The Joys of Conventions

I drove back to KC from Fan Expo Denver on Monday, and I’ve been reflecting on this event and others like it.

First off, I love fan conventions. I dipped my toe into nerdiness back in grade school when a comic book store opened up within bicycling distance of my house. That led to Magic: The Gathering, Dungeons & Dragons, video games, and so on. I absolutely love that I live in a reality where Thanos and Deadpool are now household names.

My favorite part of these conventions in meeting people. Some buys books. Some don’t. Either way, it’s a delight.

Usually, my wife and I go to these conventions. She helps run the table, get me water and food, and generally hype me up. It’s hard to leave the table as an author. I feel like I’m missing sales, and part of the joy of a convention purchase is getting it signed. This time, though, my long-time friend, Matt Ashbaugh, came along. He’s a visual artist and a bit of an introvert, but he saw it as a challenge to push himself out of his comfort zone. We had a great time, and he sold some awesome artwork.

Our neighbors were awesome. To one side, we had David R. Slayton and his friend James. To the other side, we had Brother and Sister Books. Abby and Ash. We are all in different spots in our author careers, and we all got along so well. I certainly came home with some of their books, too.

Then, there were the fan interactions.

There was a guy dressed like Uncle Eddie from National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. I yelled, “shitter’s full” as he walked by, and he handed me a little sticker of Uncle Eddie.

There was a young woman who would ask for fun facts and gave out stickers in return.

On our way to Denver, we stopped to charge in Flagler, Colorado, and found the most delightful little coffee shop called Soapweed Mercantile & Coffee Shop. One of the owners came and found me at the show, buying a book. We made sure to stop back by on our way home.

Every time I saw a Frieren or Adventure Time character, I hollered their character name and held up one of the bookmarks that Matt made. Most of them bought one.

There was the woman who met me at C2E2 in Chicago, buying both Jayu City Chronicles books. She sought me out so she could buy both Things Forgotten books.

Best of all, I met another intersex person. Their name was Atlas. I got so excited, I think I scared them away. But, y’all, I’d never actually met an out intersex person in the flesh before. I just got SO EXCITED.

Writing is a very lonely, quiet process. Part of why I do theatre is that I need the feedback, the applause sometimes. These conventions do that for me for my writing. Not everyone buys a book, and that’s fine. Not everything is for everyone. But when someone becomes a fan? When they get excited about my work? That’s everything to me.

And at the end of the day, these conventions are so great because I get to see so many people just living in their fandom, sharing it with the world without fear. It makes me so happy every time.