Back from the beyond...

[catherineldf]

or at least a lesbian writing conference in Orlando, which to my way of thinking is similar. :-) Though in all fairness, I didn't leave the hotel much so it's not like I really took in much of the environs.
The good parts: seeing friends and meeting new folks, including Lynn Ames, Nell Stark, Megan Cooper, Lee Lynch and the fabulous Elaine, J.M Redmann, Greg Herren,  Lara Zielinsky, Lois Glenn, Ruta and Joanne from True Colors Bookstore, Nann Dunne and a bunch of other folks. Plus hanging out with my local pals Mark and Laurence. :-D Also, rooming with mecooper proved to be an excellent thing - we got along famously and plan to try it again at a future conference. In general, I really like the people at this convention. I have good industry (as opposed to just skiffy) discussions with folks and learn a lot about writing, bookselling and publishing that I don't always get elsewhere. Plus it's nice to meet so many writers and readers dedicated to creating positive stories about queer women. Along with that, GCLS is making an ongoing effort to be a more diverse (in terms of culture, sexuality, age, disability access, etc.) convention and it seems to be paying off. Good to see that effort outside of WisCon.
        Apart from socializing,  I went to a couple of panels and workshops that I found pretty interesting, including an inter-generational writers chat and a workshop on creating suspense conducted by J.M. Redmann (who also delivered a fine keynote). My erotica/erotic romance panel went reasonably well - good attendance and participation and several folks stopped by afterward to talk. Between this one and the Loft last week, I think I'm getting a better handle on what I'll need to do for future workshops, so all to the good.

The bad: having this conference at difficult to reach resorts which tend to be more expensive than hotels. I would love it if future GCLS conferences moved into the big bad city, any city, and preferably north of the Mason-Dixon line once in a while. Right now, this is the priciest conference I attend and I know I'm not the only one feeling the pinch on that. 
       I also found the one sf/f/h panel I attended to be fairly frustrating. It's a big genre and there are other authors outside of this con roaming around the wide world writing good, believable published work with L, B, T and G characters. To see most of it reduced to Uber, Star Trek and the self-published because some authors and readers don't make much of an effort to read beyond that is grating, to say the least. :-(((
     
The just plain weird:
The author auction, hands down. The basic idea: a first dance with an author is auctioned off as a fundraiser for the convention and its scholarship fund. The theory: writers do a brief plug, flirt a bit on stage, audience bids and money is raised. What actually happens: the writers tend to be the more mainstream attractive and bigger names and the ante keeps going up as the authors try and compete with each other, usually with clothing removal. I did it in part for the cause and in part to demonstrate that you could survive it, even if you were longer in the tooth than some and outside of the whole skinny and fit assumed norm. The end result was that a dance with me went for $200, half as much as one with the acquisitions editor of one of the biggest houses, but equal to the average in bids over all. I have a friend to thank for the final bid, which I was grateful for, but damn, it was a strange and not particularly empowering feeling. I'm not sure I'll try that again.

The Awards went a lot as they did last year - pleasantly chaotic. I presented one of the erotica ones but failed to win in the spec fic category. There was a lovely memorial to the founder of the Alice B. Awards and the opening singer was phenomenal.The dance was also quite fun; hopefully my bidder got her money's worth seeing as I dragged her out there to boogie down repeatedly. 

Comments

[mroctober.livejournal.com]

Glad to see you enjoyed yourself. I'm sorry you did not win this year.

[catherineldf.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Periphery also did not win, BTW and neither did Connie's book. Sigh.