LepreCon
was way out on the far end of the freeway in Mesa. It attracted a
small but enthusiastic crowd.
Sometimes
at the panels it was mostly the audience talking. In one case, a guy
in a tie-dyed Smurf T-shirt who claimed to have run five miles
delivered a frenzied info dump on Transhumanism and his days working
for the cryonics firm, Alcor.
Steampunk
is still all the rage for the costume crowd. There were no corporate
trademark infringements. Also, some folks still like to dress like
pirates.
I signed
some autographs – it's good to see that people actually buy and read
the magazines and anthologies that publish my stories, and are
interested in my novels.
I got to
talk to some old friends, and writers. As it has been in recent
years, I seemed to be talking to more writers than readers. Hey,
readers! Are you out there?
Fandom
is mostly interested in media and games these days. There weren't many
books in the dealer's room.
Things
are changing. I have no idea what it will be like in five years.
Right
now, I'm struggling with self-publishing and enjoying the weird
rumblings of decolonialism, Afrofuturism, and other phenomena that
the “real” publishing world hasn't discovered. If we're lucky,
we'll have a revolution on our hands soon.
Meanwhile,
I had time to hang out in quiet halls, drawing freeform pictures . .
.
