The Goblin Market, A Poem by Christina Rossetti

A panel I moderated at Dragon Con this year for the High Fantasy track was on Christina Rossetti’s Goblin Market. Started off a little shaky, but it turned into one of my favorite panels this year. For starters, I got there a little later than I would have preferred because of the insane amounts of people traffic. I was also starving, not really getting a chance to eat in a while. So, I smiled at the room that was already sort of packed, took my seat at the panel table as moderator and then jokingly asked the audience if they minded me eating something really quickly (if I promised not to chew into the microphone). That got me some nice chuckles and a couple “Go Ahead’s” so I was able to nom my PBJ. Because when you are a) disabled and b) got weird allergies, you travel with food on you, all the time. When you’re those things and working a convention like Dragon Con, you develop certain skills. One of those being a complete lack of shame. Another being eating when and where you can cause sometimes back-to-back panels don’t always give you time to eat much.

I finished my sandwich and then was keeping an eye on the time because I believe good moderators should make every attempt to start and end on time. I described it once to a non-nerdy relative as the panel schedules being a lot like train schedules, when everything is running well and on time. There’s a little bit of flex time to reset the rooms and get people seated (and for panelists to arrive) but not a lot of it. The time kept creeping closer and closer to start time and with me still being the only person at the table, I started to get a little nervous. Being the only person upstage generally has only happened on purpose previously (writing workshops where I’m teaching baby writers).

Start time hit and I swung into the normal housekeeping stuff (this is our charity for the year, please raise your hand for questions cause I’m autistic and need that signal, and please rate this panel in the app) before just turning to the packed room and going “Okay, since we’re a couple of panelists light, what do you all say about switching this over to a book club type thing? I have a couple of starter questions and then we can take the discussion wherever you want it to go.” I also double checked to see if we had any 16 and youngers in the audience so we could all gauge if we needed to stick to euphemisms or if we had some wiggle room (we did not have any and the entire room relaxed a little more).

We tossed around the basic questions I had prepared and then got into a fantastic discussion of this weird little poem and its enduring resonance since its publication. If you have never read this before, let me point you to where you can read it freely on the Poetry Foundation’s website, Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti. Go read it and then come back and let me know what you thought.

One of the most fascinating things about this poem is that its interpretations are as varied as the number of readers it has reached. It is a fantastic example of Victorian poetry, serving as both a religious and moral allegory while also exemplifying the Victorian socio-economic milieu and also pointing out the inherent gendered double-standards of the time. The fantasy elements combined with the uncertain line between prose and poetry lend it to have a very nursery rhyme quality to it. The poem is enchanting; it spellbinds you with the images it conjures.

We talked about forbidden romances, sexual temptations, the bonds of sisterhood, vampirism, sin and redemption. How the poem also could serve as an example of addiction and recovery. We talked about when we first found the poem. One person literally read it right before the panel itself. His question was about what we got out of the poem if we read it young. My interpretation the first time I read it, at 7 years old, was that the poem was about not taking candy from strangers. At 20, I had a completely different interpretation based around roofies in drinks, sexual assault and the recovery from that. Others had similar stories, some people found it young, and some didn’t.

We were, as a group, having a super fantastic discussion that we were all really sad to have to stop when it was time. We didn’t all agree but we all came at it from a place of just wanting to understand and be understood. It kind of restored a little bit more of my faith in humanity’s ability to have non-toxic discourse. It was the best kind of discussion, I learned things, and the audience learned things.

What had started as a kind of shaky thing turned into this wonderful experience and I was really grateful for it. Definitely one of my favorite experiences at con this year.

Dragon*Con 2024 Write Up

I am pretty sure that this con has been better for my mental health than many other things have been. Even considering that I’m a smol introvert who likes to hide in the dark with her keyboard.

I had a great balance of panels and workshops this year. I moderated four panels, taught two workshops, and was on another five panels. Slow year (I only walked 15.83 miles) and that was actually pretty sweet. I was also minioning for a lot of the Hourly Writing Workshops which also helped me with working on some drafting and also learning more things! I always get useful things out of listening to Mike (Stackpole) and Bryan (Young) and Benji (Richards). We had a great group of attendees too – lots of good questions.

I am extremely blessed in that I had amazing panelists for each of the panels that I moderated. DB Jackson/David B. Coe and DL Wainright are always amazing to have on panels, as is Constance Wagner. Meeting new people, Daniel Schinhofen, Ryan Cahill (who the rest of the Irish mythology panel agreed we could just to listen to forever with that sweet Irish accent), Seressia Glass, Roy Kilgard, Milton J. Davis, Shane McInnis, Kevin A. Davis, and D.R. Perry! Seriously, they’re all fantastic creators and academics and I still cannot get over the fact that we got an actual astrophysicist for the Astronomical Phenomena in High Fantasy panel y’all.

The panels I didn’t have to moderate also had some fantastic moderators and I love them for it. Panel Moderation is NOT easy. Jennifer Liang, Kristin Jackson, Sue Kisenwether, Carol Malcolm, and ChelseaBytes were superlative, like I cannot tell you enough about how much they are good at their jobs and keeping all of us on track and on topic.

Fellow panelists who just rock it out of the park every time: K.T. Hanna, K. N. Lee, Erika Lance, Marx Pyle, Alison Tracy, Lilbit, Jess L. M. Anderson, Bethany Brookshire, Wayland Smith, Michael Collins, Morgan A McLaughlin McFarland, Niki Veasey, Brian Doob, Shayna Adelman, and Billy Todd.

EDIT: Because I’m an idiot, I totally forgot to thank all my Track Directors and their hordes of volunteers who make everything smooth going for guests and attending professionals. It takes a village and they exemplify awesome each and every day. So here’s to Kellen-Kelley Harkins, Carol Malcolm, Jennifer Liang, and the awesome cabal that runs the Digital Media track.

High points from the con:

“How many murders for a novel?” Question from a workshop discussing mystery story structures.

Getting to hang out with Alli Martin.

Random swag getting shoved into my hands as I made my way through the Marriott – including two small bags with dice, cards, and stickers and quite possible the absolute best piece of swag I have ever gotten – A bright red Campaign button proudly exclaiming “Handmaids for Harris.”

Getting to talk about magical contract law and why words matter for 2 panels back to back (because Jennifer Liang loves me).

Seeing the panel room for the Asexuality panel full to bursting again for the second year in a row. It makes me so happy and teary.

Sue gave me Ace Flag Lego earrings.

Bethany Brookshire and I got to sit next to each other on our panel which both of us were way more amused by then it probably merited.

Multiple people telling me that they loved the panels I was moderating/workshops I was teaching and that I was a good moderator.

Getting to see and hug so many friends.

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)

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