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Maneki Neco Con
Oct. 7th, 2013 12:33 amSo, last weekend, My Angel and I went to Maneki Neco Con, a new little con that was held at Prairie State College in Illinois. I didn't get up as early as I had intended, and the GPS led us across the skyway when it shouldn't have, so we arrived later than planned.
We got to wander around and talk to the artists and venders, and I finally was sufficiently unscheduled to play a board game that I've been glimpsing in con suites for a few years now. It's called Pandemic, and the players cooperate to try to save the world. We won the first game and lost the second, which the fan guests of honor told me was par for the course.
After that My Angel and I found a nearby motel. The internet wasn't great, but better than at the last con I was at, and free in the room so I didn't have to check e-mail in the lobby. It's really sad that expensive nice hotels charge extra for something the low-end hotels provide for free.
The next day we headed back to the con, where I bought silly cat ears to go with my outfit, talked with Jody Lynn Nye for a while in between customers, and attended some programming. The most interesting panel was Jody talking about writing funny stories. Some bigger convention should invite her to present it!
I also went to the creative writing contest "panel". I'd expected it to be something like Filk Ontario's contest--provide a set of words early in the con and later perform the song onstage; this one was structured differently. Participants had that one hour--or rather the portion of the hour after the presenter showed up and shared theu set of required words and when the panel was scheduled to end--to write in. For the curious, they were: harpsichord, accelerate, cat, ruffled, and--oh, gosh, what was the last word? Menacing? I'm sure. Anyway, I wrote and entrusted my thumb drive to the young man to get it printed, and headed on to do other things.
We did a few more panels and I drove to a nearby grocery store to buy some meat and cheese to make sandwiches. I had roast beef in mind, but none of the roast beef was free of wheat and corn, so we ended up with chicken. Then we watched the masquerade and a magic show, and I was given this:
Clearly I need a better picture, but I'm pleased. Writing even flash fiction in less than an hour is a challenge.
We got to wander around and talk to the artists and venders, and I finally was sufficiently unscheduled to play a board game that I've been glimpsing in con suites for a few years now. It's called Pandemic, and the players cooperate to try to save the world. We won the first game and lost the second, which the fan guests of honor told me was par for the course.
After that My Angel and I found a nearby motel. The internet wasn't great, but better than at the last con I was at, and free in the room so I didn't have to check e-mail in the lobby. It's really sad that expensive nice hotels charge extra for something the low-end hotels provide for free.
The next day we headed back to the con, where I bought silly cat ears to go with my outfit, talked with Jody Lynn Nye for a while in between customers, and attended some programming. The most interesting panel was Jody talking about writing funny stories. Some bigger convention should invite her to present it!
I also went to the creative writing contest "panel". I'd expected it to be something like Filk Ontario's contest--provide a set of words early in the con and later perform the song onstage; this one was structured differently. Participants had that one hour--or rather the portion of the hour after the presenter showed up and shared theu set of required words and when the panel was scheduled to end--to write in. For the curious, they were: harpsichord, accelerate, cat, ruffled, and--oh, gosh, what was the last word? Menacing? I'm sure. Anyway, I wrote and entrusted my thumb drive to the young man to get it printed, and headed on to do other things.
We did a few more panels and I drove to a nearby grocery store to buy some meat and cheese to make sandwiches. I had roast beef in mind, but none of the roast beef was free of wheat and corn, so we ended up with chicken. Then we watched the masquerade and a magic show, and I was given this:
Clearly I need a better picture, but I'm pleased. Writing even flash fiction in less than an hour is a challenge.
