Outlantacon/Gaylaxicon
I just spent the weekend in Atlanta, GA at Outlantacon/Gaylaxicon, and it was super fun. I got to meet a bunch of new people and spend some quality time with people I had previously met. The best thing, though, was that walking into this con, I had my usual little blip of anxiety, but it disappeared almost immediately because everyone was friendly and welcoming and generally awesome.
The Guest of Honor was Amber Benson (Tara from Buffy, and also an urban fantasy novelist), and I can't count the times I heard people exclaiming over how nice and funny and friendly she was. She stopped in the halls to chat with people at random, and she was a really good sport about the silly things she had to participate in (like The Match Game, in which contestants try to match panelists' answers to fill in the blank questions e.g. "William Shatner is starring in a porn movie. He has sex with a ..."--the most popular answer was Tribble, in case you were wondering).
But Amber was just one of many really lovely people at Outlantacon. The con staff was great, and so were all the attendees and guests. I basically spent the weekend getting my interview on, and I have a bunch of mini interviews collected for the next OA Podcast episode with all kinds of fascinating people. Writers and editors, yes, but also artists, gamers, fans, activists, voice actors... just all kinds of people with really neat projects and interesting things to say. That should be up next Friday (when I will be at WisCon in Madison, WI).
When I wasn't interviewing, I participated in a few panels (one on the Outer Alliance, one on podcasting, and one really neat panel on Ursula K. Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness, which turned into a book group style discussion in which panelists and audience members participated equally), attended panels and parties, got a bunch of new reading material, listened to a live band, and admired all the fabulous outfits people wore.
I've posted the 2010 Gaylactic Spectrum Awards for Short Fiction and Best Other Works over on the OA blog along with a teaser mini podcast with one mini interview. Hal Duncan's winning short story "The Behold of the Eye" is available online for free (text version at Lone Star Stories and audio version at PodCastle), and I highly recommend it. It's funny and sad and hopeful and just generally really good.
And you can find pictures of some of the fabulous people I spent the weekend with over on Flickr.
The Guest of Honor was Amber Benson (Tara from Buffy, and also an urban fantasy novelist), and I can't count the times I heard people exclaiming over how nice and funny and friendly she was. She stopped in the halls to chat with people at random, and she was a really good sport about the silly things she had to participate in (like The Match Game, in which contestants try to match panelists' answers to fill in the blank questions e.g. "William Shatner is starring in a porn movie. He has sex with a ..."--the most popular answer was Tribble, in case you were wondering).
But Amber was just one of many really lovely people at Outlantacon. The con staff was great, and so were all the attendees and guests. I basically spent the weekend getting my interview on, and I have a bunch of mini interviews collected for the next OA Podcast episode with all kinds of fascinating people. Writers and editors, yes, but also artists, gamers, fans, activists, voice actors... just all kinds of people with really neat projects and interesting things to say. That should be up next Friday (when I will be at WisCon in Madison, WI).
When I wasn't interviewing, I participated in a few panels (one on the Outer Alliance, one on podcasting, and one really neat panel on Ursula K. Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness, which turned into a book group style discussion in which panelists and audience members participated equally), attended panels and parties, got a bunch of new reading material, listened to a live band, and admired all the fabulous outfits people wore.
I've posted the 2010 Gaylactic Spectrum Awards for Short Fiction and Best Other Works over on the OA blog along with a teaser mini podcast with one mini interview. Hal Duncan's winning short story "The Behold of the Eye" is available online for free (text version at Lone Star Stories and audio version at PodCastle), and I highly recommend it. It's funny and sad and hopeful and just generally really good.
And you can find pictures of some of the fabulous people I spent the weekend with over on Flickr.