Rainbow Con: Sunday
Jul. 19th, 2015 04:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hrjIn this space between the closing ceremonies and a reasonable time to allow for migration up to the con suite for the dead dog party (although they aren't calling it that), it's a good time to post the Sunday report. I'm still mulling over a high-level "sense of the convention" post.
Didn't even try to get up in time for a morning workout, on the theory that I'll have plenty of time when everything's over, since I'm not heading out to New Orleans until morning. Since the panel schedule didn't include a lunch break today, I went for the full cafe breakfast buffet and succeeded in inserting myself into a half-full table for conversation. (It really helps that the cafe is quite small and is self-seating, so table sharing is pretty much essential and easy.)
10am - attended "Writing Alternate Universes" - This tended to be a bit more about "alternate versions of settings for which you are writing fan-fic" although there was a bit of coverage on "alternate histories/futures". I don't remember a great many details of the discussion, in part because I was mentally gearing up for doing three panels back-to-back to close out the con.
11am - participated in "Girls, Girls, Girls: Spotlight on Lesbian Fiction". Although our audience was very small (which was the case for pretty much all the panels today), we had a very lively discussion on the history of lesbian genre fiction, the issues around finding/publishing lesbian fiction for presses that specialize primarily in m/m titles, some of the logistics around increasing diversity of any type in fields that are perceived by both readers and authors as being non-inclusive, and new ideas for where to look for lesbian-oriented fiction, both in terms of publishers and online sites. Given the number of comments I've heard at this event about how hard it is to find f/f fiction, how publishers decline it saying it "doesn't sell", and how hungry some segments of the reading public are for f/f titles, it continues to surprise me how disjoint various reading communities seem to be. It's like listening to the vegetarians at the Sizzler complaining about how few dishes they can eat when there's a Fresh Choice right next door.
12pm - panelist on "Classically Queer" - This was my hands-down favorite panel to participate in of the entire event. The moderator pretty much just stood back and let the three panelists go to. I shared the panel with two other extremely knowledgeable and articulate historical enthusiasts and we got in-depth on the topics of how to research LGBTQ topics in history, what the problems and pitfalls are, larger patterns in the history of gender and sexuality, how to apply that research to writing fiction, and more at great length. I think we could have gone on for hours if they'd let us! It's a real pity that we only had 2 audience members (plus a couple other duck-in-and-outs).
1pm - panelist on "Writing Historical LGBTQ" - This could have been the bookend to the previous panel but had a rather different feel and dynamic. I was the only panelist out of 5 that wasn't writing m/m erotic fiction. Rather than a free-form discussion we took turns on a series of 3-4 questions about the process and difficulties of our own specific writing projects. So there wasn't the same sense of a synthesized overview of the topic, and more the feel of a sequential interview than a panel discussion.
The event finished off with an ice cream social and the drawing of raffle tickets (gift baskets benefitting the official con charity). I was somewhat relieved that I won't be trying to fit any gift baskets into my luggage. Having posted this, I'll drift up to the con suite to hang out with the late departers (and those staying until tomorrow). And then I definitely will get my workout in. Really. I promise myself.
Didn't even try to get up in time for a morning workout, on the theory that I'll have plenty of time when everything's over, since I'm not heading out to New Orleans until morning. Since the panel schedule didn't include a lunch break today, I went for the full cafe breakfast buffet and succeeded in inserting myself into a half-full table for conversation. (It really helps that the cafe is quite small and is self-seating, so table sharing is pretty much essential and easy.)
10am - attended "Writing Alternate Universes" - This tended to be a bit more about "alternate versions of settings for which you are writing fan-fic" although there was a bit of coverage on "alternate histories/futures". I don't remember a great many details of the discussion, in part because I was mentally gearing up for doing three panels back-to-back to close out the con.
11am - participated in "Girls, Girls, Girls: Spotlight on Lesbian Fiction". Although our audience was very small (which was the case for pretty much all the panels today), we had a very lively discussion on the history of lesbian genre fiction, the issues around finding/publishing lesbian fiction for presses that specialize primarily in m/m titles, some of the logistics around increasing diversity of any type in fields that are perceived by both readers and authors as being non-inclusive, and new ideas for where to look for lesbian-oriented fiction, both in terms of publishers and online sites. Given the number of comments I've heard at this event about how hard it is to find f/f fiction, how publishers decline it saying it "doesn't sell", and how hungry some segments of the reading public are for f/f titles, it continues to surprise me how disjoint various reading communities seem to be. It's like listening to the vegetarians at the Sizzler complaining about how few dishes they can eat when there's a Fresh Choice right next door.
12pm - panelist on "Classically Queer" - This was my hands-down favorite panel to participate in of the entire event. The moderator pretty much just stood back and let the three panelists go to. I shared the panel with two other extremely knowledgeable and articulate historical enthusiasts and we got in-depth on the topics of how to research LGBTQ topics in history, what the problems and pitfalls are, larger patterns in the history of gender and sexuality, how to apply that research to writing fiction, and more at great length. I think we could have gone on for hours if they'd let us! It's a real pity that we only had 2 audience members (plus a couple other duck-in-and-outs).
1pm - panelist on "Writing Historical LGBTQ" - This could have been the bookend to the previous panel but had a rather different feel and dynamic. I was the only panelist out of 5 that wasn't writing m/m erotic fiction. Rather than a free-form discussion we took turns on a series of 3-4 questions about the process and difficulties of our own specific writing projects. So there wasn't the same sense of a synthesized overview of the topic, and more the feel of a sequential interview than a panel discussion.
The event finished off with an ice cream social and the drawing of raffle tickets (gift baskets benefitting the official con charity). I was somewhat relieved that I won't be trying to fit any gift baskets into my luggage. Having posted this, I'll drift up to the con suite to hang out with the late departers (and those staying until tomorrow). And then I definitely will get my workout in. Really. I promise myself.
