Post SoonerCon edition…

SoonerCon is one of my favorite convention. It has some of my favorite people involved. But, like with FenCon, there are growing pains as those who’ve built it up over years (or even decades) step away and new people (yes, younger people) step in. Things change and evolve as they should, but that doesn’t necessarily mean easy.

My programming was light and blocked so that I was on my own all day Saturday. I’m not a good attendee. I’ve never actually BEEN an attendee. I’ve either been a panelist or a vendor/vendor assistant. I’ve had things TO DO. So, not going to lie, went into wondering if maybe this was the indicator year that my time was ending there.

Not saying anything against the organization or anything, everything ebbs and flows. It’s the way of things. FenCon had a club table there with our new generation of con chairs. I made a concerted effort to not check in or hover. They needed to be able to do things their way, and they did a great job. They had and have support. Us “Olds” are mentoring them, but also not helicoptering.

The panels I did participate on were great. A lot of engagement. And having Saturday open, let me participate in Sara Felix’s “The Ghost of My Friends” project. I inundated her with a portion of my fountain pen ink collection. I even bought a dip pen in the dealer’s room, but the nib was too fine for this project. It’s EXCELLENT for writing though. It holds more ink than I anticipated.

So today, I’m bouncing between dip pen and typing. It’s a ton of fun.

I bring all this up, because I think I was grieving a tiny bit with all the changes. As writers living in this day and age of publishing changing every 10 minutes, we all struggle with how we work, how we market, and where we’re relevant. A lot of the times we feel like a dip pen in a digital world. And no, it’s not like we’re being left behind, we’re trying to figure out how to best appeal to the changing needs of the audience.

Yes, I was hesitant going in, but I’m also stubborn. Since this is a Next Chapter year, I’ll not give up. Besides, there are people we love that we only see at SoonerCon, many times, so my wondrous Oklahoma folks, bear with me as we navigate how the future looks.

And now, I’m also learning what post-convention life is like now that I’m on some mental health meds. Which is still Squirrel Brained, but PRODUCTIVE Squirrel Brain? We did take yesterday off (mostly -dang, tires are expensive), so today is the first work day back, and though it’s been a lot of task switching, it’s been GOOD and useful task switching (not quite sprints or time blocking). So THAT’s new.

If I owe you something and you don’t hear from me in the next day or two, ping me. Some things do fall through the cracks. FORWARD!!!!