lot of shit in geek culture but there is also remarkable warmth and friendship.
After dinner, which was a cheeky Nandos, I went to a panel on how to review book. flickums was there so we sat together. This is definitely the worst panel I went to over the whole weekend. It wasn't 100% bad but it quickly derailed from the subject it was supposed to be covering and turned into people sharing book recommendations. Don't get me wrong, I love book recs, if they come from people I know or people whose opinion I respect. A bunch of strangers recommending books to a whole room of people was not useful at all. When the panel had overrun by 20 mins I finally gave up and walked out.
But it all worked out okay. I lurked in the bar area for a bit and ran into selenay who I had been trying to find all weekend. We ended up chatting until gone midnight which kind of made it feel like a proper con experience. It's not a true con unless you don't sleep enough. We made plans to go and get cake after the Sunday panels. Caaaaaaake :D And one of Sel's friends joined us who loves Check Please and is on the cusp of getting into hockey so we talked about that. I was honestly not expecting to meet hockey fandom people and it was awesome.
Sunday
Arrived at my first panel about 15 mins before it was due to start and no one was there. LOL. Even staying up late the night before I managed to be early.
The topic was LGBT in Comics and 2/3 of the panelists were great. Not sure if the other had been added last minute but she openly said she hasn't ready any comics for some time. Still, I got some recs of things to check out and I was able to share my love for Shades of A which I highly recommend to all of you guys too. It's a very (and I mean very) loose adaptation of 50 Shades of Gray where an asexual man of colour falls in love with a bisexual transvestite and has a genderfluid best friend. It's amazing and it made me cry.
During the break I was sat in the bar area reading my book with a girl I met at Edge Lit last month (the geek world is small)
Friend: Oh, that book is fantastic but it ends on a cliffhanger so I hope you already have the sequel
Me: Se...quel? I didn't even know it was part of a series! The person who recced it to me never mentioned that
Friend: Oh, well they're selling the sequel downstairs if you want it
Me: *runs*
2 minutes later:
Went to a panel on 'My Fave is Problematic or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Joss Whedon'. Nothing new here but it was good. We talked about some of the more problematic areas of Joss's work and how it's okay to like problematic things if you are willing to be open and listen to what's problematic about it instead of getting defensive.
While I was buying A Gathering of Shadows I spotted Rivers of London which has been on my Amazon wishlist for a few months. I decided to get the internet to help me decide
Me: Twitter should I buy Rivers of London?
All of Twitter: YES!
2 minutes later:
Final panel was on Hannibal and, again, I would have loved to have been able to just sit and squee with fans for an hour rather than just listening to the panelists. But it was good and it's great to see how much love people still have for this show. And, hey, there's the Hannibal con in October where I WILL be able to sit and flail with other fans.
And that was the end of the con. Except for those of us in denial. We went to Patisserie Valerie for cake and then headed back into the games room where I learned how to play Exploding Kittens and Monty Python's Flux. Both lots of fun!
CAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKE :D
Then we just chilled out and chatted until we were finally forced to admit we were tired and head to bed. I was asked questions about hockey which I found hilarious since I only got into it myself a few months ago. Even more amazing was the fact that I could answer the questions. And provide fic recs. I'm good at fic recs.
So that was it. I think it says a lot about this con that when I went down for breakfast on Monday morning the host said how sad she was that we were leaving. She said we were a really bright and colourful group, that everyone was always smiling, and that she wished all groups were like hours.
I think that's fandom in a nutshell really.
So last weekend I went to the Nine Worlds convention down in London. While I knew some people who were going I was essentially there by myself. I used to do cons by myself a lot back before I had UK-based fandom friends but it's been a while. I wasn't so much worried as not sure what to expect, especially given several friends had said last year's wasn't the best.
I had the best time!
I won't bore you all with the minutiae but I'll summarise the best (and not so best) parts of my experiences at the con
Thursday
Things didn't get off to the best start when I tried to check in at the hotel and they said they weren't expecting me until tomorrow. Good thing I was prepared for problems and had my booking confirmation with me. Ended up with a twin room to myself instead of the single room I'd booked but that's not a complaint and the hotel resolved my issue quickly
Friday
Things got off to a good start when, moments after registering, a guy came up to me and said 'excuse me, is that a Pittsburgh Penguins t-shirt you're wearing?' We had a brief flail about hockey and then he told me to enjoy the con and went on his merry way. Lesson learned, no matter how obscure you think your fandom is (not that I think hockey is obscure but in the context of a British geeky fandom con) there will be people who want to squee about it with you. More on that later.
First panel was on 'fix-it fanon' and was more of a roundtable discussion than a panel. I ended up sat next to a girl wearing asexuality flag earrings and it really hammered home that I was among 'my people'.
One thing I really liked about the con, but I understand had mixed reviews, was the fact that the schedule had a 45 minute break between each panel. Personally I loved it. Depending on my mood I could either loiter in the bar and chat to people, or find a quiet corner for a breather and read my book.
The panels I chose to go to were a mixture of style. After the chilled out and open discussion of the first panel I went to 'The Caucasian Persuasion of Buffy the Vampire Slater'. This was more of an academic panel and was presented by a university lecturer. I think mixing up the styles of panel kept things interesting.
The panel on AUs was a mixture of a panel and a workshop which, again, was different and kept things interesting. Hockey fandom reared its head again when someone from the back of the room said 'Hey, I know you! You post on the Carl Hagelin tag on Tumblr'. And then a couple of us had a random conversation abot Evgeni Malkin as a werebear. Hockey fandom *hands*
Nearly missed out on The Philosophy of Dragon Age because the room was pretty much full when I arrived. Dragon Age is popular, yo. But I managed to get a seat and this was more of a classic panel with a series of speakers and a moderator. Interesting stuff, although things like this I kind of wanted to flail with people about Dragon Age but it wasn't that sort of panel
I went to the panel on 'How to Build an Inclusive Community' thinking I might get tips for the comms I moderate or ways to make writerconuk more inviting. It was okay but I think it was geared more towards RL groups rather than the sort of thing I had in mind.
