EFNW 2022 post-con report: a very special edition · 6:43am Oct 22nd, 2022
I'm late, I know, by a good couple of months.
But all things considered, that's still doing better than last year's post-EFNW blog, which the astute among you will notice never actually happened at all. I never explained why not, either, because I just... I don't know, I never found myself ready enough to get into it. I'm still not, either, but to explain what EFNW really means to me, I can't not go into it and this is as good as it's gonna get so I'm ripping the band-aid off to be done with it.
There was no post-con blog for 2021 because the con book stopped me every Celestia-damned time I tried.
See, there's this blank page in the con book for people to autograph, or scribble drawings in, or just whatever you wanna do with it.
Of course I had the people I met and hung out with at the convention sign it.
And when I wanted to write my post-con report post, I wanted to refer back to that page to list the many people I met. That page stopped me every time. I couldn't get past it. All I could do is stare at it in disbelief.
Every time I got stuck staring at it, I crumbled under the hammer-blow impact of how many signatures and notes that page held. It was the physical manifestation of the friendship that filled those three days of Equestrian magic. It was the remnant spark of persistent magic that comes home with you after a journey into an enchanted other-world, proving it was all real and not just a dream.
It seems so small, but it means so much.
The first few times I tried, I couldn't get past that without breaking down and crying, because of how much it meant to me.
Even after I managed to get through that, I still just didn't think I had the words. Without those words, well... I could write a summary of events that happened, I guess, but it always felt as if it would be hollow and without the core I wanted it to have, because it wouldn't convey the most centrally important part of my convention experience.
I still don't know if it'll do that, but I hope that in some paradoxical way the above examination of the difficulty in writing about my experience tells you something about it: the acceptance, the friendship, the crystallization of it all into the willingness of so many incredible people to autograph my convention book.
That kind of experience is why this community and getting to be there at Everfree Northwest means the world to me, and that's why it was so hard to explain just how big of a deal it is that I kinda gave up on last year. Still, giving up for a while doesn't have to mean complete failure, and now by giving it another try I hope I've finally gotten somewhere.
Anyway. To do the summary of events thing, since that *is* also important, I just want to do some quick highlights of the past couple of years:
In 2021:
- I was on a panel on how to be a GM (game master for running Dungeons and Dragons and similar tabletop RPGs). My roommate wanted to do the panel, and thought he might want a second person, so I helped out with that.
- I judged Iron Author, of course, that being a standard writing track staff duty. I think this year it only took until... midnight, maybe? Not sure. Not terribly late compared to other years past, at least. As always, the top few entries presented stiff competition!
- Bad Horse gave me a Stupid Unicorn
- I had breakfast on the post-convention Monday morning at the Eques breakfast restaurant with a number of fellow authors, at which I pitched the idea that would eventually become a finished story in the form of Twilight Sparkle and the Pickup Line. So now you know where that came from.
In 2022:
- Arrived on Thursday. Helped set up the vendor hall. During the process, the fire alarm went off, which was a little disruptive, but hey, we got the mandatory convention fire drill out of the way early, so that was a plus (seriously, some way, somehow, someone sets off a fire alarm every year).
- Did the how to be a GM panel again, but this time it was in the main auditorium. Also, I worked in a lot more about the writing a campaign aspect of GMing, while my roommate did more of the game mechanics and managing thereof parts. I hit what I thought were some important points of the Hero's Journey, and some of the recurring themes that come up in mythology and epic stories in terms of what happens to central characters, and why GMs should pay attention to how those things build interesting narratives and induce character development.
- I got two of the plushies I made signed! The VAs for Starlight Glimmer and Izzy Moonbow were guests at the convention this year, so with some planning ahead I made plushies of those two characters and managed to get both of them autographed. I'm pretty thrilled to have those.
- Iron Author judging again. This year we were done by about 9pm! Amazing! There was still enough time left in the evening after judging to head on down to a restaurant in the hotel and get dinner with Grand Moff Pony and his wife Jet Setter. They're really good friends of mine, and I try to eat with them at least once every convention.
- Mead tasting! No, not a convention sanctioned event. I just happened to have some wild blackberry mead I brewed a while back, so I brought it to share with some of my 21+ year old convention friends, because such things are best when shared.
- Speaking of alcohol, this was the first year I really hit the row of party rooms. Mostly it was because I found myself hanging out with Horizon, and he was hitting the parties, so I went with. Convention parties are... okay, they're another thing I don't know if I have the words for. You kinda need to just go to a convention and experience the parties yourself. But here's a selection of the more memorable goings-on from this year:
1. It was determined that one of cocktails made with Malort was "like licking Pepsi off a tire."
2. There was a scientology themed room party. We weren't sure at first if it was ironic, or if it was in earnest and actual scientologists would be trying to recruit with free "readings" or whatnot. Fortunately, it was very much ironic.
3. Horizon and myself got Tales (one of the convention's higher-ups on staff) to regale us with the story of the time they got slapped by Andrea Libman. It was AMAZING. But I'm not going to try to repeat it myself, because it's Tales's story to tell. Ask them about it yourself if you really want to know, I guess.
- Back to the more tame and/or actual convention sanctioned events, I was on the author's fireside chat panel that closed out the writing track toward the end of the day on Sunday. Lots of good Q&A.
- After close of convention on Sunday, there was an author's dinner at a Brazilian steakhouse, Fogo de Chao. It was described as a "meat faucet" (the meat starts flowing and just keeps coming), and this was pretty accurate. It's expensive, but it's an experience, and if you like meat, you've gotta try it sometime.
2022 was a good EFNW year, all around (I mean I've never had a bad one, so...).
But it gets more interesting still! As fate would have it, something happened the very next day after I got home from the convention, and it spells big changes. This post is already pretty long, though, and it's something I'd prefer to cover on its own in a separate chapter, so we'll get to that next time.
Not sure yet when that'll be, but I hope to address it in the not-too-distant future.
Until then.
Congratulations on having what sounds like a couple of amazing EFNWs! And perhaps future congratulations as well, if my hunch about what transpired after this year's con is correct.
If I'd been there, part of me would've to sign your con book, though the rest would've lacked the confidence to do so. But what I would have wanted to say is this:
Thank you for writing and sharing your stories, for painting such vivid pictures with words, for the journeys into places, characters, feelings, and experiences that your writing provides. Your creativity is quite special, and across so many mediums including written, visual, and even physical; I hesitate to call out one lest it seem to diminish the others, but your stories mean a lot to me. May you have wonderful Everfrees and times in between, and keep flourishing. Thank you again.
Yeah, Fogo de Chao can indeed be described as "The meat starts coming and it don't stop coming." I'm still kicking myself for ducking out of the Ask an Author panel before I pinned down whether the author dinner was happening this year.
Still, glad you've had a pair of amazing conventions. EFNW has become my go-to yearly live pony experience, and it's been consistently great.
Winston, I've *edited* for you. This is not late, it's about where I expected it.
5693912
...Okay, fair enough.