Dragon Con 2018 Recap

This was definitely an undertaking and a half. I joke that preparing for DragonCon is similar to preparing for a major military offensive. With the size of the con + my health issues and the needs of my roommates…that analogy is not wrong.

This year had several challenges that came with it. The loss of an amazing director and second for a track that I dearly loved. The loss of a good friend who I shared so many amazing memories at this con with. A loss that actually proved harder to deal with than the loss of two of my mentors.

I got sexually harassed again, but not in the hamstertubes for once, it was actually when I had stepped into a corner to tie my shoe so that I wouldn’t be in anyone’s way. While I was doing that, someone came up and smacked me on the butt hard enough to almost send me face first into the carpet. To prevent breaking my face on the carpet, I put out my hands to stop myself, but the person had already disappeared back into the crowds so I never got a great look at anything but the black sneakers.

So yeah.

On the other side, I had amazing panels and got to network and meet people and see other people and show what’s awesome about DCON to someone who’d never been before. It got to see and hug and highfive so many of my nerd family, it was awesome. I got to talk about stuff I’m passionate about and nerd out with people who share that passion.

I also got to learn a hell of a lot from other people. It’s one of my favorite things about the convention. That I can learn from so many people and hear about so many things that I wouldn’t ordinarily be able to hear.

If you ever get a chance to hear Myke Cole speak, take it cause you won’t be sorry. He’s kind of spellbinding when he teaches. A human version of Orphan Black, can’t take your eyes off him or let your brain wander.

The American Sci Fi Media track is consistently some of the absolute best programming that you will ever see at a con. A lot of that is due to all the hard work that the track director, Kellen puts into the programming and the logistics. She’s an absolute joy to work with and so are the rest of her team. There were cookies that were divine and literally there is nothing but awesome here.

The Sci Fi Classics track offered me an opportunity this year to be on a panel with Cecil Baldwin and that was just amazing. He’s even better in person y’all. Gary and Joe and the rest of the staff there are more family then friends. I super appreciate all the love and latitude they offer.

I got to do my first panel with the High Fantasy track, which used to be the Tolkien Track and it was on WOT and that was blissful nerddom.

The Apocalypse Rising track with Shannon and the crew there are fabulous and I thoroughly enjoy each and every panel I get to do with them.

Working with Mike Stackpole and the Hourly Writing Workshops is always amazing and I greatly appreciate the privilege and honor it is to be able to teach with him. It’s exhilarating to be able to do this, to also know that he trusts me to do this, and it’s so much fun to teach and see all our seminar people and answer their questions and I really love doing it.

There, however, is a lot of controversy over the con and I would be lying if I didn’t say that it has me worried about continuing to attend. I worry about my safety as a disabled attending professional, I worry about my safety as a woman, I worry about the safety of my friends and family at the convention. Not just from the attendees, but also from some of the other guests.

There was a white supremacist table at the Sheraton, I believe, advertising for KekCon. Granted they were asked to leave once people realized what they were about, but they should NOT have been allowed to be there in the first place.

It massively sticks in my craw to hand over the con that I love so much to people as despicable as the actual Nazis and those stuck in the past who can’t seem to move forward. I love the progressive panels that talk about real things, representation, and mental health and why diversity matters.

I just wonder how long it’s going to continue to be safe for me to attend.

Dragon*Con 2017

At the end of the day, I wound up doing more panels than I’d officially been put on.  The grand total was 19 for the con and it was a lot, but I had a blast doing them.   Even though I work the con, rather than attend, I always have a good time.   This year was one of the best years.

So if you’re coming to here from having seen me at Dragon*Con, welcome! I really am just as weird as I am in person, only I use taller fonts to make my words seem larger.

Here is the link to the Patreon – there’s a 1.00 tier for if you just want access to the short stories!

You can also find me on Twitter over at  @DorothyJoanGray  and it’s some writing, some humor, some politics, and a lot of signal boosting.

So if you’re finding me through D*Con, leave a comment with where we encountered each other and I’ll send you some free flash fiction!

This month is going to be pretty busy with another con this weekend and then a weekend trip up to NYC from the 15th to the 18th.  However, I do have some reviews and essays that will be going up just as soon as I can have the brainspace to sling them up.    For reasons of not having much of a brain, I generally don’t post anything much until the weekend after D*Con.

Stay  weird, my lovelies.

Dragon*Con Final Schedule: Where I’ll Be and What I’m Talking About!

