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dolariOkay, so I'm about two and a half hours from my flight out of Raleigh Durham, and I'm glad to be out, but not for any really bad reasons. I just left the keys in my truck, and I'd REALLY like to know if my truck is STILL there. IF it's not stolen, maybe it was towed away for being a threat, or worse, because it's ugly.
The problem when things get rusghed with me is I forget EVERYTHING. I forgot my keys, and forgot the Erin & Kittyhawk gifts. Ah, well...what can ya do. I think I managed to get everything from the bedroom...
THURSDAY NIGHT
Anyways, the flight would have been completely dead if it wasn't for this wonderful laptop. R. Dorothy served me well with all the goodies that made the cramped flight REALLY REALLY quick. My mother works for Southwest Airline and while I LOVE flying, the whole middle part between takeoff and landing can get pretty boring pretty quickly. This time around, I listened to the whole Empire Strikes Back radio play, watched some Adult Swim and Whose Lne is it Anyways. That was the quickest long flight I'd ever been on.
I wasn't able to get good pictures of the thunderstorms going through the Austin and Nashville areas. I THOUGHT I got there early so I'd get a good window seat and take pics from above the clouds for AWFW, but twas not to be (This time though, I've got an early enough boarding pass that it shouldn't be a problem at all). I landed in Raleigh about 10:30 and was greeted by the Trinoc Chairperson, Deb, holding a sign. TO be honest, I thought that was something they only did in movies, but, well, how else was I gonna find them? I only ever saw one pic of Erin, and I doubted that she'd be along...but she was. :D Ha!
Deb was a sweetheart, and was very big on making everything "Easy on the guests." I'm not used to that kind of treatment, mainly being told that if "You can do it, don't make someone else do it." Mind you, as con chair, it was her job to do this, but man it made me feel bad to have her concierging me.
We had a great time driving back to the hotel. I wasn't sure what to make of Erin, because we'd IMmed a few times, and IMs just don't portray people right. Before the ride was over, I KNEW I was going to like these people. Erin is hilarious, and Deb is a hoot. We were shown to our room which was NICE. HOTEL HOTEL HOTEL. I'd never been to a Big Hotel like this. I figured I had the money, I'd go do Hotel Things like Room Service and Wake up calls. WHAT A MISTAKE (More on that later :) ).
Both of us settled in..and I learned that ERin had my sense of humor. And we worked REALLY well together. :)
FRIDAY
I actually didn't sleep all that well and woke up rather early. About 6AM. I puttered around the hotel room unpacking and organizing. Surfing the web ($10 a night, but I didn't see a THING on my bill...I shoulda gone ahead and downloaded GIGs of TV shows from the home computer and lots of porn while I was at it. About 10 AM, I went down to get some food. First of the Motel Things To Do. I waned room service but after seeing the prices, Erin and the frugal-me that managed to save the $1500 for the con kept convincing me "English Muffins are not worth the convenience fee."
Instead, I went downstairs to have a good breakfast of muffins. I was showed to a table, and glass of orange juice...for a few minutes, I just sat there when I heard "Jenn?" Lo and behold, I was sitting next to Nathan! and Jenesta! Many hellos and a good breakfast later, we went up to his room where we had a good "In Real Life" introductory talk. And an introduction to the "Once Upon a Time" card game. I'm not a gamer, never have been (part of the big talk was my Skeptic Alarm...I think it's amazing that they cannot understand what the meter is, while I Cannot understand how they can just "Escape"). However...this was a FUN FUN FUN game (in theory) because it wasn't one where you role playing or trying to imagine a fantasy world, but just making a story with the cards you're given. (More on THAT later, too).
(Hour and a half from the flight out...)
At noon I registered and this is where it really started to hit me. My badge said Jenn Dolari, and I was wearing it. Once upon a time, this Jenn Dolari was a mask I wore as a diguise from the rest of the world...then became more and more of my identity. This was the first time I blatantly had something that said that the person currently inhabiting this body was Jenn Dolari. My first real public appearance. I thought I'd be nervous about this, but the moment the badge came up (with cute "Special Guest" ribbon on it), I actually felt kind of relieved. I AM Jenn Dolari. I didn't need to make sure that I wrote like her or acted like her, but I really WAS like her...I just didn't THINK I Was. Not to sound melodramatic or anything, it was like realizing it never really WAS a disguise, but really was always me (I then ripped open my shirt to reveal a giant JD logo on my chest, powered through the roof, and saved a cat from a tree).
