Sunday Salutations from the Post P-Con Hotel Room

The first ever P-Con ( https://www.p-con.us/ ) has come and gone. This was Anna’s first sci-fi/fantasy convention, and she had a lot of fun. Hopefully, she will be adding more at the end. (Meep! I appear to have an assignment… ~Anna)

This is a quick recap, as being introverts acting like extroverts for three days has left us happily exhausted. This is (mostly, I think) in chronological order.

For anyone who was there and got the PDF schedule from Facebook, we’re that “Tod and Anna”. Our PDF was later adopted as the official printout of the schedule. Does that make us Con Scribes or something? (I do think it is funny. That was how most people reacted with “oh, you are that Tod and Anna”. ~Anna)

At breakfast the first day, we met Greg Gagnon and Cathy Gagnon ( https://www.facebook.com/greg.gagnon.cissp ). Greg, an author, also wears kilts, which distracts people from seeing his wife’s matching outfit. They are wonderfully fun people! Greg gave me insight to pass to another author. They were an awesome introduction to the con for Anna. We have a picture of Greg and Cathy kissing. (I am still so confused taking pictures of other people… I have a hard time with pictures, which is part of why we mostly have Newfie and cat pictures. ~Anna)

We also had breakfast with Wally Banger (Yes, that is his handle… ~Anna) the GM and his daughter Melissa, who ran the gaming room. Having nice friendly and moderately calm gaming people to talk to also helped Anna. (Also, I am not sure his handle fits him. He was kind and friendly even when I was super shy. ~Anna)

One of the early panels we attend had one of the new Baen authors Monalisa Foster ( https://monalisafoster.com/ ) on it. And the new phrase from the con via Monalisa is “don’t write for rivet counters”. This means, when there is more than one correct way to do something, don’t worry about explaining all dozen ways. Just write for the people that will enjoy the story, not the people that only want to correct a story. We didn’t manage to get a picture of Monalisa either. (Hehe. I feel like my being slightly camera-shy keeps Tod from taking random pictures. ~Anna)

Later Tom Tinney ( https://www.tomtinney.com/ ) was on several panels. He was an awesome panelist and a cool moderator. It was cool seeing a motorcycle guy on the panels. And even cooler having someone there taller than me – he reminded me of one of the two main people that taught me Aikido. We not only got a picture of him. He took the one of Anna and I. (Meep! Pictures, I hope my soul is still intact. ~Anna)

Stephen Patrick is a thriller (horror!) writer ( https://holocaustengine.com/ ) and was one of our favorite moderators. Stephen was entertaining, kept people on target for the discussion, and was prepared and organized. (Competent and organized are two of our favorite things!) For people that don’t buy DRM encumbered books, The Holocaust Engine is on Smashwords! We haven’t read it yet, but will, because we’re always looking for new horror. Again, no picture. (I can also see Tod being sad about the lack of pictures. But I feel like it makes things less awkward than snapping pictures all the time. ~Anna)

Last, but not least is Jane Lindskold, the fantasy guest of honor and her husband Jim Moore. ( https://janelindskold.com/ ) Jane is an author and Jim is an archeologist. I think we could talk to both for days. I think Anna could talk to both of them about graduate school for ages too. (Sorry, Jim, it was a writer’s con, so Jane got all our attention.) Jane was our other favorite moderator. Jane was kind to attendees (including us) and firm (with panelists and attendees) when she needed to be. She is truly a smart, organized, classy lady! Pictures of both Jane and Jim. Jim is under one of the strangest room occupancy signs – not sure if you could get 100 people in there.

~Tod

Since I did make some comments in the text, I am going to keep this part short and simple. It was a wonderful weekend and an amazing experience. I am still “unpacking” my thoughts and feelings on the con, which I plan to write up over the next week. Mostly there was a lot of information. I took notes, but not as many as I should have. Instead, my con schedule looks like a scrap notebook, with jotted down half thoughts.

Plus, while this was a very small Con, as I was told, it was more new people than I am used to meeting in a single day. I am used to one-on-one new meetings, where we have a defined topic, or I can drift to science. Talking fiction and not defaulting back to science when I get nervous is something I will have to practice before I get used to it (and not embarrassed).

So, I guess this is a two-part blog post. (Maybe three parts, since I have notes too. ~Tod) It was a great first experience. I am looking forward to the next con, but even more to getting home and seeing Crokell, Aki, Beleth, and Fluffy. And working on stories again.

~Anna