Post-Con Blog 5/6 · 9:05pm Aug 28th, 2023
Day 5: Sunday the 13th
And I'm back! Needed to focus on a couple of other things, so I kinda left this next blog on the side until today. Last we checked, I was telling you about meeting with Albi for a quick apology/hug/and unfortunately having to decline going with them for dumplings. Which I've been dying to try! They're always packed!
Anyway, Sunday was the bittersweet last day of the con. It's a weird thing now-a-days, being surrounded by friends. Like, I know people here in Michigan, but friends? We're not geographically in a convenient position, even if Robcakeran or Admiral Biscuit also live around here. It usually takes some planning ahead to actually get together, and none of us is really less than about an hour away from each other, provided traffic is kind.
I suppose that is one of the magicks of conventions… you're not just with your people (others that understand your interests and passions) but also you're with friends from all over that you don't see often enough.
Even spending a few hours with them, like I did with Mono, is not nearly enough to really catch up. You can only cover so much comfortably, right? And it's not like people normally just sit down and tell you everything that is going on. Human interaction is not like that. We give and take little by little, slowly forming a better understanding of what's been going on with each other.
And even when you arrive several days later, you still don't have enough time to pass more than a few minutes to maybe a couple of hours with everyone. We're all doing things, after all.
But well, the day started like any other in Bellevue… with a trip for coffee and sitting down to watch Hilda, which we had managed to finally get to season 2. Then it was back into the game, heading over to the Book Nook to check in and gape in surprise at how much we had sold so far.
By then I had less than 5 books left total out of both titles I had on sale—Gunsmoke and Sparkle's No. 1 Assistant—which I kind of didn't expect. I've been told that people don't believe me when I say that, but the truth of the matter is that I am amazed that there's interesting in purchasing my books. I'm grateful tho!
Soon after there were things to do. Touch base with Dash, Sammi and Corejo, then with Xepher and GaryOak for Fogo de Chao. I had managed to secure 30 seats there, so we needed to make sure who was going and who was not.
Soon enough, it was time to go check out the Iron Author Awards and most likely eat my words. I had a shit-eating grin whenever I told people I'd own it, so I was already bracing myself for the inevitable ribbing I was going to suffer from Pen Stroke, Admiral and the others.
I knew my story didn't suck but it was realistically not going to win.
When I was about to head out, Sammi asked me to cover for her and Corejo after the event, since they hadn't had a break for a while, and they sort of wanted lunch. And how could I say no to the glare to her? So I promised to head back to the Nook after that and help. My second signing schedule was up an hour after returning, so it worked out just fine for me.
All Iron Author participants gathered together that day for the awards. I wouldn't say it was tense, but there was certainly… anticipation. As I mentioned before, I don't usually do short-story contests or challenges. For a while, I was doing some She-Ra based ones, but even then the period of time to write was longer.
Writing short stories is an art, really, and writing short stories in a timed competition of 2 hours max is, well, a true challenge for anyone. So, when people win this sort of thing, it's usually not unmerited.
Besides the top 3 spots, each judge also would choose a story that they thought merited a mention. I think it was unfortunate that we didn't get to read them all, but also there probably wasn't enough time in the day to do so. I also don't remember all of them, so I apologize for that, perhaps Xepher can list them later for us to take a look.
Speaking of which, the last one of the honorable mentions was Xepher's, and he started it like this (kind of paraphrasing the exact words): "Now, before I say anything, I want to remind everyone that this contest is 100% anonymous. When I created the prompts, I thought I was being very cheeky about it with the alliterations and…"
…and I don't want to brag.
But I knew right there that the person that wrote his honorable mention was…
"... the story is Vexing and Vibrant, but not Verdant by Wanderer D, who not only took that in, but rolled with it. And here's the sentence that convinced me to select this one…"
I won't just quote the sentence here, since I am submitting my story alongside the blog (which, as of time of writing already has half the usual downvotes, thank you for your dedication same 8 people!), but let me tell you that not only was I honored to deserve a mention, but also glad that I had managed to escape the teasing I would have well deserved otherwise. I mean, I still talked a bunch of shit leading up to it, but I had something to show for it!