2nd big "WOW" was going into the "Artist Alley" and seeing a table with great big letters "JENN DOLARI." Wow. It's one thing to have the badge, it's another to have your own Monkey Cage complete with Nomenclature. :) So I started setting up my table, Erin (sitting next to me) had already set hers up with this really nice lookng setup involving an easel, scarves, and really nice KodaKhrome (That's CC1 paper to you Kinkoids out there). I had 25 prints on laser paper, one of which I was forced to do at 75DPI (which makes it look like a computerized printout). My hopes really weren't all that high.
Once I was all setup, I realized I still had some whitespace around me, and a laptop that couldn't go on the web from where I was. What to do what to do...I still had my Master CD with me (which I plan to keep for me myself and I). INSPIRATION! Pop the master CD into the laptop, and allow people to browse the CD! All the comics are there! SO I quickly set that up, and I was set.
As for the con, I wrote off most of Friday thinking that (like Sunday) not much was going to go on. So I sat behind my table, minding the store for a few hours while other artists came in. I had nine CDs for sale, and actually sold three right on the first day, and a good number of prints! Daniel Laenker came by, soon afterwards. Although it took several goes at remembering who he was because his badge had a different name. Daniel, Nathan, Erin and several random passersby and I just jabbered for a good long time, as well as when Kittyhawk finally came by and set up her table (Erin had her easel, Kittyhawk had her MANNIQUIN, I need something unique as well, like a giant plush hamburger or maybe a Lego version of a strip)
I had a bit of a faux pas here, though. Jamie Robertson came up and we talked about webcomics, I made the mistake of saying that "KEenspace failed me at a bad time." I had NO idea he helped FOUND Keenspace! Augh! Jenn Bad! I quickly made up for it by saying Keenspace was a great idea and that I run the Keenspace Spotlight still, and that Keenspace is a GREAT idea that just needs a LITTLE more stability. HE still talked to me the rest of the con, so I musta fixed all that up. :)
Nathan, Erin, Jenesta, Kittyhawk, myself and Erin's Posse (particulary the very cute and scarily-carrie-looking Tina) got together for the what had to be the funniest game of "Once Upon a Time." The goal is to make a fairy tale using cards you're given with items, plot points and an ending you have to aim for. Tina took this game completely over, and wrote this WIERD WIERD story about a missing crown, a talking enchanted crown, a knight-princess, and a country named "Fuckthisshit." I hardly got a word in edgewise with my cards, but it was a HELL of a lot of fun.
Nathan, BTW, is one hell of a co-ordinator. :)
Around 9PM, I packed up for the Meet the Guests mingle party, and this is where the facade crumbled JUST a little, and led to what I call "unspooling." Basically, all the guests were introduced and there was the obligatory applause for everyone. Then they called my name, and I stood up, and there wasn't just applause but some whoops and hollering as well! I don't like sudden noises, and never have, and as soon as that happened, I winced and recovered as best I could. Hopefully no one noticed too too much, and it just looked like I had some kind of bowing problem or something. :)
Erin's applause was just as loud. :) They like us! They REALLY like us!
However, something I'd never had before kicked in...when I heard that first whoop, my heart pounded in anxiety...and never stopped. This has happened once or twice over the years, but never in public. I usually get the pounding when I was in pitch black or if I heard a REALLY loud noise without expecting it light a lightning strike I don't expect. This time, though it didn't stop...and I was actually worried. I stuck around until the whole inroductions were done. Thankfully, the promised cash bar never appeared, and people dispersed in search of liquor...so I took off to the hotel room and unspooled.
Unspooling is just basically lying down on a bed and just talking my way out of what happened, until I calmed down. It took a while, but eventually, I "talked myself down."
But not quite.... :)
(In Nashville, BTW)
SATURDAY
Thursday night...I made a mistake. A asked for a wakeup call for 8AM.
PHONE: BLEEBBLEEBBLEEBBLEEBBLEEBBLEEBBLEEBBLEEB!
JENN: (SNAPS AWAKE)AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!
ERIN: (SNAPS AWAKE)AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!
JENN & ERIN: (REACTING TO EACH OTHER)AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Remember that thing about loud noises I told you about? Well, add that to the sound of a phone ringing louder than a million nuclear bombs, and you have a very very very completely screaming Jenn. And in that sleepy-half-dreamtime state, I couldn't have stopped myself anyways. YEEOWTCH!
