incidents and accidents, hints and allegations

This is going to be an even less complete con report than usual (later: yet ridiculously long all the same!), since Arisia was now weeks ago, but I've been writing the thing in my head since then, so I might as well get it out onto the screen even belatedly and incompletely. As usual, it's easiest for me to remember what I said, especially since I have pre-panel notes for most of these, but please do feel free to ask questions or even just express interest in any particular panel, and I may well be able to dredge up more about it from my memory.

This was my first Arisia, and on the whole I was impressed with what I saw of the organization and logistics. Of note: lots of good signs, amazing pocket program (fold-out program grid!), and free wireless in the hotel rooms (not something Boskone has in the past negotiated (been able to negotiate?) with that same hotel). I mostly ate in the Green Room, which was also excellent, but there seemed to be a good number of food stations outside the restaurants as well.

As for my programming, this Arisia is going down in my mental books as "the one where I shouted." [*] Which has been and will be the cause of nazel-gazing as to the appropriateness of my methods—but to head off the kind of supportive comments that frequently happen, unless you were actually at the panels in question, please don't assure me that I did the right thing, because you'll be basing that on necessarily-incomplete information.

[*] Most cons don't get "the one where" designations. Really, the only other significant one is Boskone 2009, a.k.a. "the one where I was barely there because my father was dying and I was still nursing SteelyKid, and oh yeah it was RaceFail too."

Anyway. The panels I was on (6) or went to (2):

( 'Race and Identity in SF/F', the first of the unexpectedly stressful panels )

( 'Species as Analogy for Race' )

( 'Idols with Feet of Clay,' the second of the unexpectedly stressful panels and the first of the panels where I shouted )

( 'Take Back the Sci-Fi' )

( 'Many Ways to Tell a Story' )

( 'Playing in Other People's Sandboxes' )

( 'Foundlings and Orphans' )

( 'LOTR: Movies vs. Books', the second of the panels where I shouted )

There, that's my report, finished in time for the next con. (Come donate and/or buy tasty baked goods at Boskone this coming Saturday!) And proofread and posted with a sick toddler doing her barnacle impression, too.