And then the announcement came for the first three places:
'Lost Harmony', by Undome Tinwe took 2nd place.
The third place went to 'Volcanos are our Friends', by Rh5, which was a fun little adventure starring Maud Pie and Applejack that really captured the personality of both characters pretty well, and was extremely entertaining, even more so by Scampy and Rh5 (and someone else, sorry, can't remember who) donating their voice-acting skills to personify all characters.
And finally, the first place that went to
by Shaslan.
I've said it before, but this one was a no-brainer, I think, for the first place.
Mixing MLP with Aztec mythology, it fully embodied the Vexing Volcanism prompt, as well as the cultural impact on fervent religious upbringing and the self-delusion of blind belief, alongside vibrant descriptions and intriguing characterizations and cosmology.
It was read by Xepher, and I regret to this day I didn't offer to read it because, by Tlaloc, what he read when reading the Aztec names did not sound anything like they should've! But still, he captured the mythical energy of the story and his rendition wasn't as bad as I make it sound. I'm just being pedantic.
If you haven't read it yet, make sure you do! It's fantastic!
A thing I should say is that I am well aware of how high the bar she set things with her story. Like, it's humbling to see something so well written in such a short time. Even compared to the other two stories it was a head and shoulders above them. I was very pleasantly surprised, and I still am in awe of that display of skill. Very well done indeed, Shaslan, and very well deserved.
Once that was done, we were allowed to mingle, and I used the chance to tell Shaslan how impressed I was with her story. She's super humble, but she really deserved the first place.
After the awards ceremony, I headed back to the Book Nook, as promised, and Sammi and Corejo left for lunch… just in time to catch the multitude of people that came in to buy Shaslan's books.
With a showing like that, who could blame them?
Either way, Horizon was finishing up his autograph/tarot session, while books were flying off the shelves. We had restructured things a little by then, so that books that had less than 5 copies left were on the table rather than the shelves, and we moved several books to have a bit more of color-coordination in order to make them more attractive to the average passer-by.
My turn to sign came up, and I signed a couple of copies, although I wasn't really on high-demand for that. It was mostly trying to support Dash with sales for me or trying to get a hold of other authors that were being requested for autographs.
Pen Stroke and Gamma made a stop to invite me over for lunch—they were leaving that evening and couldn't go with us to Fogo, which was a shame. I informed them that I'd join them as soon as Sammi and Corejo came back.
We headed over to 13 Coins for our last conversation of the convention. It was just the three of us, and we chatted about things so far, our friends and such before heading back to the Book Nook to help pack up.
I stepped into the now-closed vendor hall and started helping wrap up… that's when it happened…
Dash: Three days of convention coolness and awesome book sales…
Sammi: We've kept our booksies warm on sale, time off from work to play
Corejo: But the books we've brought are runnin' out and we can't stay in this hall
Admiral Biscuit: And even though I love my books, we've got to clean this and all
Wanderer D: The time has come to close down shop, even though all that cash is keen
Mono: But it's also time to say goodbye, it's over, we must clean
Scampy: How can I help? I'm new, you see
Gadot: What does everypony do?
Sashlan: How do I fit in without writing?
Olden: I haven't got a clue~Book Nook wrap up, Book Nook wrap up!
Let's finish our convention cheer
Book Nook wrap up, Book Nook wrap up!
'Cause tomorrow flights are here
'Cause tomorrow flights are here
I think Corejo woke me up with a slap to the back, but it was a bit of a blur for a hot minute there and I don't know if that fevered dream is fanciful recollection or fact. I don't think there was actual singing while we boxed stuff up. Maybe. I guess we'll never know if Dash was actually tap dancing on the table or not. But it would've been epic.