Much heavy breathing later, we got to our tables, reset mine up (I didn't know they locked the art room). and set to my first panel:
The first panel I had was "Art+Literature=Comics" which had the folks from All Grown Up, Erin, T Campbell and Myself. Again, another fear kicked in. I've always had a fear of speaking in front of crowds, but then again, I hadn't done something like that since I was a kid (my last public engagement had me faint onstage). Gwen and I had talked about this, I went in there to try and remember that these people weren't going to rush the stage and eat my brains.
The panel went EXTREMELY well, and the funny thing was there was NO Fear. You know, I've gone and done something that I'm afraid of before, and while I came through it okay, you always have the knot in your stomach...this time, though - NOTHING. I had a hell of a time, and the audience seemed genuinely pleased to hear what we had to say. And it was then I noticed that Erin and I started doing what I call our "Flo and Mel routine." :) We REALLY work well together.
(And we're out of Nashville, in the air, and for once, I have an empty seat! ROCK!)
During the course of the day, I managed to sell out ALL but two CDs, which went at the charity auction for $12 a piece! WOOT FOR CHARITY! The low quality Carrie & Allison prints - GONE. One possibly stolen, but I can't remember if I honestly sold out or lost the last one....
The second panel came up, and sadly, we BARELY had more audience members than webcomics artists there...but the panel was wonderful, with some really good give and take and a lot of laughing. By this time I felt really really secure in myself, and just had a thoroughly enjoyable time. There were lots of talks about the fture of print comics, newspaper comics, the web comic boom/glut and it was fun fun fun.
The third panel did not go so well, unfortunately. The panel was about EPublishing and EZines, which I felt was more of a "let's talk about the zines, and making one for the web!" but which quickly became a "How does your site make you money." This I felt a bit off about, and after saying plainly that "What I do is an all consuming hobby, and I expect to make no money off of it in the long run" things rapidly went changed, and I went from "Webzines need to have goodcontent and/or news to have a public" to "defending the 'free web.'" While the panel wasn't anti-free-web, it was definately "you need a subscription to make money" and made sure that I could come up with a free alternative to every pay service that was brought up. A long and involved conversation with T Campbell after the panel really reassured me. I was forceful about my beliefs in being able to self-publish your stuff, but according to him, I didn't come across as anti-subscription. I'm a big believer that if you CAN make money, by all means, do. But if you can't, it's really not all that expensive to do it yourself. (Hell, AWFW and CS have been running for three years, two of those I was laid off!)
Turns out T Campbell and I as well have had the same "getting past the editor problems." In his case, though, T Campbell became an editor, and I just published myself as best I could.
The final panel that day was the LGBT panel, with Kittyhawk, Erin, Greg Eatroff(I think that's his name...I couldn't find his badge for the life of me) and myself...and an SRO crowd. SR fuckin' O crowd. The place was just packed, and the panel flew way the hell by too fast.
BEst question of the panel:
AUDIENCE MEMBER:"Well, what got you into transgender comics?"
ME: [scratching my unfortunate 5 o'clock shadow] "Gee, I wonder what got me into this...I wonder what...."
If only there hadn't been a panel after us, we could have just gone on and on and on. Next year, two hour panel, maybe? I really felt bad for Greg, though, since the LGBT panel morphed into a TG panel and there were very few "everything else" questions.
Erin has l33t 4uct10n sk1llz!
SUNDAY
No wakeup call this time. :)
Two panels today, one a miserable failure, and the other very well done. The British TV panel was sparsely attended, all the info we had was relayed in a few minutes, we were up against the artist auction (where I sold my last set of prints), and the panel lasted all of ten minutes before we declared the end of the panel.
The next panel I had gotten drafted into, because one of the panelists had skipped out. Not that that was a problem. I can go on about B5 and I did. Withjust me and the moderator anf a fairly crowded room. Hearing Mike say "Jenn, you saved the B5 panel!" made me smile. All my successful panel were ones where Erin was around, and we were bouncing off each other, but this one was me alone, with a moderator and audience prompting for info. I think it was a very succesful panel, not on the level of the GLBT panel, but was very good for what it was.
