Boskone Con Report
I got an Honorable Mention in the Boskone story contest!
This means I get a free book from the NESFA press. Since I wasn't there yesterday, they said they could mail me my book. I requested "Letters to the Pumpkin King", which is an anthology of Seanan McGuire's nonfiction work.
Being a finalist also meant I got to do a group reading with all the other finalists. This was my first time behind the table at the front of the room, and I find I like being there. Goals for the year: get enough stories into paying publications that it's reasonable to volunteer to be on more panels next year. I knew as the readings went on that I was not going to win-- I remarked to a friend immediately afterward that "The one with the nematodes" had been the clear standout from the finalists, and indeed it did win at the awards ceremony.
I am *still* exhausted; conventions have gotten dramatically more draining. Conventions are not supposed to be this draining. I do think some of it is travel; when I do cons in the hotels I have much less of this feeling of dramatically crashing the next day. (Or maybe it's just that when I do them in hotels I usually have![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
benign_cremator with me. And have paid somewhat more attention to proper food.)
Based on the compliments I got on my cyber-hair, everyone has completely forgotten that this used to be super trendy. When I bought my hairpiece (a decade ago), it was one of the smallest, cheapest, and least showy ones they had; no one would have blinked at it. This year a whole bunch of people thought it was super amazing and had never seen anything like it and never heard the term "cyber-hair". I have now been in fandom long enough to have completely outlasted a fashion trend cycle.
I bought many books, and also acquired a few off the free table. Nothing on the free table was "just take a random book to see what it's like" this year; I have soured on that practice after mentioning one of them elsewhere and getting the response "Isn't that the dragon bestiality book someone nominated for a Tiptree that one time?" and I looked it up and indeed it was. Oddly enough I still haven't actually tried to read that one...
I got one anthology of stories by trans and non-binary writers, one anthology of stories set at cons, and one very old anthology from the free table; I'm starting to read more short stories as I write more short stories. And also some books that had been on the to-buy list; I've already read both All Systems Red and Every Heart a Doorway, but I wanted to own them.
This means I get a free book from the NESFA press. Since I wasn't there yesterday, they said they could mail me my book. I requested "Letters to the Pumpkin King", which is an anthology of Seanan McGuire's nonfiction work.
Being a finalist also meant I got to do a group reading with all the other finalists. This was my first time behind the table at the front of the room, and I find I like being there. Goals for the year: get enough stories into paying publications that it's reasonable to volunteer to be on more panels next year. I knew as the readings went on that I was not going to win-- I remarked to a friend immediately afterward that "The one with the nematodes" had been the clear standout from the finalists, and indeed it did win at the awards ceremony.
I am *still* exhausted; conventions have gotten dramatically more draining. Conventions are not supposed to be this draining. I do think some of it is travel; when I do cons in the hotels I have much less of this feeling of dramatically crashing the next day. (Or maybe it's just that when I do them in hotels I usually have
benign_cremator with me. And have paid somewhat more attention to proper food.)Based on the compliments I got on my cyber-hair, everyone has completely forgotten that this used to be super trendy. When I bought my hairpiece (a decade ago), it was one of the smallest, cheapest, and least showy ones they had; no one would have blinked at it. This year a whole bunch of people thought it was super amazing and had never seen anything like it and never heard the term "cyber-hair". I have now been in fandom long enough to have completely outlasted a fashion trend cycle.
I bought many books, and also acquired a few off the free table. Nothing on the free table was "just take a random book to see what it's like" this year; I have soured on that practice after mentioning one of them elsewhere and getting the response "Isn't that the dragon bestiality book someone nominated for a Tiptree that one time?" and I looked it up and indeed it was. Oddly enough I still haven't actually tried to read that one...
I got one anthology of stories by trans and non-binary writers, one anthology of stories set at cons, and one very old anthology from the free table; I'm starting to read more short stories as I write more short stories. And also some books that had been on the to-buy list; I've already read both All Systems Red and Every Heart a Doorway, but I wanted to own them.