Next up was the panel I was actually on which was about shipping. Those who follow me on Twitter will know that ever since I agreed to take part I have been slowly getting more anxious about it. But I pushed through. I wasn't terribly keen about having to stand up and talk into a microphone about my Check Please shipper feels but I think it's one of those things that gets easier the more you do it. In retrospect I probably should have practised a bit more and I got a bit flustered and forgot a couple of the points I wanted to make but overall I think it went okay. At least a couple of people came up to me afterwards and said they were going to look at Check Please so I guess it was a success?
I met up with so_shhy at the V&A Museum after that and we had some food and looked at the underwear exhibit. She asked about my panel and if I'd do it again and I was surprised to find that despite my vomit-inducing nerves that I would. Perhaps on the proviso that next time I do a panel I get to stay seated and can have my notes in front of me for reassurance ;)
Saturday
Started the day with a video on how to make fanvids. This was great! It was very much aimed at beginners and the panelist went through all the software needed and some tutorials on how to do the basics. She ended giving us a flyer with everything she had told us on it for future reference. I found it really useful.
The panel on 'How to Idea' was another one where I didn't get a huge amount out of it. It was a classic style panel with several published authors and a moderator. Some of the things they said were interesting but overall it wasn't really for me. Halfway through the panel the hockey fan I'd met during the AU panel messaged me on Tumblr and we arranged to get coffee later which was probably the best part of the panel ;)
I skipped the next two panels in favour of having some lunch with flickums and luckykaa and checking out the stalls. You'll all be shocked to hear I bought a book! But it was written by a friend so I had a good excuse :D
After shopping I met up with my new hockey friend. This is what I love about fandom, I have to say. I'm still friends with enchantersnight after me and my friends adopted her at a Supernatural convention several years ago. This time I happened to run into a hockey fan in a panel, we had a coffee together and she invited me for dinner with her and her friends. I was the adoptee and it was lovely.
There might be a lot of shit in geek culture but there is also remarkable warmth and friendship.
After dinner, which was a cheeky Nandos, I went to a panel on how to review book. flickums was there so we sat together. This is definitely the worst panel I went to over the whole weekend. It wasn't 100% bad but it quickly derailed from the subject it was supposed to be covering and turned into people sharing book recommendations. Don't get me wrong, I love book recs, if they come from people I know or people whose opinion I respect. A bunch of strangers recommending books to a whole room of people was not useful at all. When the panel had overrun by 20 mins I finally gave up and walked out.
But it all worked out okay. I lurked in the bar area for a bit and ran into selenay who I had been trying to find all weekend. We ended up chatting until gone midnight which kind of made it feel like a proper con experience. It's not a true con unless you don't sleep enough. We made plans to go and get cake after the Sunday panels. Caaaaaaake :D And one of Sel's friends joined us who loves Check Please and is on the cusp of getting into hockey so we talked about that. I was honestly not expecting to meet hockey fandom people and it was awesome.
Sunday
Arrived at my first panel about 15 mins before it was due to start and no one was there. LOL. Even staying up late the night before I managed to be early.
The topic was LGBT in Comics and 2/3 of the panelists were great. Not sure if the other had been added last minute but she openly said she hasn't ready any comics for some time. Still, I got some recs of things to check out and I was able to share my love for Shades of A which I highly recommend to all of you guys too. It's a very (and I mean very) loose adaptation of 50 Shades of Gray where an asexual man of colour falls in love with a bisexual transvestite and has a genderfluid best friend. It's amazing and it made me cry.
During the break I was sat in the bar area reading my book with a girl I met at Edge Lit last month (the geek world is small)
Friend: Oh, that book is fantastic but it ends on a cliffhanger so I hope you already have the sequel
Me: Se...quel? I didn't even know it was part of a series! The person who recced it to me never mentioned that
Friend: Oh, well they're selling the sequel downstairs if you want it
Me: *runs*
2 minutes later:
Went to a panel on 'My Fave is Problematic or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Joss Whedon'. Nothing new here but it was good. We talked about some of the more problematic areas of Joss's work and how it's okay to like problematic things if you are willing to be open and listen to what's problematic about it instead of getting defensive.
While I was buying A Gathering of Shadows I spotted Rivers of London which has been on my Amazon wishlist for a few months. I decided to get the internet to help me decide
Me: Twitter should I buy Rivers of London?
All of Twitter: YES!
2 minutes later:
Final panel was on Hannibal and, again, I would have loved to have been able to just sit and squee with fans for an hour rather than just listening to the panelists. But it was good and it's great to see how much love people still have for this show. And, hey, there's the Hannibal con in October where I WILL be able to sit and flail with other fans.
And that was the end of the con. Except for those of us in denial. We went to Patisserie Valerie for cake and then headed back into the games room where I learned how to play Exploding Kittens and Monty Python's Flux. Both lots of fun!
CAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKE :D
Then we just chilled out and chatted until we were finally forced to admit we were tired and head to bed. I was asked questions about hockey which I found hilarious since I only got into it myself a few months ago. Even more amazing was the fact that I could answer the questions. And provide fic recs. I'm good at fic recs.
So that was it. I think it says a lot about this con that when I went down for breakfast on Monday morning the host said how sad she was that we were leaving. She said we were a really bright and colourful group, that everyone was always smiling, and that she wished all groups were like hours.
I think that's fandom in a nutshell really.