The con wound down, and I went from consummate professional, to drooling fangirl. I asked everyone I could for a pic with them and a sketch or two. And before I had asked her, Kittyhawk has asked ME for a sketch! WOW! COOL! SO I made her a sketch of Carrie dressed up as Yuuki with Victoria mad behind he (Now THAT'S how you do Cosplay!). I did a sketch for Jamie of Heidi telling him to come back next year. And Erin got one of Zoe and Carrie arguing over who was gonna change out of their matching outfits.
After everything was said and done, I realized I hadn't eaten very well the whole con (I had had breakfast on Friday, a pizza on Saturday and NOTHING on Sunday). So I decided we'd have Chinese food...and invited Nathan and JEnesta...who invied Erin. Deb heard about this, and evenually the whole con-staff was going. The chinese food place I'd heard rumours of couldn't be found, so we went to a Japanese steakhouse as well! Holy cow! Best birthday dnner I'd had in forever. :D
After that, there was a little get together with Deb, Erin, NAthan and Jenesta, and Erin's friend Lyssa, where everyone had margaritas (not me) and just bullshat. Hours passed, and we lost Erin and Lyssa, and then it turned into a Deb-Jenn heart-to-heart in the elevator lobby for almost two hours. I finally got back into the room and packed...
MONDAY
Which I will write about at the Houston Hobby Airport....
...and an hour later....
Up, dressed, and packed VERY quickly. Checked out, had one last goodbye with Deb, and Erin and I headed off to the airport. Getting there at about 1 PM, Erin had 2 1/2 hours for er flight and me 4 1/2 hours. Our 2 1/2 hours were great, just sitting there and gabbing the whole time. She even did a RETURN sketch of Carrie and Zoe. :D We decided to DEFINATELY do this again, and maybe run of to Norcon while we're at it. A hug and a goodbye later, and I sat in the lobby for my flight.
I began writing this a million hours ago JUST after Erin left for Seattle...and those cloud pics? I have 91 of them.
This weekend, to put is succinctly - this weekend fucking rocked. I dunno what it is about the way I smile, but I AM smiling in all those pics, and I've been a grinning laughing fool so much my chest hurts and my cheeks have built up their own muscles. I will do this as long as they'll have me. :D
I'm two hours from home...I think even if I don't have a truck - I'll consider this a kick ass trip. :D
2:51AM Update. Keys nowhere to be found, but truck is fine. :)
The problem when things get rusghed with me is I forget EVERYTHING. I forgot my keys, and forgot the Erin & Kittyhawk gifts. Ah, well...what can ya do. I think I managed to get everything from the bedroom...
THURSDAY NIGHT
Anyways, the flight would have been completely dead if it wasn't for this wonderful laptop. R. Dorothy served me well with all the goodies that made the cramped flight REALLY REALLY quick. My mother works for Southwest Airline and while I LOVE flying, the whole middle part between takeoff and landing can get pretty boring pretty quickly. This time around, I listened to the whole Empire Strikes Back radio play, watched some Adult Swim and Whose Lne is it Anyways. That was the quickest long flight I'd ever been on.
I wasn't able to get good pictures of the thunderstorms going through the Austin and Nashville areas. I THOUGHT I got there early so I'd get a good window seat and take pics from above the clouds for AWFW, but twas not to be (This time though, I've got an early enough boarding pass that it shouldn't be a problem at all). I landed in Raleigh about 10:30 and was greeted by the Trinoc Chairperson, Deb, holding a sign. TO be honest, I thought that was something they only did in movies, but, well, how else was I gonna find them? I only ever saw one pic of Erin, and I doubted that she'd be along...but she was. :D Ha!
Deb was a sweetheart, and was very big on making everything "Easy on the guests." I'm not used to that kind of treatment, mainly being told that if "You can do it, don't make someone else do it." Mind you, as con chair, it was her job to do this, but man it made me feel bad to have her concierging me.
We had a great time driving back to the hotel. I wasn't sure what to make of Erin, because we'd IMmed a few times, and IMs just don't portray people right. Before the ride was over, I KNEW I was going to like these people. Erin is hilarious, and Deb is a hoot. We were shown to our room which was NICE. HOTEL HOTEL HOTEL. I'd never been to a Big Hotel like this. I figured I had the money, I'd go do Hotel Things like Room Service and Wake up calls. WHAT A MISTAKE (More on that later :) ).
