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Meetups, Conferences, and Conventions, Part II
 
I still have not set my hair on fire!
 
*cough*
 
You were all so very kind when in the previous newsletter, where I maybe a little bit sort of shouted about my stress levels as my masters degree class-hours come to a close. You emailed me wonderful messages of commiseration and support and if I had rainbow-maned ponies I could send you all, this is a thing I would do.
 
Instead I say thank you, thank you, and thank you again. Following is part two of Meetups, Conferences, and Conventions and how these things have impacted the lives of Janet @allmannerofsomethings, Ian @iCoomber, Jen @JCFWrites, and me, too.
 
So I've three more hell-weeks. After that it's party time. Who's coming? — Atlin the Exhausted

 
*

She Will Disappoint You

By Atlin Merrick

The day I got a first class degree with honours from the University of London, Verity Burns shouted louder than I did. The day I had a terrible anxiety attack when I started my masters degree, she bought me a plane ticket to come see her.
 

The day Verity's husband died and she called me from two hundred miles away, I ran to the train station with the clothes on my back and was with her a few hours later.
 

Before BBC Sherlock I'd met precious few fandom folks. Afterward though, my my my.
 

Suddenly I knew of people meeting up at the British Museum or London's National Theatre. They were going to Speedy's cafe or the Wellcome Collection. They were putting faces to names to stories to passions and everything changed.
 

Meeting Dr Aranel Parmadil, podficcer extraordinaire, inspired me to do what she has done—go back to college and get a degree.
 

Meeting Anarion, 221B queen of queens, showed me nearly every corner of London as we walked all of the compass points together.
 

When I met Jayantika Ganguly she gave me an introduction to her publisher and that's how my first book, The Day They Met was published.

Meeting that publisher is how I became the editor of Improbable Press.

 

And on it goes, one meetup one person one thing linking to another, until every part of my life is touched by fandom in the most magical ways.
 

Anarion, Aranel, Jay, Verity…I met them and so many more nearly nine years ago—at conventions, luncheons, over coffees—and each is still my friend.
 

As a matter of fact Anarion recently visited me in Dublin, I've just returned from staying a week with Verity, and I just sent Aranel photos of Our Favourite Desserts. They are my friends, they have changed my life because fandom has changed my life.
 

All I had to do was reach out…and meet them. You can do that too.
 

The title of this essay? It came from an acquaintance who hated not being my only friend, so one day she wrote an email, assuring Verity that her friendship with me wouldn't last, that I'd disappoint her.
 

Well if this is what disappointment looks like—sharing highs and lows and coffees and shouting, I guess you were right A.
 

Now if you'll excuse me I have to go have a Skype call with Jamie and Narrelle and Janet…all of whom I met through fandom years ago.

Meeting fandom folks changed every part of Atlin's life for the better. It can change yours too and there's one way to find out…say yes. Meet someone.

 

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The In-dom and the Out-dom
(or, The unexpected glory of fandom spaces)
 
By A Secret Scribbler
 
Who would have thought,
that this woman,
who deemed herself,
too old,
too fat,
for all this nonsense,
 
would find herself,
in a room,
in a queue,
dressed as an angel,
 
(waiting
for
possibly
the
worst
coffee
in
Dublin)
 
talking to another woman, dressed as a tree,
about the cost of a sausage roll?
 
Certainly not me,
the angel in question,
 
who did not know of it’s existence,
until someone dared ask,
If she was “out” in fandom?
 
In what now?
 
(Oh how we laughed)
 
Now, this angel, has family,
 
who grew from friends,
 
who grew from tentative DMs,
 
who grew from likes,
 
who grew from kudos,
 
Who grew her world.
 
Who changed her stars.
 
And
            just
                        look    
                                    at
                                               her
                                                           go.
 
A_Secret_Scribbler is an artist and writer, whose work you can find on AO3, and on Tumblr and Twitter as Allmannerofsomethings.
 

What's been your favourite meetup, con, or conferences as a writer or fan and why?
 
