221B Con Post Mortem Part II

[anarfea]

So, clevermanka and vulgarweed pointed out that there was something hinky going on with my last post, and I realized I accidentally cut like half of it. I was going to edit it but realized that probably no one would read the edited version, so I'll just do another post of additional thoughts on 221b Con.

Amendment: it was in fact Vulgarweed who read my cards, and splix and Clevermanka who I was missing. Arg.

In addition to being on panels, I also went to panels. I went to Vulgar's AU panel, which was awesome. And I went to the Mystrade and Sherlolly panels, which were fun (although unfortunately the Sherlolly panel was sparsely attended compared to previous years). I got to meet Hastalux! Who is one of my favorite new writers, and a Mystrader. And I got a Mystrade t-shirt, as well as a "Mary Him, Murder Him, Do What You Like With Him," T-shirt from Fox Estacado.

I went to the fanfic workshop, which was something of a disappointment as this year they cancelled the actual workshop portion. Usually they have an hour of panel, and then split into two groups, one of people who want to write flash fic, and one of people who want to talk about fic in small groups with the panelists. This year, they forwent the group discussion in favor of extending the panel for 2 hours. And it was a great panel but I really missed the workshop. It was my favorite part of last year's con. I think I will send a feedback to the moderator expressing my disappointment.

Also a disappointment, the kink panel. They only had two panelists, a dom/sub couple. I heard that there were supposed to be more panelists but that they backed out? Anyway, nothing against the couple hosting the panel, they were lovely. Just it would have been nice to get more perspectives, and last year's panel was much more lively. 

I spent a lot of time in the bar, as usual. Although amazingly I played no Cards Against Humanity this year. Berlynn had a new game where you pick a card that says a topic, say "Hufflepuff House motto," or "taunt to yell at an opponent" or "political slogan," and then you have one minute to find a passage in a book (everyone has to have a book to play) that is relevant to the topic. Since Berlynn was mostly passing out copies of her books which are porn, these were all pretty hilarious. And I won, which was a bonus.

I bought two books from Carnation's table: Dreams and Machines by Berlynn Whol (I edited one of the stories in it!) and A Land So Wild, by DoctorNerdington. I'm looking forward to reading both of them, and I'm really proud of Lee and Colleen who I know sold almost all the books they brought this year.

I also went to the Scrubbing Your Fic panel, which was mostly hosted by folks affiliated with Carnation, but I think that warrants its own post.

Comments

[donut_donut]

Oh, that game actually sounds better than Cards Against Humanity!

idk, I got really burned out on CAH at some point, because while the concept seemed cool, I felt inhibited by the structure. There's not much creativity involved in choosing from five options that were all intended to be witty/funny/absurd... I felt like someone had done the fun part for me. But getting to pick answers out of a book seems like it would involve more thought and creativity, and would also work better as a "getting to know you" game.

[anarfea]

Yeah, picking the answers out of a book was fun. Especially if you use porny books, lol. But apparently Berlynn said that one time a guy won who was using a C++ manual, so really anything can be funny in the right context.

[vulgarweed]

You weren't the only one who was disappointed in the way the fic workshop went, other people told me that as well. It was my first year on it, so I didn't know how it had been done in the past, and yeah, that does sound more interesting. :(

The kink panel threw me too. I had applied to be on it, didn't get it, but I thought, "Oh ok, I'm sure that's really popular, there must have been a lot of competition," and looked forward to seeing who would be there and what they had to say. So it was a jarring to see that there were only two people on it...who are a couple. And they were fine, it's not a complaint about them (And Compound a Felony is really hot), but surely there could have been a livelier discussion with more different perspectives?

[anarfea]

I heard that there were supposed to be more panelists on the kink panel but other people pulled out? Like I know Amythe3lder was supposed to be on that panel but was sick. But yeah, I would have liked more perspectives.

[splix]

Was the workshop the one you and I were both on last year with the small group with Tiltedsyllogism moderating? That would have been a huge disappointment for me - that was my favorite panel as well.

That game sounds like a blast. :D

[anarfea]

Yeah, the workshop was what we did with Tiltedsyllogism. It's one of my favorite parts of con and I was really disappointed that they cut it.

[aprilstarchild]

A random and unexpected upside of that particular couple being on the BDSM panel: they literally live less than a mile from my house, and I wanted to dip my toe into queer/wlw BDSM spaces. I've been trying to get my bravery up to contact them about it.

She also runs the left coast sherlockian symposium and I want to volunteer at that, since I don't care about the actual symposium topics!

(Lol I still remember how I found out they live so close to me--2017 I worked registration and had to look at everyone's IDs, and the first Oregon one I saw I was like "holy shit you live literally less than a mile from me" and looked up like oMG HI.)

[anarfea]

I hope you get up the courage to talk to them!