Both of us settled in..and I learned that ERin had my sense of humor. And we worked REALLY well together. :)
FRIDAY
I actually didn't sleep all that well and woke up rather early. About 6AM. I puttered around the hotel room unpacking and organizing. Surfing the web ($10 a night, but I didn't see a THING on my bill...I shoulda gone ahead and downloaded GIGs of TV shows from the home computer and lots of porn while I was at it. About 10 AM, I went down to get some food. First of the Motel Things To Do. I waned room service but after seeing the prices, Erin and the frugal-me that managed to save the $1500 for the con kept convincing me "English Muffins are not worth the convenience fee."
Instead, I went downstairs to have a good breakfast of muffins. I was showed to a table, and glass of orange juice...for a few minutes, I just sat there when I heard "Jenn?" Lo and behold, I was sitting next to Nathan! and Jenesta! Many hellos and a good breakfast later, we went up to his room where we had a good "In Real Life" introductory talk. And an introduction to the "Once Upon a Time" card game. I'm not a gamer, never have been (part of the big talk was my Skeptic Alarm...I think it's amazing that they cannot understand what the meter is, while I Cannot understand how they can just "Escape"). However...this was a FUN FUN FUN game (in theory) because it wasn't one where you role playing or trying to imagine a fantasy world, but just making a story with the cards you're given. (More on THAT later, too).
(Hour and a half from the flight out...)
At noon I registered and this is where it really started to hit me. My badge said Jenn Dolari, and I was wearing it. Once upon a time, this Jenn Dolari was a mask I wore as a diguise from the rest of the world...then became more and more of my identity. This was the first time I blatantly had something that said that the person currently inhabiting this body was Jenn Dolari. My first real public appearance. I thought I'd be nervous about this, but the moment the badge came up (with cute "Special Guest" ribbon on it), I actually felt kind of relieved. I AM Jenn Dolari. I didn't need to make sure that I wrote like her or acted like her, but I really WAS like her...I just didn't THINK I Was. Not to sound melodramatic or anything, it was like realizing it never really WAS a disguise, but really was always me (I then ripped open my shirt to reveal a giant JD logo on my chest, powered through the roof, and saved a cat from a tree).
2nd big "WOW" was going into the "Artist Alley" and seeing a table with great big letters "JENN DOLARI." Wow. It's one thing to have the badge, it's another to have your own Monkey Cage complete with Nomenclature. :) So I started setting up my table, Erin (sitting next to me) had already set hers up with this really nice lookng setup involving an easel, scarves, and really nice KodaKhrome (That's CC1 paper to you Kinkoids out there). I had 25 prints on laser paper, one of which I was forced to do at 75DPI (which makes it look like a computerized printout). My hopes really weren't all that high.
Once I was all setup, I realized I still had some whitespace around me, and a laptop that couldn't go on the web from where I was. What to do what to do...I still had my Master CD with me (which I plan to keep for me myself and I). INSPIRATION! Pop the master CD into the laptop, and allow people to browse the CD! All the comics are there! SO I quickly set that up, and I was set.
As for the con, I wrote off most of Friday thinking that (like Sunday) not much was going to go on. So I sat behind my table, minding the store for a few hours while other artists came in. I had nine CDs for sale, and actually sold three right on the first day, and a good number of prints! Daniel Laenker came by, soon afterwards. Although it took several goes at remembering who he was because his badge had a different name. Daniel, Nathan, Erin and several random passersby and I just jabbered for a good long time, as well as when Kittyhawk finally came by and set up her table (Erin had her easel, Kittyhawk had her MANNIQUIN, I need something unique as well, like a giant plush hamburger or maybe a Lego version of a strip)
I had a bit of a faux pas here, though. Jamie Robertson came up and we talked about webcomics, I made the mistake of saying that "KEenspace failed me at a bad time." I had NO idea he helped FOUND Keenspace! Augh! Jenn Bad! I quickly made up for it by saying Keenspace was a great idea and that I run the Keenspace Spotlight still, and that Keenspace is a GREAT idea that just needs a LITTLE more stability. HE still talked to me the rest of the con, so I musta fixed all that up. :)
Nathan, Erin, Jenesta, Kittyhawk, myself and Erin's Posse (particulary the very cute and scarily-carrie-looking Tina) got together for the what had to be the funniest game of "Once Upon a Time." The goal is to make a fairy tale using cards you're given with items, plot points and an ending you have to aim for. Tina took this game completely over, and wrote this WIERD WIERD story about a missing crown, a talking enchanted crown, a knight-princess, and a country named "Fuckthisshit." I hardly got a word in edgewise with my cards, but it was a HELL of a lot of fun.