Once the banner was down, all of us that were in the area signed it.
Eventually we all headed our own way, with the promise to get together again for dinner. Petri and I sat down to have a drink in the meantime and watched some more Tanya until it was time to head out.
The crowd gathered at the lobby was impressive and we had to do some organizing to do a headcount just in case we were going over the allotted number of seats. Guests included Skywriter, Xepher, Rescue Sunstreak. Aquaman, Admiral Biscuit, DubsRewatcher, dustysculptures, Gadot, Scampy, Corejo, Sammi, Gary Oak, Shakes, Olden Brony, Horizon, & Ruirik among others. Thankfully, we were within the margin, and after someone suggested they knew the way to Fogo de Chao via skybridges, I let them take the lead.
I usually just walked down the street, but this seemed like a fun thing to do and I'd never gone all the way there through those. We arrived a little earlier, but that was good. We had a good crowd waiting outside as I stepped in and coordinated with Melvin, the manager.
This was a big crowd, even for them, and Fogo had some crazy ideas about billing, but, we got our tables and we gorged ourselves with all the food we could stuff in our stomachs, which was the whole point.
It was, as always, a fun way to wrap things up and just share a table with friends, and get to know better those you hadn't had a chance to speak to much. For instance, Rescue Sunstreak and I had bumped into each other during the conventions before, but it was the first time we sat down to chat for real. (And it was awesome. I think he and Robcakeran would be a hit.)
Eventually though, things had to end, and we were hit by the bill, which Fogo wanted to split evenly on 5 cards. Which, you know, it ain't how that works. First of all, one of us had ONLY eaten salad, and not all of us had ordered alcoholic drinks.
Outside of Xepher's group, which he paid for separately, between a constant back and forth and some meandering suggestions, I said: eff it. Told everyone to pay me later (which they did, for the most part) and put the whole thing on my card. After that, we slowly dispersed after saying goodbye.
I told Dubs that he was a very different person than I had imagined, which was true. I told GaryOak I'd read his big unpublished story which I intend to do. I gave Aquaman a hug. I told Scampy and Gadot how it was a pleasure to see them and hang out with them. I told Horizon it was too bad I hadn't been able to get a tarot reading.
I decided to stay until everyone was gone. It was bittersweet to realize I hadn't spent enough time with everyone. Skywriter sat at our table, but we exchanged little in the way of conversation this time around. I shook hands with FOME, who sat next to me, and together with Petrichord, Dustysculptures and Olden Bronie, we made our way back to the Hyatt at our leisure. Once there, I remembered that I had extra beers at the hotel room, and Olden had bumped into me a couple of times during the convention with the same problem.
So why not solve that then? The four of us headed over to the Hilton and sat down to talk and drink one last time.
I think, after everything, it was definitely one of the best ways to wrap up the convention. Beer and friends, talking pony and animation, talking about our friends and the fandom and the convention, and the books and about friendship and how cool it was to see each other again.
For the end of the convention, although I missed the closing ceremonies, busy as we were cleaning the vendor hall, I can say it was a much needed event in my life. One I look forward to repeat next year again.
Missed you guys something fierce (family stuff made me stay home) and can't schedule a year in advance, but I'm sure going to try. Until then I'll have to live on reflected glory (and blog posts). Thanks!
Great seeing you this year, Wanderer! I look forward to it again next year.
Maybe by then I'll have something in print for Twilight's Book Nook v2.0
I said it before but dude, I really loved talking with you and getting to know you better. I look forward to hanging out next year as time permits.
Glad you had fun n_n I'm gonna try and get your package out in the next couple weeks ^^;
5744316 I hope to see you there!
5744318 you definitely should! We'll have to rotate the books and new material will definitely be welcome!
5744321 For sure! We'll have to see your con schedule to see if we can grab lunch!
5744341 Conventions are definitely one of my favorite things to do!