This was my third visit to ConCarolinas in Charlotte, N.C. It’s the home con for my publisher, Falstaff Books, so it was a good chance to reconnect with my fellow Misfits. It was a solo trip for me as an author, with no Literary Underworld or Traveling Bar and also with no flunkies or minions, which is a rare thing for me these days.
The ConCarolinas people are super friendly, even to guests who are from far far away and pretty much strangers to the Carolinas. Not all of them were strangers to me: Nicole Givens Kurtz, Maurice Broaddus, AJ Hartley, Bishop O’Connell, Nancy Knight, Megan Mackie, J.D. Blackrose, O Hai Mark and the amazing Melissa Gay/Brian Cooksey duo were among the denizens of the con. I also met some new-to-me folks like Rey Nichols, Jotham Austin and my assigned tablemate, Jason Gilbert. Jason in particular had to put up with me all weekend, and fortunately we got along splendidly.
This was the 25th anniversary for ConCarolinas, which gave an air of celebration to the event. Unfortunately I was on a panel and missed opening ceremonies, where Maurice was given the Polaris Award for his services to the craft and community. No one would have cheered louder than I! Later at the Falstaff Roadshow, our publisher John Hartness gave a second Polaris Award to Regina Kirby, the head wrangler of Dragoncon programming. (Yes, there were a lot of us Dragons at ConCarolinas, so we shall all meet again in August…)
My craft panels included “how to know what you don’t know,” diving into research beyond Google into interviewing and sensitivity readers and other techniques for not putting your foot in it while writing; and imposter syndrome, which is one of those panels where we all declare we should probably be listening to the panel instead of talking on it, but we’ll give it a go.
Saturday was my Activist Professor day. As has been the case at every con for the past two or three years, I was talking banned books and what we can do about it, with an excellent panel of teachers, writers and librarians, i.e. the front lines. The only downside of that panel was sparse attendance, and I said I thought we should stick our heads into the lobby and yell that This Is the Most Important Panel of the Con! That evening I finished up with “Fiction as a Tool of the Resistance,” which was a really inspiring panel in which I made a lot of notes about all the books Nicole and Maurice are writing that I need to buy and man, I’ve got to write faster.
In all, the conversations were excellent, the parties were fun and low-key, and the con was welcoming with very few snags. Below are some pics – I have gotten woefully lax on shooting along the con scene. For Patreon supporters, don’t forget that if you’re at a con with me, make sure to let me know you’re a Patreon supporter and you get a discount at the booth!
As I write this, I’m relaxing in the hotel room, as I decided the downtime before flying home was worth the extra room fee. Monday is the hell of solo travel in the wheelchair, so cross your fingers and toes that I arrive home with all my stuff and sanity intact. And I’ll see you out there on the road!
Probably the best cosplayer at the con, I had a nice conversation with this lady whose name I didn’t get at the parties in between her costume changes.
This was one of the best patch vests at the show.
Poor John Hartness. There was some kind of a running prank going among the Falstaff authors to slap stickers in our publisher’s back without him noticing. Since my booth was right across from the Falstaff Mothership, I watched this going on and snickered pretty much constantly.
There she is again, this time as Wonder Woman. ConCarolinas doesn’t have quite as many cosplayers as some of the other shows I’ve done, but what they have is well-done.
I caught this fella on his second saunter through Authors’ Alley. Can a triceratops use a cane? Apparently so!
There’s me and Jason, having survived 2.5 days at a little table together. Everyone give him a round of applause for his patience!