Nathan, BTW, is one hell of a co-ordinator. :)
Around 9PM, I packed up for the Meet the Guests mingle party, and this is where the facade crumbled JUST a little, and led to what I call "unspooling." Basically, all the guests were introduced and there was the obligatory applause for everyone. Then they called my name, and I stood up, and there wasn't just applause but some whoops and hollering as well! I don't like sudden noises, and never have, and as soon as that happened, I winced and recovered as best I could. Hopefully no one noticed too too much, and it just looked like I had some kind of bowing problem or something. :)
Erin's applause was just as loud. :) They like us! They REALLY like us!
However, something I'd never had before kicked in...when I heard that first whoop, my heart pounded in anxiety...and never stopped. This has happened once or twice over the years, but never in public. I usually get the pounding when I was in pitch black or if I heard a REALLY loud noise without expecting it light a lightning strike I don't expect. This time, though it didn't stop...and I was actually worried. I stuck around until the whole inroductions were done. Thankfully, the promised cash bar never appeared, and people dispersed in search of liquor...so I took off to the hotel room and unspooled.
Unspooling is just basically lying down on a bed and just talking my way out of what happened, until I calmed down. It took a while, but eventually, I "talked myself down."
But not quite.... :)
(In Nashville, BTW)
SATURDAY
Thursday night...I made a mistake. A asked for a wakeup call for 8AM.
PHONE: BLEEBBLEEBBLEEBBLEEBBLEEBBLEEBBLEEBBLEEB!
JENN: (SNAPS AWAKE)AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!
ERIN: (SNAPS AWAKE)AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!
JENN & ERIN: (REACTING TO EACH OTHER)AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Remember that thing about loud noises I told you about? Well, add that to the sound of a phone ringing louder than a million nuclear bombs, and you have a very very very completely screaming Jenn. And in that sleepy-half-dreamtime state, I couldn't have stopped myself anyways. YEEOWTCH!
Much heavy breathing later, we got to our tables, reset mine up (I didn't know they locked the art room). and set to my first panel:
The first panel I had was "Art+Literature=Comics" which had the folks from All Grown Up, Erin, T Campbell and Myself. Again, another fear kicked in. I've always had a fear of speaking in front of crowds, but then again, I hadn't done something like that since I was a kid (my last public engagement had me faint onstage). Gwen and I had talked about this, I went in there to try and remember that these people weren't going to rush the stage and eat my brains.
The panel went EXTREMELY well, and the funny thing was there was NO Fear. You know, I've gone and done something that I'm afraid of before, and while I came through it okay, you always have the knot in your stomach...this time, though - NOTHING. I had a hell of a time, and the audience seemed genuinely pleased to hear what we had to say. And it was then I noticed that Erin and I started doing what I call our "Flo and Mel routine." :) We REALLY work well together.
(And we're out of Nashville, in the air, and for once, I have an empty seat! ROCK!)
During the course of the day, I managed to sell out ALL but two CDs, which went at the charity auction for $12 a piece! WOOT FOR CHARITY! The low quality Carrie & Allison prints - GONE. One possibly stolen, but I can't remember if I honestly sold out or lost the last one....
The second panel came up, and sadly, we BARELY had more audience members than webcomics artists there...but the panel was wonderful, with some really good give and take and a lot of laughing. By this time I felt really really secure in myself, and just had a thoroughly enjoyable time. There were lots of talks about the fture of print comics, newspaper comics, the web comic boom/glut and it was fun fun fun.
The third panel did not go so well, unfortunately. The panel was about EPublishing and EZines, which I felt was more of a "let's talk about the zines, and making one for the web!" but which quickly became a "How does your site make you money." This I felt a bit off about, and after saying plainly that "What I do is an all consuming hobby, and I expect to make no money off of it in the long run" things rapidly went changed, and I went from "Webzines need to have goodcontent and/or news to have a public" to "defending the 'free web.'" While the panel wasn't anti-free-web, it was definately "you need a subscription to make money" and made sure that I could come up with a free alternative to every pay service that was brought up. A long and involved conversation with T Campbell after the panel really reassured me. I was forceful about my beliefs in being able to self-publish your stuff, but according to him, I didn't come across as anti-subscription. I'm a big believer that if you CAN make money, by all means, do. But if you can't, it's really not all that expensive to do it yourself. (Hell, AWFW and CS have been running for three years, two of those I was laid off!)
