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Saturday includes readings and panels
Apr. 26th, 2025 11:00 pmI went to a 10 am reading by Chad Ownby, who did a masters on Batman, and Fraser Sherman, who I’d heard on an author panel last year, and whose Atlas Shagged I found hilarious. He read part of a book, and the review piece from the Atlas Shagged collection. It hits a little different this year. I was the only attendee initially, but someone else showed up who was somewhat older than me, and who commented he liked things set in the 70s like some of Sherman’s work, because he cannot keep up with current things. It was a refreshing degree of non-judgment and self-insight. Often, people just trash current things as bad or at least not as good / enjoyable as past things, which is both more judgey AND less self-insightful.
Ownby was a sweetheart, who attempted to engage the other man with descriptions of more contemporary work that might be of interest to him based on other things he said he liked. