WHY I'M NOT GOING TO BALTICON:
Yeah, I can't even say 'As much as I wanted to go to Balticon...' because, in all honesty, I hadn't really wanted to go in the first place. But, I had originally had the following reasons to go "all the way" to Baltimore:
1) Sto's House #3 was to premier that weekend.
2) I was to have a workshop all my very own.
3) I was going to be on panels!
4) I was going to hang out with friends!
5) I was going to share an inexpensive hotel room!
6) Someone else was going to drive and I'd be able to drink myself silly!
7) Was going to have a couple of opportunities to do readings.
And the reasons why I'm not going to Balticon:
1) Sto's House #3 is not coming out at Balticon because - you ready for this? - the artist decided to ignore the deadline for the cover! It doesn't matter that I had the manuscript to the editor back in December (way before it was due) or that my fabulous editor Jess (who should be hired by every small press on the planet!) sent the edited manuscript to the company in February, where the typesetting process was quickly completed by Danielle... and then it was sent to the artist, who never contacted me, never read my work, and as far as I know has no concept of the story. He is now a month-plus past deadline and still NOTHING. It's so sad because Neal, the owner of Dark Quest Books, is such a good natured, easy going guy who just wants the job done, and sadly sometimes take advantage of that and then I have to hunt them down and kill them...
2) I gave the programming person all the information about my original workshop on character creation. She took all the information and created the workshop... and gave it to someone else. No lie. There it is, in the programming list, the exact workshop I created, with someone else running it! Yes, that made me feel good all over... not.
3) Yeah, still don't have my confirmed panel schedule.
4) Yeah, that. Well... normally I don't like being alone at cons, but it happens often and I deal with it. I'm just... I dunno... tired of it and don't want to drive all the way to Baltimore to be reminded that I'm a loner at cons. I think it has less to do with the people I interact with and more with the "feel" of the con. At conventions like Ravencon (I know, I owe them a review), Mysticon, etc. make you feel welcome and like they WANT you there! Balticon, to me, makes one feel like an inconvenience and afterthought. It just makes me not want to go...
Besides, most of the people I really, really want to see, I will see at Philcon (another con that makes you feel welcome, by the way).
5&6) See the response to number 4.
7) Because of a screw up with programming, the Broad Universe ladies had one of the reading events cut, meaning that we all have to group together in one session. Ten of us. As much as I love these ladies (and I do!) driving down to MD for a four minute reading... and at the Dark Quest event, well, not only do I have no new novel out (see #1) to read from, but there are going to be TWENTY-ONE other authors there. Exactly how many minutes do you think each of us will get at a two hour launch party, if at all?
So anyway... stay home and work at a really fun job (oh, if I went, I'd miss out on at least a day's pay) or drive down to MD, alone... stay in a room, alone... not drink like I wanted... eat dinner, alone... not have a workshop... have no idea what my schedule is... and get a whopping six minutes of public reading over a course of four days.
Decisions, decisions...
1) Sto's House #3 was to premier that weekend.
2) I was to have a workshop all my very own.
3) I was going to be on panels!
4) I was going to hang out with friends!
5) I was going to share an inexpensive hotel room!
6) Someone else was going to drive and I'd be able to drink myself silly!
7) Was going to have a couple of opportunities to do readings.
And the reasons why I'm not going to Balticon:
1) Sto's House #3 is not coming out at Balticon because - you ready for this? - the artist decided to ignore the deadline for the cover! It doesn't matter that I had the manuscript to the editor back in December (way before it was due) or that my fabulous editor Jess (who should be hired by every small press on the planet!) sent the edited manuscript to the company in February, where the typesetting process was quickly completed by Danielle... and then it was sent to the artist, who never contacted me, never read my work, and as far as I know has no concept of the story. He is now a month-plus past deadline and still NOTHING. It's so sad because Neal, the owner of Dark Quest Books, is such a good natured, easy going guy who just wants the job done, and sadly sometimes take advantage of that and then I have to hunt them down and kill them...
2) I gave the programming person all the information about my original workshop on character creation. She took all the information and created the workshop... and gave it to someone else. No lie. There it is, in the programming list, the exact workshop I created, with someone else running it! Yes, that made me feel good all over... not.
3) Yeah, still don't have my confirmed panel schedule.
4) Yeah, that. Well... normally I don't like being alone at cons, but it happens often and I deal with it. I'm just... I dunno... tired of it and don't want to drive all the way to Baltimore to be reminded that I'm a loner at cons. I think it has less to do with the people I interact with and more with the "feel" of the con. At conventions like Ravencon (I know, I owe them a review), Mysticon, etc. make you feel welcome and like they WANT you there! Balticon, to me, makes one feel like an inconvenience and afterthought. It just makes me not want to go...
Besides, most of the people I really, really want to see, I will see at Philcon (another con that makes you feel welcome, by the way).
5&6) See the response to number 4.
7) Because of a screw up with programming, the Broad Universe ladies had one of the reading events cut, meaning that we all have to group together in one session. Ten of us. As much as I love these ladies (and I do!) driving down to MD for a four minute reading... and at the Dark Quest event, well, not only do I have no new novel out (see #1) to read from, but there are going to be TWENTY-ONE other authors there. Exactly how many minutes do you think each of us will get at a two hour launch party, if at all?
So anyway... stay home and work at a really fun job (oh, if I went, I'd miss out on at least a day's pay) or drive down to MD, alone... stay in a room, alone... not drink like I wanted... eat dinner, alone... not have a workshop... have no idea what my schedule is... and get a whopping six minutes of public reading over a course of four days.
Decisions, decisions...
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