Turns out T Campbell and I as well have had the same "getting past the editor problems." In his case, though, T Campbell became an editor, and I just published myself as best I could.
The final panel that day was the LGBT panel, with Kittyhawk, Erin, Greg Eatroff(I think that's his name...I couldn't find his badge for the life of me) and myself...and an SRO crowd. SR fuckin' O crowd. The place was just packed, and the panel flew way the hell by too fast.
BEst question of the panel:
AUDIENCE MEMBER:"Well, what got you into transgender comics?"
ME: [scratching my unfortunate 5 o'clock shadow] "Gee, I wonder what got me into this...I wonder what...."
If only there hadn't been a panel after us, we could have just gone on and on and on. Next year, two hour panel, maybe? I really felt bad for Greg, though, since the LGBT panel morphed into a TG panel and there were very few "everything else" questions.
Erin has l33t 4uct10n sk1llz!
SUNDAY
No wakeup call this time. :)
Two panels today, one a miserable failure, and the other very well done. The British TV panel was sparsely attended, all the info we had was relayed in a few minutes, we were up against the artist auction (where I sold my last set of prints), and the panel lasted all of ten minutes before we declared the end of the panel.
The next panel I had gotten drafted into, because one of the panelists had skipped out. Not that that was a problem. I can go on about B5 and I did. Withjust me and the moderator anf a fairly crowded room. Hearing Mike say "Jenn, you saved the B5 panel!" made me smile. All my successful panel were ones where Erin was around, and we were bouncing off each other, but this one was me alone, with a moderator and audience prompting for info. I think it was a very succesful panel, not on the level of the GLBT panel, but was very good for what it was.
The con wound down, and I went from consummate professional, to drooling fangirl. I asked everyone I could for a pic with them and a sketch or two. And before I had asked her, Kittyhawk has asked ME for a sketch! WOW! COOL! SO I made her a sketch of Carrie dressed up as Yuuki with Victoria mad behind he (Now THAT'S how you do Cosplay!). I did a sketch for Jamie of Heidi telling him to come back next year. And Erin got one of Zoe and Carrie arguing over who was gonna change out of their matching outfits.
After everything was said and done, I realized I hadn't eaten very well the whole con (I had had breakfast on Friday, a pizza on Saturday and NOTHING on Sunday). So I decided we'd have Chinese food...and invited Nathan and JEnesta...who invied Erin. Deb heard about this, and evenually the whole con-staff was going. The chinese food place I'd heard rumours of couldn't be found, so we went to a Japanese steakhouse as well! Holy cow! Best birthday dnner I'd had in forever. :D
After that, there was a little get together with Deb, Erin, NAthan and Jenesta, and Erin's friend Lyssa, where everyone had margaritas (not me) and just bullshat. Hours passed, and we lost Erin and Lyssa, and then it turned into a Deb-Jenn heart-to-heart in the elevator lobby for almost two hours. I finally got back into the room and packed...
MONDAY
Which I will write about at the Houston Hobby Airport....
...and an hour later....
Up, dressed, and packed VERY quickly. Checked out, had one last goodbye with Deb, and Erin and I headed off to the airport. Getting there at about 1 PM, Erin had 2 1/2 hours for er flight and me 4 1/2 hours. Our 2 1/2 hours were great, just sitting there and gabbing the whole time. She even did a RETURN sketch of Carrie and Zoe. :D We decided to DEFINATELY do this again, and maybe run of to Norcon while we're at it. A hug and a goodbye later, and I sat in the lobby for my flight.
I began writing this a million hours ago JUST after Erin left for Seattle...and those cloud pics? I have 91 of them.
This weekend, to put is succinctly - this weekend fucking rocked. I dunno what it is about the way I smile, but I AM smiling in all those pics, and I've been a grinning laughing fool so much my chest hurts and my cheeks have built up their own muscles. I will do this as long as they'll have me. :D
I'm two hours from home...I think even if I don't have a truck - I'll consider this a kick ass trip. :D
2:51AM Update. Keys nowhere to be found, but truck is fine. :)
