Sock It to Me

Morgan and I both went to Worldcon this year, since it was in Seattle. Due to my lack of job we had to cancel the hotel, and for other reasons we somewhat fumbled the ball on dog logistics, but we sort of made it work anyway. We missed the con on Wednesday due to logistics, but Thursday morning we dropped them both off at the sitter and headed to light rail to go to the con. We got going a bit later than intended because I woke up with a migraine.

We ended up having to drive home and take Uber to the park & ride because there was no parking, and Friday we didn't even try to drive to the P&R. So that was a little stressful, but we got on the light rail eventually and made it into the city and got our badges and all that fun stuff. We did miss our 10:30am panels, but we peeked at the dealer's hall.

I went to a noon panel called "And I'm All Out of Spoons" about being a disabled creator and the challenges inherent in that, and it was pretty decent but I found myself a little frustrated with the panelists' general avoidance of the fact that sometimes you have to suck it up and do the thing no matter how you feel because this world is unfair and uncaring. Someone specifically asked "how do you manage that" and the answer was "be selfish" and yeah, I get that, but also, acknowledging "Yeah, sometimes it's gonna suck and you're gonna have to push yourself beyond your limits because bills have to get paid" would have been nice.

After that I got lunch with Krispy and a couple friends of hers, and then we came back and wandered the art show for a bit. I started a 3pm panel on slang, but it ended up being mostly about cursing, and I really had to pee and found myself just generally irritated by the panel (likely related to needing to pee) so I left about halfway through to find a bathroom and did not return. I wasn't feeling super great after that so I went home. Morgan stayed later.

Friday we had a smoother trip into the city and started with a panel on Queering History, which was excellent and I got to meet one of my uglydog friends who was in town for the con. She, Morgan, and I wandered the art show after that and then Morgan and I went to get lunch. We skipped our 1:30pm panels because I had a workshop at 3pm and was trying to save spoons.

But Friday afternoon I had a workshop called "Writing the Other" run by Nisi Shawl and K. Tempest Bradford, and it was so, so good. They run the site Writing the Other, which is full of resources and classes and workshops on how to write diverse characters and stories.

We did a couple exercises on character analysis and creation and it was really, really good. They gave us a matrix to use to see how your characters break down in different aspects and suggested we use it for major characters in our works to see if there are similarities or if we have diversity. They showed us an axis with Tradition and Values as the Y endpoints and Time and Place as the X endpoints, and we talked a little bit about each of those four categories, and then we did some free writing to create a character based on those four categories.

I don't know if I was cheating or not but it was really easy for me to figure out who my character was and where he fit into my fantasy world and I was able to figure out a lot about him just in a few minutes. This is so drastically opposite how I normally create characters and I am still not sure I have a name for this guy, normally that's the first thing I come up with, but it was a lot of fun and I think this guy is going to be interesting if I end up using him.

I did buy the book Writing the Other, which Nisi co-wrote, and they both highly recommended Steering the Craft by Ursula K. LeGuin and since for some reason that cost me $0.11 as an ebook I bought it.

I had honestly expected to be exhausted after the workshop but I was pretty jazzed, so I went to a 6pm panel on "Worldbuilding through Mythos, Magic, and Beliefs" which was pretty interesting. Fonda Lee was one of the panelists and she was brilliant and now I want to look up her books. There was another writer who had a book Morgan and I were interested in but it's only available in the UK at the moment.

Morgan and I left after that, though, and went home and got food and crashed.

Saturday I woke up going "ow" and knew I would pay later but I went to the con. I went to a panel on "worldbuilding through structures of society" which had some of the same people as the magic/mythos panel, and was also pretty interesting. A lot of tips about the day to day lives, like "what do the people actually do and believe instead of what does tradition say they do?"

I wandered a bit after that, met with my friend torque and played some pinball, then Morgan and I got terrible con pizza for lunch and wandered the dealer's hall and bought a lot of books. She bought mostly physical books, I bought mostly ebooks. My ebook count is currently up to 12 and I've lost count of the physical books we bought, although I'm not going to read some of them. I was really happy that some of the dealers were able to directly sell me ebooks, and for the authors or anyone who just said "Amazon" I tried to purchase it right then so they knew I'd bought it. I have found dealers/authors generally really appreciate it when you do this because a lot of times people say "Oh I'll get the ebook" and wander off and...did you just make a sale? who knows! So it's nice to know "Yes, this person bought it". One author gave me a free pin as a result.

I bought a piece of embroidery that's a spray bottle with NO on it, it made me laugh so hard I had to get it. I bought a journal that says "Probably Smut" on the cover - truth in advertising - and a set of foam dice that are really nicely sized for stress fidgets. Some stickers. And I got a tiara from the art show, although Morgan has to pick that up for me today.

I wasn't sure I'd make it to my 3pm panel but I really wanted to attend, so I made it happen. That was called "Is it Appropriation: Writing the Other" and talked about cultural exchange versus appropriation and how to write cultures other than your own without veering into appropriation. (tl;dr do your research and talk to people whose lived experience is what you want to write.) They suggested the "100 books" concept: before you write a culture other than your own, read/consume 100 pieces of media written by people from that culture.

I did go home after that, though, I'd hit my limit. There was a panel on future history I was interested in, and then there was the "Make it gay" panel, and then there was a reading I was going to go to, but I was just wiped and needed to leave. Morgan went to the "make it gay" panel but it turned out to be fanfic-focused which is not her thing, so she tapped out halfway through.

Sunday I stayed home because my body is one big OW and there's a migraine threatening to hit as soon as I step into the bright sunlight. All the panels I wanted to attend are streaming today, though, so I'll be able to watch them later. I had a feeling this was going to happen after how I felt yesterday. I probably could have pushed myself and gone today but dear God I would hate everything later and tomorrow and I decided to be nice to myself and stay home.

Everyone had all these ribbons on their badges and I was just like "where do y'all get these things?" because I never really saw them. I got one, a guy gave me a ribbon that said "Wheelchair is freedom!" which I loved because truth. But I never saw where to get all the ribbons other people had. I'm not cool enough, I guess.

The only writer I had a personal exchange with all weekend was Ryan North, and that was because when I went to my Saturday afternoon panel he was still in the room from the previous panel and I went up to him and was like "I have nothing for you to sign but I'm a big fan and my wife and I have most of your books" and we talked for a little bit. He's so nice, and so fucking talented. He did tell me to wait on the Krypto miniseries until it's all out because apparently issue 4 is sad and he felt badly about people having to wait a month for the happier issue 5. I said I would just wait and read them all once it's all out and he said that was an excellent idea.

So that was very cool.

I would probably have made it to more of the con if we'd kept the hotel room, but due to finances we didn't feel we could swing it. We are pretty agreed we don't want to commute again, though. It's really a crip tax for me. Both Thursday and Saturday I felt like if I'd been able to escape for an hour and take a short nap I'd have been able to go back and be fine, but I didn't have that option. I probably would have made it today if I hadn't had the commute, at least for a little bit. Oh well. (Someone hire me.)

Book count: I have purchased 12 ebooks. I have no idea how many physical books we bought; I took 7 home in my backpack Saturday but I don't know how many more Morgan had and what else she bought when I wasn't around. I have an easier time reading ebooks these days but I am interested in some of the paperbacks.

( the ebook list )

( Physical books (may be updated) )