Random Thursday: My Upcoming Conventions
Jul. 9th, 2015 07:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hrjA coincidence of geography and calendar enticed me to do back-to-back conventions in the southeast in the next couple of weeks. (Not the immediately coming weekend, but the two after.)
Rainbow Con, in Tampa FL, is "an exciting event centered around QUILTBAG (Queer/Questioning, Undecided, Intersex, Lesbian, Trans*, Bisexual, Asexual, and Gay/Genderqueer) multimedia. This includes fiction, fanfiction, non-fiction, television, movies, stage, music, comics, fan art, and anything else involving QUILTBAG media." I believe this is their second year. I saw information about last year's convention and thought, Gee, that sounds interesting, but in common with many whole-spectrum GLBT events it looks rather seriously male-dominated. But when I had contact with one of the organizers online and said something to that effect, I was assured that they were working hard on a more even balance and would I be interested in being part of that? What tipped me over into "yes" was that it falls immediately before GCLS which is in New Orleans this year. (And since GCLS starts on Wednesday, that left just enough time between for a leisurely drive between events and a little NOLA sightseeing.)
They have a list of over 70 attending authors/artists, of which I confess I recognize half a dozen (which, given the wide range of media covered, is probably about right). I'll be on the following panels, including two -- count 'em TWO -- on historical topics:
Don't Quit Your Day Job! Thu 4pm
Foreshadowing, Red Herrings, and Chekhov's Gun Fri 11am
Women in Fiction Fri 4pm
Girls, Girls, Girls: Spotlight on Lesbian Fiction Sun 11am
Classically Queer Sun 12pm
Writing Historical LGBTQ Sun 1pm
I'm fully expecting the convention membership to be solidly on the younger side and perhaps to be mostly interested in media that I don't really intersect much with (either in content or format). So I have fairly relaxed expectations in terms of general socializing. But I'll be interested to see the demographics and flavor of the event.
And then we have …
Golden Crown Literary Society Conference - This is the most prominent event of the lesbian publishing community. I first attended last year and struggled a bit with the cultural differences from SFF conventions. It's more centered around publishers/author as opposed to being a grassroots fan/reader-driven event (though plenty of readers attend and there's plenty of programming aimed at readers). In addition to panels and readings, there are several keynote-style presentations, a writing workshop, and of course the announcement and presentation of the Golden Crown Awards (Goldies), for which Daughter of Mystery has been short-listed in the SF/Fantasy category. I'll be doing two programming events, a reading and a panel:
Overseas Amongst the Aliens - The majority of LGBT writing is set in the country of the English-speaking author, but those who do venture into other cultures face special challenges, such as how to give the flavor of the foreign language and how to put the reader in the foreign setting without resorting to caricatures and national stereotypes.
Last year I spent most of my "down time" sitting at the Bella Books table doing my best to hand-sell books to passersby. This year, Bella is the official conference book dealer, so I don't have to worry about that end as much. Hopefully the social media contacts I've been making in the intervening year will translate into a bit more socializing. (And Lauri will be joining me again. When you have a long-distance girlfriend, it's convenient to both enjoy conventions!)
Rainbow Con, in Tampa FL, is "an exciting event centered around QUILTBAG (Queer/Questioning, Undecided, Intersex, Lesbian, Trans*, Bisexual, Asexual, and Gay/Genderqueer) multimedia. This includes fiction, fanfiction, non-fiction, television, movies, stage, music, comics, fan art, and anything else involving QUILTBAG media." I believe this is their second year. I saw information about last year's convention and thought, Gee, that sounds interesting, but in common with many whole-spectrum GLBT events it looks rather seriously male-dominated. But when I had contact with one of the organizers online and said something to that effect, I was assured that they were working hard on a more even balance and would I be interested in being part of that? What tipped me over into "yes" was that it falls immediately before GCLS which is in New Orleans this year. (And since GCLS starts on Wednesday, that left just enough time between for a leisurely drive between events and a little NOLA sightseeing.)
They have a list of over 70 attending authors/artists, of which I confess I recognize half a dozen (which, given the wide range of media covered, is probably about right). I'll be on the following panels, including two -- count 'em TWO -- on historical topics:
Don't Quit Your Day Job! Thu 4pm
Foreshadowing, Red Herrings, and Chekhov's Gun Fri 11am
Women in Fiction Fri 4pm
Girls, Girls, Girls: Spotlight on Lesbian Fiction Sun 11am
Classically Queer Sun 12pm
Writing Historical LGBTQ Sun 1pm
I'm fully expecting the convention membership to be solidly on the younger side and perhaps to be mostly interested in media that I don't really intersect much with (either in content or format). So I have fairly relaxed expectations in terms of general socializing. But I'll be interested to see the demographics and flavor of the event.
And then we have …
Golden Crown Literary Society Conference - This is the most prominent event of the lesbian publishing community. I first attended last year and struggled a bit with the cultural differences from SFF conventions. It's more centered around publishers/author as opposed to being a grassroots fan/reader-driven event (though plenty of readers attend and there's plenty of programming aimed at readers). In addition to panels and readings, there are several keynote-style presentations, a writing workshop, and of course the announcement and presentation of the Golden Crown Awards (Goldies), for which Daughter of Mystery has been short-listed in the SF/Fantasy category. I'll be doing two programming events, a reading and a panel:
Overseas Amongst the Aliens - The majority of LGBT writing is set in the country of the English-speaking author, but those who do venture into other cultures face special challenges, such as how to give the flavor of the foreign language and how to put the reader in the foreign setting without resorting to caricatures and national stereotypes.
Last year I spent most of my "down time" sitting at the Bella Books table doing my best to hand-sell books to passersby. This year, Bella is the official conference book dealer, so I don't have to worry about that end as much. Hopefully the social media contacts I've been making in the intervening year will translate into a bit more socializing. (And Lauri will be joining me again. When you have a long-distance girlfriend, it's convenient to both enjoy conventions!)
