Slow off the mark this month!
So. I attended both LonCon 3 (Worldcon) and Eurofurence 20 last month, and, man. I did not expect things to be so tiring. I actually managed to give myself a fairly heinous foot blister by the end of Eurofurence, so, I’ve been taking the excuse to be fairly lazy the past couple of weeks.
LonCon 3 was a blast, for so many reasons, especially getting to meet the crew over at Abaddon Books, as well as meeting various people in my professional capacity as writer, which was new, intimidating, and kind of exhilarating. I’m just sad I didn’t have more material to put out there and try to sell agents on, but, I think I’m doing okay with Dog Country. It may or may not sell, but putting it through the motions is certainly teaching me more about this whole publishing, selling a novel, finding an agent game. (And, y’know. Some people are making guardedly positive noises, which is incredibly encouraging for the long term.) Also spent most of it hanging out with my friends Tim and Mark, but also got to meet so many others. Wonderful meeting everybody, although there are too many for me to be able to adequately list right now.
Eurofurence 20 was a little more relaxed, in some ways, though as it was a hotel con in Germany, far from home, and I’m a bit of an introvert, it was also a smidge more draining than I expected. Hanging out with furries is always fun, mind, and having fursuiters around makes for some of the most pleasing people-watching imaginable. Having wound up in some late night talks, I will just say that I vaguely have it in mind to try my hand at penning a manifesto for ‘furry fandom’ literature, but I’m still mulling over the details. In brief, though? A lot of those in the furry fandom experience a fairly typical cycle of alienation, the development of a chosen/constructed identity (as opposed to the one you’re born with/society assigns to you), the discovery of some manner of acceptance, and not infrequently practicing some vocation as part of the chosen/constructed society of the fandom at large. (Writing, art, fursuiting, singing, running auctions, the works.) Now, while this is not exclusive to the furry fandom — I’m sure it happens in a lot of subcultures/fandom groups? — I do think the furry fandom has the potential to put a unique spin on it. And I do see some of the edges of this cycle of alienation/new identity/acceptance in some of the fandom’s more popular works, regardless of other subject matter, so I suppose what I’m really trying to do is ferret out the unspoken rules and write them down…
Also, Germany — Berlin in specific — was kind of eye opening. My friend and unwitting tour-guide, Sarah, showed me all these interesting leftist/alt-culture/indie/punk/counterculture bits of Berlin, and I have to say I’ve never been hit harder with how different a culture that looks the same on the surface — predominantly white, western, etc — can actually be on the ground. Also I stole her food, because Berlin has some tasty restaurants tucked away, when their eating establishments aren’t infested with wasps. (Long story.)
I happened to accost a record number of people with possible titles for my current WIP over both conventions, and one has finally been locked down for my next project with Abaddon — a project which is moving quite quickly, despite my being slightly behind where I wanted to be because I wound up revising my outline an extra two times. I will save the proper title for now, though if you’re eagle-eyed on my twitter feed you might’ve caught it. You will no doubt hear more about that, and the impending extinction of mankind thanks to strange and ancient ecologies, pretty damn soon.
Next thing on my plate is to finish expanding the next set of outlines from the revised set of outline-outlines which I had an outline for. I may be going stir crazy with my outlines, but I am, at least, prepared for whatever this next month throws my way.
