Golden Crown Literary Con write-up

Photo from the Goldie Awards. MN writers - Jessie Chandler, Lori Lake, Jen Wright, Ellen Hart, Catherine Friend, Joan Drury, me and Rachel Gold. I'm in awfully good company these days. :-D

I officially arrived at the con on Friday afternoon, though I did a driveby stop-in on Wednesday night. I had intended to go to a panel, but ended up hanging out talking to the fabulous Lynn Ames and the fine folks who produce the Cocktail Hour podcast and its related review sites. Then it was off to the author signing where I signed a few books and programs and chatted up various authors and readers. By dinner time, we were off to MOA with a big group that included authors Allison Moon, Lynn Ames, Rachel Gold, Beth Mitchum, M.E. Cooper and several other fun folks, including Jana. We had an entertaining time handing out at Crave and chatting, until we ran out of steam. I delivered a bunch of folks back to the hotel and went home.

Saturday dawned bright and early as is its wont in summertime, and I headed back out, just in time to sign a book or two before going in to hear Jewelle Gomez. She delivered an excellent keynote speech on the importance of women's writing, particularly speculative fiction, reading and supporting women's writing, and making sure that the generations to follow had the same opportunity. I live-Tweeted a few quotes and paraphrases on the #gclscon stream - this was one of my favorite quotes: "Women's speculative fiction is about changing your dreams" Jewelle Gomez. She talked about her influences, including Octavia Butler, Joanna Russ, James Tiptree Jr. and Pamela Sargent and how amazing it was for her to first discover writings by other women, other people of color and other lesbians and how it made it possible for her to write. I'm hoping the entire speech was recorded because it was all kinds of awesome and I would love for lots more people to hear it.

From there, I stopped off to talk to M.E. Cooper and Carrie Devall about our panel. Ellen Hart came over and we all went off to lunch, adding more folks as we went. I had a nice chat with E. B. Boatner from Lavender Magazine and he mentioned how much he enjoyed Silver Moon, which was lovely to hear (honestly, several people mentioned how much they'd liked it over the course of the weekend, so there was something close to continuous positive feedback :-). Then we were off to join Jewelle Gomez for the shapeshifters panel. This was quite well attended (and blessings on Lois Glenn who loaned me her jacket so I could sit under the a.c. vent without freezing to death) and a lively discussion ensued. Lots of good things got said, both on the panel and in the audience, and a number of people stopped me to tell me how much they enjoyed it after we finished up.

From there, I met up with a big crew of folks and headed to the bar where I had a nice chat with the current assistant curator of the Tretter Collection (massive LGBTQ archive at the U. of MN), then went to dinner with Jana, Carrie and mystery writer, Mary Vermillion, who we haven't seen in a quite a few years. We had a pleasant, if slow moving dinner with rather erratic service. I had to bail to go change for the Awards (see above). Jana looked quite handsome in her tuxedo jacket and we chatted with a lot of people and I posed for pics for Lavender. The Awards were fun, as always. I got to accept Sacchi Green's award for her excellent erotica collection, A Ride to Remember, and cheer for various friends and acquaintances. No award for us this year, though, I'm afraid. But Jana and I got in a few dance before fading to home and sleep. Sunday was a whirlwind of farewells and a quite tasty brunch at the hotel.

After that was visiting with our friends Naomi and Erin. Then grocery shopping. Then massive amounts of catch-up emailing. Falling down now and going boom.