Bethene Campbell @BetheneC
My favorite so far has been @LftCstSherlock. It was very inclusive, relaxed and intimate. @elinorgrayand company excelled at organization and communication. Terrific guests and presentations.
 
Dee is the Feline Dictator wrangler @72gowerstreet
The fan-run ones
1) Sherlock picnics
2) #GoodOmens meet up in St James' Park
But @221bconis right up there too. Four days of catching up with the people who keep me out of the dark corners and notice when I'm up past my bedtime. Worth crossing oceans for.
 
Defender @shcrlockhouse
221B Con because it was the time in my life in which I felt accepted and totally loved and it was so much fun.
 
Dr. Emily Hamilton-Honey @HermioneClone
PCA: @pcaacais an academic conference, not a fan con, but there's a lot of overlap in the attendees. :) I love PCA because it has so many welcoming people who are experts and fans but not full-time academics, and the academics get to be as fannish as they wish.
 
Hello Kitty is delighted to be here @LaynaAyre
I don't know if I *could* go to a pro con after the wonderful fan ones I've been to!
 
Kameo @KameoDouglas
Letters Live comes to New York. Dear Friends, it is with great excitement that we announce our return to the Town Hall, New York on 19th and 20th April. Where the fandom came together in my city in 2018 and brought me lifelong friends and pretty much changed my entire life. @CumberCurlyGirl @AtlinMerrick @fin__amour @dmellieon Please add to the list.
 
Kelsey Yost @kelseyvsy
Geek Girl Con is my favorite! Small and inviting, with wonderful focus on diversity of all kinds! I've never felt safer or more seen than at that con! Panels for all kinds of geekery; went to one all about the women of NASA and their meet and greet was so inspiring! @GeekGirlCon
 
Maria @stuffasdreams
Remember that meet-up back in the day before the Baftas and we walked to all the shooting locations and got terribly sunburnt and then ended the night on the patio of the SH pub? Best one.
            added:
The Short of Awesome @221bAnarion
I agree! Best one! <3
 
Meredith Spies @MeredithSpies
It's no longer a thing but I loved CoyoteCon. It was online which made it hella accessible for a lot of folks who might not I've been able to attend talks and workshops with authors and publishers, etc otherwise.
 
MissDavis @missdaviswrites
The Fic Writers' Retreat in Toronto for the past 4 years has been amazing! It's so wonderful to be around other writers and be able to talk freely about your work without being judged. And it's such a nurturing environment to recharge your love of writing!
 
Noadventureshere @HoltzTrudy
221b Con is my favorite place to be. I've never gone to any other con of course, so I might be a little biased. It's a lot of warmth and joy for a single weekend. I've never had these kinds of friends before and while it's not necessary, it was so nice to meet them in person. It's also very small and intimate from what I hear of other cons. I'm very introverted so small is good for me.
 
OnWallsJCFWrites @JCFWrites
A writing retreat back in August 2019, meeting a bunch of other fanfic authors. But I'm gearing up for my first (and, sadly, probably only) 221B con, and I'm excited.
 
Sarah Tollock
Last year I attended a remarkably well executed literary festival in my little town of Winchester, VA. It was a multi-day event put together by a local writing-focused non-profit called 1455, named for the year of the invention of Gutenberg’s printing press. I got to meet writers, publishers, journalists and editors. What made it so special for me was that they treated me like a *real* writer when I interacted with them. I think it was my first taste of feeling that I could wear the mantle of “writer” publicly and without immediately following it up with self-deprecating disclaimers.
 

Fandom is Part of Me
 
By Ian Coomber
 
Fandom is part of me. I grew up in the 90s on a diet of cult TV, from Thunderbirds to Deep Space Nine, and continue to study them academically to this day.
 
That said, when I attended my first conference I had no idea what to expect. I wasn't in academia at the time but that didn't matter at all, everyone was so welcoming and I made friends for life, so if you ask, I'd have to say my favourite conference has to be Euroslayage!
 
The talks were so engaging as well as informative, and the panels had such great discussions afterwards. In addition to this, the conference took place just after the Brexit referendum, and it was great to be in such an international environment, which basically adopted as its semi-official motto the Angel ethos of "We live in this world as it should be, to show it what it can be."
 
