No Condom Swag

This last weekend was Gaylaxicon, which I was quite honored to be one of the GoHs of this year.  When I arrived and checked-in/registered, I thought that the con was likely off to a VERY BAD START when I discovered that there were NO condoms (or lube!) in the swag bag.  I spent the next several hours complaining about this, btw.  Loudly.  Luckily, most people ignored me.  Because, really, it turns out (as I actually knew from last time Gaylaxicon was in town) this was not THAT KIND of con.  Gaylaxicon is all about content... or at least mostly... granted I probably said "penis" more at this con than I do at most, but when I did, believe you me, it was in the pursuit of higher knowledge/intellectualism.

There was a lot about the con I enjoyed tremendously. I got to be a squeeing fan grrl all over J. Michael Tatum, who is not only the voice actor who portrays Sebastian in the Anime "Black Butler" (among other roles--you may also know him from "Ouran Host Club",) but also ridiculously cute and funny all on his own and, it turned out, on the one panel I was on with him, he's REALLY SMART AND THOUGHTFUL, too.  I know, right?  How unfair!   That's really all I remember of Friday night, ie embarrassing myself by babbling, "ohmygodohmygodohmygod, you're so coooooooooooooooool" to a complete stranger, and also saying something about as articulate in my Guest of Honor welcoming speech.  I should also say that I had a previous interaction with Gary Russell on the Thursday night GoH dinner, in which I became convinced that he was constantly sneering at me (though particularly when I talked about Marvel Comics).  Turns out, he was only British.

Saturday I had a really phenomenal panel about women writing M/M slash, which was something I came to the con wanting to talk about.  I'm not sure we concluded anything about why queer women like to write boy on boy porn, but we did figure out that it's more complicated than you'd initally think.  I also encouraged everyone to attend the midnight slash panel, and lured them all there by a promise that one of the other GoHs, Kyell Gold, would be reading his Wiley E. Coyote/Road Runner.  I think I did a bunch of other awesome things and talked to a lot of other amazing people, but really that midnight reading will be forever seared into my head as probably one of the most awkward-embarrassing-fantastic nights of my life. 

The midnight slash reading was really well attended.  Which meant that getting started reading porn was REALLY DIFFICULT for me.  I have been known, in fact, in the past, to employ a stunt reader.  This time, since Kyell was telling me to be brave, I finally (probably after a half hour of dithering embarrassment) did.  It worked out really well as what I read was kind of sweet/sexy foreplay ("Other Duties as Assigned") , his was a fairly explicit pay off, and then my second piece was kind of funny/sexy afterglow ("Too Many Captains Spoil the Plan").  So, hopefully the audience felt they got a full experience.  I suspect folks must have because we were only scheduled to go for an hour, but we didn't leave the room until 2:00 am.  It was incredible.  Kyell's husband recorded his portion of the slash reading and if/when they post it anywhere, I will post a link here, too.  Apparently, my facial expressions during some of it were kind of precious.  (I was very nervous/excited and TOTALLY INVESTED in the story.) 

Sunday was my busiest day and also kind of a blur, but I remember some more panels and more hanging out with all sorts of wonderful people.

Oh, and for the record, after this con, if anyone disses a furry in front of me, they're in for an earful.  As my friend naomikritzer  said to me, "F*ck the Geek Heirarchy," the furries I met this weekend were AWESOME.  Also, they wear tails sometimes.  GET OVER IT.  In fact, I have agreed to attempt some Komamura slash for the folks at the slash reading who liked my Bleach fic.  (Bleach has a furry character, a captain who is a wolf/fox demon.)

Then suddenly it was all over and I was back home and being asked to cook dinner and do the dishes.