Greetings Lovelies,

I’m three days back from OddCon in Madison and counting down to WisCon in May. I can’t believe how much I’ve missed being a part of fandom and how much of me was missing without that outlet of conventions and panels and parties that come with it. Although I was the only brown face in the crowd, it was still a feeling of coming home.

I used to visit two to three conventions a year for a while there and had plans to expand it to more when life got in the way and money got hard to find. Combine that with two of the three cons in my city disappearing and then "The Mother of All Dealer Cons" up and relocating to Indianapolis, and it became a wasteland of opportunity. I couldn’t afford to go out of town and nothing was coming hear to make my life more conventient. But now, things have changed.

More money has come in and more opportunity has presented itself to lure me back to the sci-fi/fantasy gatherings of my youth. I’ve also started writing full time with one novella out (SHIFTING PASSIONS), and a novel and two more novellas on the way, this turns conventions into business expenses and necessary connection making. In other words, My Inner PennyPincher can justify the cost in many cases now and I look forward to adding every year to those I can attend.

It’s an amazing feeling as it bears the comfort of the familiar and yet the excitement of the unknown. I remember my very first convention and what it felt like to walk through the doors, not knowing a soul and yet feeling I was among friends as everyone present shared a common interests. It was one of the most freeing experiences. A belief that I could go anywhere and find something to connect on with people I would otherwise never interact with in the rest of the world. That alone made the world seem smaller, friendlier and therefore a little more mine.

Fastforward fifteen years and now I couldn’t enter a Con without knowing at least one person in passing. Internet communities have made it so that you can always find someone somewhere you’ve passed a word with or shared a laugh with on the topic of your favorite book or show. I’d avoided most forums after early bad experiences with flame wars and daily trolls, keeping myself on more intimate and tightly monitored sites when I could dedicate time to online boards at all. But OddCon has renewed my desire to expand and be a part of the larger fandom online.

I read over a dozen fan boards from time to time but I don’t enter the discussions, I don’t invest in the conversations because I don’t look forward to the moment when things turn south. But after some recent good experiences and everything to happen at OddCon, I’m ready to focus on the moments that go right and to leave any future negativity to the future.

I have writing deadlines, (and an flist to catch up on), so I can’t comment on every board in the fandoms I follow, but I’d decided to jump into at least two and go for it for a while. Sometimes you just have to let yourself be pulled back to the places that make you happy, even if you remember why you left to begin with.

For now however, I’ve got edits to attend.

Fandom Ramble Done

~X