This past weekend was Cleveland ConCoction, their first time back from Covid, and my first convention as a Nebula Award Finalist (TM)(R).
I had a BLAST. It’s such a wonderful convention and more people need to know about it. There are two things they do I have never seen another convention do.
Author Alley
They have a book store. Seriously. You don’t need to reserve a table or set up to sell your own books – you just drop off a box of books and a price list and THEY SELL THEM FOR YOU. There are even volunteers who will learn your pitch and tell it to people. And there’s a little protected area where day-tripping author guests can stash their stuff, and tables to sit at for your signing. It feels luxurious!
The Game Room Has Free Games
Many conventions have a space for tabletop gaming… but ConCoction practically pays you to game!
Every year, a group called Double Exposure donates dozens of brand-new board games – and every time you check one out, you are entered into a raffle to win it! No charge… just play games for free and WIN THEM.
I played a game I’d never heard of before called Lovelace & Babbage – I wondered if it was a tie-in to the fabulous graphic novel about the famous duo. Alas, no, but my disappointment was short-lived because the game was REALLY FUN. I yearned to win it. I checked it out four times hoping to stack the ballot box… only to learn that sorry you get ONE ticket per game. Heh. It’s okay I enjoyed playing it four times.
AND I WON IT!!!
Also there’s a contest to identify obscure board games from photos… the Name the Game contest… the winner of this gets a trophy shaped like a Carcassonne pawn – The Golden Meeple – and a free pass to next year’s convention! I COVET THE GOLDEN MEEPLE. I came in second. 🙂
There’s also a nice big room for tabletop RPGs to run all weekend, with snacks! And my friends run an Artemis Spaceship Bridge Simulator all weekend, too, if you want to drop in and explore the galaxy.
So really, if you are into gaming, you cannot MISS this convention.
How Was My Con, Personally?
I have been trying to drag my husband to a science fiction convention with me for YEARS. Suddenly, out of the blue, he looks at ConCoction’s programming list last week and says, “You know what? I’d like to go to this.”
Having my hubby at a convention was as wonderful as I’d hoped! Just having a con-buddy makes a lot of things easier, like grabbing snacks between panels or shopping and dropping things off in the car. Plus it was great to see him enjoying board games with strangers! He loves board games a lot and we can’t always get a game going at home with how busy we all are.
I had to hurry down to the convention Friday after work because I was on a 6:30pm slot for my Author Showcase.
I drove quite fast and got there in time for a really fun writing workshop: The Writer’s Whetstone by Olivia Berrier – she presented us with prompts and exercises not designed to generate new stories, but to strengthen our prosaic skills. Focusing down on pov, on dialog, on nothing but scents… they were hard prompts and I felt like I’d taken my writing muscles to the gym!
Unfortunately my reading was opposite the first Harp Twins concert, so I got… two people? But it was nice hanging out with fellow-reader Dan Arman and some more people trickled in … at the end there were maybe five? And I was asked to read a little more. 🙂
I then went immediately to my signing slot in Author’s Alley, where I got to sign two books for people. Not as many as I had hoped, but again, Harp Twins were still going. I had brought three contributor copies to give away as freebies to the first three autograph-seekers, but no one wanted one! I ended up giving one away at the end of my 8pm panel on Flash Fiction.
The flash fiction panel was great! We had a good size crowd for a late night panel on the first night of a convention, and my co-panelists had very different experiences with flash so we had a lot to talk about, and we ended by each reading a short piece because yay flash fiction you can do that!
It was St. Patrick’s Day so I was rocking a green dress and got lots of compliments… and headed to BarFleet’s party to finish the day off. This I believe was my first time going to a St. Patrick’s day party! There was Irish music and novelty green cups! I got some Jameson and soda and stayed long enough to dance it off. 😉
Day Two was Bring Your Hubby to ConCoction Day! I regretted staying late at Barfleet as I woke up at home with just barely enough time to walk the dog before we had to go, but traffic was light, and we pulled into the Inn with five minutes to spare. I spent these five minutes showing Brian where registration was and grabbing some tea from the con suite.
10am Saturday panel – Mistakes Beginning Authors Make – I was moderating and we had seventeen attendees! Not bad at all for first panel of the day! They also had very good questions. My fellow panelists had lots of warnings to give, too! We broke the discussion into craft, the business, and marketing, and I gave away another of my extra magazine copies.
After that, we played some games and I introduced Brian to the wonders of ConSuite for Lunch! And then we both attended a talk about Star Maps by Andy Presby that was really cool!
I volunteered to sit at the desk in Author’s Alley for a while when I found out there was only one volunteer running the till all weekend! So she at least got to take a little break and attend an online RPG session. I got to process the sale of a copy of my own book! “You sign the receipt, I’ll sign the title page.” 😀
Then I had a panel on Starting Your Writing Career After Age 40 – which I slipped into via rounding because I had my first pro sale at 39? 😀 J. D. Blackrose was the moderator. It was intimate and heartfelt, and also Joelle Presby and I knitted the whole time. 😀
We tried to arrange a group photo for all the Cajun Sushi Hamsters at the convention, but only the lady Hamsters had it together – so here we are!
Then my hubby and I watched the Cosplay Contest, which was delightful, and had a fancy dinner at the hotel restaurant because Why Not? Then Brian went to play board games more while I went to boogie with BarFleet, now freed from concern about inebriation for lo, I had a Designated Driver!
… Sunday Morning I had some regrets. I regretted that we only got home at midnight. I regretted that I had a 10am panel back at the convention a 40-minute drive away. And I really regretted that it was a freaking BLIZZARD outside.
For some reason, Cleveland Heights got whomped Sunday morning with a solid foot of snow and white-out conditions. Visibility was… not. But I had a panel! AND I had gotten very, VERY invested in the game contest and felt I might actually have a CHANCE AT THE COVETED GOLDEN MEEPLE.
Tea. Lots of tea.
Despite my hangover, I am the better driver on snow, so I drove us in, squinting at the vague car-shaped things through the driving snow. I was in a miserable mood when we got in with only 2 minutes to spare to get to my panel, however, miracle of miracles, the snow let up considerably once we got to Aurora, and we found a parking space right next to the entrance.
I was very glad to have made it to my 10am panel. “Structuring Your Story” – I had a LOT to say on this topic and I was pleased to see that the other panelists did not overlap much at all with my point of view, so I told myself, “The drive was okay – you were needed, girl!”
After this was another cool Andy Presby presentation – the History of Star Trek Spaceship Engines!! I enjoyed this more than I thought I would, it reawakened the youthful joy of staring at technical manuals and daydreaming deck plans of my own. I took a surprisingly lot of notes.
And then I was free to goof off and play more board games with hubby!
Except I forgot I had a writing workshop scheduled. 😀
Okay, so I found a place to sit down with my lappy and log in to my online writing workshop, and had the delightful experience of being interrupted twice on my way to sign books! I even got an eager “When does Galactic Hellcats 2 come out?” 🙂
Then I got to talking with my friend Megan who I hardly see enough, and had a nice, relaxing mid-afternoon of it.
Then … blurr… things… stuff… board games… my brain was startling to slide out of my ear by the time we got to the final event, the board game give-away, at which we were ridiculously successful!
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