Philcon Roundup
Vikings, dystopia, and friends
Philcon went very well for me (although there were some issues, but none of them were visible to attendees). The person who had to be cared for by paramedics is, thankfully, just fine.
The hotel renovations are taking place…slowly. Unfortunately, this means they haven’t fixed the problems I experienced last year. My room door sometimes wouldn’t open, didn’t close on its own, and on a couple of occasions wouldn’t close at all. This happened last year. Nothing was done about it either year. And they badly need new elevators.
But stuff is being done…and I honestly like this hotel. Good staff, decent food, good barkeeps, and a nice layout.
Onto the con itself:
Vikings!
They put me in charge of the Viking Sagas and Fantasy Literature Panel. Which meant I could steer the panel to a very interesting conversation on how to use things other than the Eddas, such as the Icelandic family sagas (which are easy enough to obtain copies of).
We argued a bit about the role of shieldmaidens and how much they went on raids (the other guy said a lot, I said rarely, they mostly stayed home and made sure nobody raided you. We don’t know, so it’s fun to speculate.
And don’t forget they perfumed their beards and respected their women.
Dystopia
The other panel I moderated was on real life trends towards things that resemble fictional dystopias. This is a dangerous panel to put me on. I’m pretty “woke” and know exactly how much of a dystopia we live in.
Especially with a Black, Native American, Jew to back me up. Hopefully we got some people to start the work even as we talked about how much we should worry about generative AI and genetically modified people (one of the other people on the panel was very into genetic ethics and that was really useful too). Philcon really gave me a good set of people for this one.
Other Highlights
Got to hang out with friends I typically only see at Philcon, which is always good.
The panel on choosing an RPG went pretty well. I even had a couple of people show up for a reading. And one person miss half the con because they were having too much fun reading the copy of Daughter of Fire they bought from me on Saturday morning.
That’s one of the highest compliments a writer can receive.
Possibly made plans to be a podcast guest next year, assuming the new project it’s for gets off the ground. Note: I will always be on your podcasts, if you’ll have me! Doesn’t even have to be writing related, it can just be SF/F/H stuff, comics, TV shows, whatever. I love doing podcasts and can’t afford the facilities needed to record my own right now.
I’ll see Philcon people next year. And hope to see at least some local people at Books & Brews in Alexandria on December 10 and at Farpoint in February.