So here is the Dragon*Con Schedule, ya’ll. And if you can’t find me at one of these, then I generally lurk in the hallways like the raspberry seed you can’t floss out.

Title: Alternates
Time: Fri 11:30 am Location: Hanover AB – Hyatt (Length: 1 Hour)
Description: Craft alternate realities, histories, & time-travel fiction. Historian Bethany Kesler reveals everything needed to craft historically authentic alt- worlds–what research is good, how to avoid the rabbithole of too much research, and how to pick your cascade points.

Title: History Will Be Televised: Accuracy May Suffer
Time: Fri 02:30 pm Location: M301-M301 – Marriott (Length: 1 Hour)
Moderator / MC for panel
Description: History as covered by the media will be will cover many of the shows that say they are showing things like they were…or the way we’d like to think they were. Discussion will cover Reign, the White Princess, Will, & others of this ilk.

Title: How the Westworld Was Won
Time: Fri 04:00 pm Location: M302-M303 – Marriott (Length: 1 Hour)
Moderator / MC for panel
Description: The reinvention of this classic has really turned reality on its ear. Questions of sentience, humanity, conspiracy, & religion are all combined with story that often left us puzzled & amazed.

Title: Queer-Coded Villains in Classic Sci-Fi
Time: Fri 10:00 pm Location: M103-M105 – Marriott (Length: 1 Hour)
Description: Ever watch classic Sci-Fi & think the bad guy is a little flamboyant or the villainess is too super-assertive? Discuss how perceptions & stereotypes of homosexuality & gender-nonconformity made classic villains such as Star Trek’s Q seem more villainous & the ways it still happens today.

Title: Practical Time Travel for the Storyteller
Time: Sat 04:00 pm Location: Athens – Sheraton (Length: 1 Hour)
Description: This panel discusses the real science behind time travel, as well as how these scientific theories can place both challenging & rewarding demands on the stories we tell. Time dilation, the grandfather paradox, & others will be explained & these theories discussed.

Title: Lost Worlds: The Science Fiction of Arthur Conan Doyle
Time: Sat 07:00 pm Location: Embassy AB – Hyatt (Length: 1 Hour)
Description: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is best known for Sherlock Holmes, but he also wrote SF! Our panelists help to shed light on Doyle’s futuristic works.

Title: Earth Station One Presents: The Princess Bride’s Inconceivable 30th Anniversary
Time: Sat 10:00 pm Location: M103-M105 – Marriott (Length: 1 Hour)
Description: Have fun storming the castle with fans of the movie that taught us the meaning of wuv. True wuv.

Title: American Classic Musicals & All That Jazz
Time: Sun 11:30 am Location: M103-M105 – Marriott (Length: 1 Hour)
Description: Musicals & geekiness go jazz-hand in jazz-hand. American? Yep. Classic? Yep. Sci-Fi? Well, how do you explain all that choreography?

Title: A Ladies’ Guide to the Apocalypse
Time: Sun 01:00 pm Location: Chastain F-H – Westin (Length: 1 Hour)
Description: From Katniss to Furiosa & beyond, now more than ever female characters are taking the end of days head on. Discuss the increasing presence of heroines in apocalyptic media, as well as paying tribute to those characters who helped pave the way.

Title: KRULL: Witness the Glaive
Time: Sun 08:30 pm Location: M103-M105 – Marriott (Length: 2 Hours 30 Min)
Description: March toward a solid face of rock to discuss Krull, the glaive, the cyclops, & raisins in our brain-cases.

Title: Superhero-versary: Batgirl, Spider-Man, Hulk, Thor, & More
Time: Mon 08:30 am Location: M103-M105 – Marriott (Length: 1 Hour)
Description: Celebrating the debut years of the greatest heroes. We refer, of course, to Detective Chimp, Captain Carrot, Ch’p, & tThe Human Fly.

Title: Westworld: Labyrinth of Lies
Time: Mon 02:30 pm Location: M301-M303 – Marriott (Length: 1 Hour)
Moderator / MC for panel
Description: The web of plots & sub plots, mysteries & time lines leads to some complex organization & not a few eureka moments as things click together. We’ll look back over all those threads & what ones might be coming up in the next season.

The Con of Dragons Approacheth!

Here is my tentative schedule for Dragon*Con this year.  I’m once more an Attending Professional, which is always an honor and a pleasure.   I say this is a tentative schedule, because sometimes panels change and things get all swapped around.

