New Kid At The Con

Cons may be a recurring subject here on the Anxiety blog.

This is not to say that every writer should attend one. Yes, they’re amazing in the senses of community, learning, and connections (you will very likely find some new best friends), but they tend to be expensive if you don’t live near one. Can you afford to take the time off work? Can you afford the travel, hotel, and eating out, in addition to the cost of the con itself?

And some of us suffer panic attacks at the thought of that intensely social a situation.

Booklife by Jeff Vandermeer does a brilliant job discussing this sometimes precarious balance. If something will negatively affect your mental and emotional health, DON’T. DO. IT. As writers, we need to do things that feed and fuel our writing.

That said, there is enough extrovert in me that cons just so happen to provide feed and fuel.

I just got back from ReaderCon a week ago. I met up with some amazing friends and made a lot of new ones.

A K Tempest Bradford selfie! via Tempest’s Instagram

I’ve now attended three cons, with a fourth coming up this fall in the form of World Fantasy, so I’m not really ‘new’ to it any more. But it seems I may have a propensity for introducing those who are. At least, I’ve done that at both ReaderCons I’ve attended.

Watching the progression of I-don’t-know-what-I’m-doing-so-I’ll-stick-with-you to this-sounds-cool-so-I’ll-see-you-later is always awesome. It takes a little longer to work up to the joining of random conversations, though that part is sometimes easier when you don’t have a safety net of friends to fall back on.

If you’ve been, what was your first experience like? Did you go with a friend or alone? If you haven’t, do you want to? Or are cons maybe not so much for you?

Please share!

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