Date: 2009-07-22 12:48 Subject: Yet another Azkatraz post Security: Public Tags: azkatraz

I keep coming up with more people I met at the con. Like Leela_cat! And Bryoney. And Roslyn. And Ted and Nabil and Kim, somewhat tangentially to the con. And there's no way I'm going to get through these wrap up posts without having left someone out. A big hi to Gwendolyn Grace and Heidi, too, who worked their tails off at the convention and I think can be quite proud of the result. Which isn't to say there were not snafus. There were, which often had to do with communication between concom and attendees. But overall it was quite an undertaking.

I had to choose between going to the panel on Cross-Gen and the panel on Queers in the HP Universe. In the end my inner Draco made me go to the Cross Gen one because he's anxious that I haven't written any Snaco in so long. (Draco, I said, I haven't written any fanfic at all in a while because of original fic deadlines... He just sniffed and said he didn't care.) Cross Gen panel was really great. All the panelists were funny and smart and the audience really got into the topic (as you'd expect...)

And I got arrested! Two Aurors came and got me from the Craft Faire at the end. One of my roomies had put out a warrant for my using inappropriate charms on a teakettle. After I bailed myself out by writing a drabble, I put out a warrant for her arrest, too, as well as Mijan. The "Jail And Bail" scheme was all a charity fundraiser. The con's designated charities were the Harry Potter Alliance (which I won a T-shirt in the movie line for knowing) and Amnesty International. It was fortuitous I was jailed, actually, because at the jail they had bread and water! So I had a roll to keep me going. (It's because of things like this I didn't really eat an actual meal most days. And I ate way too many Tim Tams and Violet Crumbles at the HD meetup!)

I missed the fashion show while getting dressed for the ball, but the ball itself was great. The DJ was a real mix master, and he managed to mix together a very diverse list of styles of music and eras and yet keep the dance floor packed. The ballroom was too small and the dance floor also too small, for a group like ours. Nothing could really beat the Terminus ball where it was in a huge 1920s style ballroom with high frescoes ceiling, surrounded by balconies, and literally a thousand people could be dancing at once (and were). The Parc 55 is a modern building and just not made for that kind of grand party. But we had a lot of fun anyway. Lots of people made costumes. Justin (another one I haven't mentioned yet!) wore Snape ropes with prison stripes! Perfect!

Got to go now, off to lunch and then museum!

Date: 2009-07-22 01:04 Subject: Morrrrre Azkatraz Security: Public Tags: azkatraz

Let's see. Who else did I meet at Terminus?

At Erotic HP Night of course I got to see lots of Dacro, Mijan, and Slashpervert.

In the course of the con, I met both nuclearsugars and nuclear_polymers (Alyse), wrote a Gryffindor Spin the Bottle story for Sesheta_66, re-met Alisanne, finally met Rubymiene!! And coffeejunkii!! Both of whom I've known forever through LJ but hadn't met before. And apparently re-met Cordelia V. although neither of us could quite figure out where we'd met before! It wasn't at an HP con! Saw some of the Boston-area crowd, NQDonne only briefly (since she was helping run the con), BewaretheSmirk, Lesyeuxverts, & Potteresque_ire. Re-met sassy_cissa and met oldenuf2nb for the first time (her first HP con). Wook77, Anneke, and Romaine24, who wrote one of my favorite HD stories ever, except I can't remember the title of it... gah. Samantha, Isis, Slashpine... and I am sure there are more I'll think of as I mull over the con. Yolanda! Oh, and Lev Grossman, though I don't think I can count him as a slasher or ficcer... even if he did write a book which made the C. S. Lewis estate upset.

Dizilla/Diana Moon wrote me a haiku, which I interpret as Snape/Draco, because I'm like that:

against silver-white
tangled with black-satin sheets
forget tomorrow


I better go to sleep now. I'm having lunch with a friend and then visiting the San Francisco Asian Art Museum tomorrow.

Date: 2009-07-22 00:20 Subject: More on Azkatraz Security: Public Tags: azkatraz

Let's see, what else...

Dracofiend, Venturous1, Winnett, and everyone else who got photos of me, link link link! I did not have my camera at all so I am pictureless! And yes, it's perfectly OK to identify me in your photos as Ravenna C. Tan (or Cecilia Tan, but most people in HP fandom know me as the other!) and I do not care if it is f-locked.

I especially need pics of Erotic Harry Potter Night! It was such a lovely performance space.

Erotic HP Night was an absolute blast. Four of us read from the zine (which I still have copies of to sell, by the way! I'll post separately about that later...) in the theater space of the Center for Sex & Culture, a nonprofit organization that hosted us very happily. Their staff even dressed in robes for the occasion.

I went to less formal programming this con than previous ones mostly because I was presenting more of it myself! My talk on "Making the Jump from Fan Writer to Pro" went well, I stayed right on my notes and right on time, and I really really believe that many of the next wave of professional erotica, fantasy, and romance writers will come right out of this wave of fandom. Hopefully I convinced some people in that room to give it a shot. I will post my notes later as soon as I put them in some more readable form. (the outline is in sentence fragments.)

The Snarry meetup and HD meetup were really fun. I finally got to talk with some folks who I saw in passing at Terminus but hadn't had a chance to sit down and talk with.

I never did get around to telling Amanuensis that I finally watched Death Note, though. And then read the manga...

Swtalmnd was there but I never got a chance to say hi. Barely got a moment to say hello to Femmequixotic and BethBethBeth.

Really enjoyed hanging with my roomies GatewayGirl and ClueGirl, and we had a visit from themostepotente and xylodemon, too. These conventions are kind of like sleepaway camp, aren't they? Except I make slash & smut instead of lanyards and wallets.

Speaking of lanyards, I gave the really nice Hufflepuff book-thong I won at the HD meetup to red_rahl, because she will get a lot more mileage out of it than me! Puffs represent! (This Ravenclaw is reading mostly ebooks now anyway...)

So, because I taught a seminar in the MPA program, too, I was invited to hang out during their lunch hour, where we had a Bertie Botts Beans tasting! ( Read more... )