I also know that the After Hour Sprints for the Hourly Workshops are not on here and I will be doing those as well alongside my partner in fiction writing,  Alison Sky Richards.  They’re Friday from 7-9.

Provided schedules align properly, I’m also planning on being at the Star Wars Holiday Special (yes, THAT one) shindig that the SciFi Classics track is throwing.  And I am always down for coffee or munchies during the moments I’m not presenting.  Come find me.  I promise not to dress as Waldo this year, and make it easier to locate the tiny person in the LOUD Hawaiian shorts.
Also side note – if you’re looking for me in the app, I’ll be under the muggle name for all my panels.
Title: Alternates
Description: An exciting look into how to craft alternate realities, histories, & time-travel fiction. Historian Bethany Kesler AKA DJ Gray will outline the rules, do’s and don’ts, as well as equip you with the all the tools needed to craft historically authentic worlds for all your fiction needs. What research is good research, how to avoid the rabbit hole of too much research, and how to pick your cascade points.
Time: Fri 11:30 am Location: Hanover AB – Hyatt (Length: 1 Hour)

——————-
Title: History will be televised – Accuracy may suffer
Description: History as covered by the media will be will cover many of the shows that say they are showing things like they were… or the way we’d like to think they were. Discussion will cover Reign, the White Princess, Will and others of this ilk.
Time: Fri 02:30 pm Location: M301-M301 – Marriott (Length: 1 Hour)
Moderator / MC for panel

——————-
Title: How the Westworld was Won
Description: The reinvention of this classic has really turned reality on its ear. Questions of sentience, humanity, conspiracy and religion are all combined with story that often left us puzzled and amazed.
Time: Fri 04:00 pm Location: M302-M303 – Marriott (Length: 1 Hour)
Moderator / MC for panel

——————-
Title: Gender-Queer Villains in Classic Sci-Fi
Description: Ever watch classic sci-fi and think the bad guy is a little flamboyant or the villainess is too super-assertive? Discuss how perceptions & stereotypes of homosexuality and gender-nonconformity made classic villains such as Star Trek’s Q seem more villainous and the ways it still happens today.
Time: Fri 10:00 pm Location: M103-M105 – Marriott (Length: 1 Hour)

——————-
Title: Practical Time Travel for the Storyteller
Description: This panel discusses the real science behind time travel, as well as how these scientific theories can place both challenging and rewarding demands on the stories we tell. Time dilation, the grandfather paradox, and others will be explained and stories told that reference these theories discussed.
Time: Sat 04:00 pm Location: Athens – Sheraton (Length: 1 Hour)

——————-
Title: Lost Worlds: The Science Fiction of Arthur Conan Doyle
Description: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is best known for Sherlock Holmes, but he also wrote sf. Our panelists help to shed light on these works.
Time: Sat 07:00 pm Location: Embassy AB – Hyatt (Length: 1 Hour)

——————-
Title: American Classic Musicals and All That Jazz
Description: Musicals and geekiness go jazz-hand in jazz-hand. American? Yep. Classic? Yep. Sci-fi? Well, how do you explain all that choreography?
Time: Sun 11:30 am Location: M103-M105 – Marriott (Length: 1 Hour)

——————-
Title: A Ladies’ Guide to the Apocalypse
Description: From Katniss to Furiosa and beyond, now more than ever female characters are taking the end of days head on. Discuss the increasing presence of heroines in apocalyptic media, as well as paying tribute to those characters that helped pave the way.
Time: Sun 01:00 pm Location: Chastain F-H – Westin (Length: 1 Hour)

——————-
Title: KRULL: Witness the Glaive
Description: March toward a solid face of rock to discuss Krull, the glaive, the cyclops, and raisins in our brain-cases.
Time: Sun 08:30 pm Location: M103-M105 – Marriott (Length: 2.5 Hours)

——————-
Title: Superhero-versary: Batgirl, Spider-Man, Hulk, Thor, and More
Description: Celebrating the debut years of the greatest heroes. We refer, of course, to Detective Chimp, Captain Carrot, Ch’p, and The Human Fly.
Time: Mon 08:30 am Location: M103-M105 – Marriott (Length: 1 Hour)

——————-
Title: Westworld – Labyrinth of Lies
Description: The web of plots and sub plots, mysteries and time lines all leads to some complex organization and not a few eureka moments as things click together. We’ll look back over all those threads and what ones might be coming up in the next season.
Time: Mon 02:30 pm Location: M301-M303 – Marriott (Length: 1 Hour)