All that, and a Buffy sing-a-long too!
 
I'd feel bad if I didn't say a few words about Vul-Con, an annual Star Trek convention in Vulcan, Alberta, which I attended in 2018.
 
Especially in the age of massive corporate conventions, Vul-Con was amazing, seeing a locally run Star Trek con in a town which has embraced its namesake to the point of car washes having "shuttlebays," the local coffee shop serving "Spockacinos," and in which many locals came out to enjoy the cosplay contest held at the local skate park.
 
Vul-Con also offered fans the chance to come together in a more intimate setting, with Q&As that had cast members closer to the entire audience than they would be to even just the front row anywhere else.
 
Yes, fandom is indeed part of me.

Ian grew up in the 90's on a diet of cult TV, from Thunderbirds to Deep Space Nine, and writes about them to this day. Ian is on Twitter and at his website.
 

Family Doesn’t End in Blood
 
By Jen C. Flynn
 
In August I attended a four day writer’s retreat. It was my first time attending something like this, and I’m glad I did. I came home enriched.
 
Truly enriched.
 
The weekend was full of writing, discussions, learning, fun, giggling, fandom, and most of all, acceptance. Lots of acceptance!
 
We were a small group of fifteen people. Many were returning retreaters, but there were a few newcomers, including myself. However, I was only a newcomer for about an hour, and only because I had to give my anxiety a chance to settle. Once I joined in on the first discussion, I was promoted from Newcomer to Alumni.
 
The first discussion happened on the night everyone arrived, and was on the topic of fanfiction as a transgressive medium. Fanfiction is primarily written by women of all ages, by people of colour, by people of different sexualities and orientations, by people with disabilities.
 
We reimagine the characters we love in a plethora of different ways. We portray them as the opposite gender, as agender, as a different sexual orientation, as someone of a different race, ethnicity, culture, sometimes mirroring our own. Because we publish online, we are part of a paperless society. In those (and many more) ways we push back against mainstream media. And we love it!
 
At the retreat there were workshops on building your fandom community, promoting your work and the work of others, as well as planning your fic using the Snowflake Method (I’ll provide a link to this method at the end of the article). We talked about dialogue, and about scrubbing your fic to publish it whether it be self-published or through a traditional publisher. There were writing exercises, and brainstorming sessions for those who needed help with plot holes.
 
In between all of these, there were large chunks of time to devote to writing, time to be silly and play some great games, and time to read our current or past works aloud to everyone.
 
Reading your work, and hearing everyone’s reactions in real time is incredibly valuable. Not only do you realise that yes, you are a writer and yes, people like what you’ve written, but you also realise your work matters. Your writing makes people feel things. Your story is important.
 
All of that is priceless, and incredibly empowering.
 
When the time came to leave the retreat, I didn’t want to. None of us did. We didn’t want to return to the daily grind of real life. We were in a place where we could be our true selves without fear. I am an excitable person and have a tendency to express emotions—especially immense joy—quite intensely. (This includes, giggling, squeeing, flailing, and jumping for joy. Sometimes, all of these at once!) At home, I am chastised for this. But at the retreat, I wasn’t. Not even once. And it was so freeing.
 
I was free to be me.
 
I will carry the memories of the retreat with me forever. I now have 14 new members in my fandom family, and I love each and every one of them.
 
If there’s anything that fandom has taught, and continues to teach me, it’s this: family doesn’t end in blood.
+
The Snowflake Method, was developed by Randy Ingermanson and is a way to write original fiction, however, it can also be helpful to those of us who write long-fic, or fic series. I intend on using it for an upcoming show-compliant AU series.
 
Jen C Flynn is a fanfiction writer whose work can be read on AO3 under the username JCF. She can also be found wandering around on Twitter and Tumblr.
 


Finding time to write—how do you do it?
Give us your tips to getting words on the page when the days are full and the nights not nearly long enough? I'll share my favourite tip next time if you share yours? Send 20-120 words or 250-600 please by 14 March 2020.
 
Shout out and share!
 
How do you find time to create?
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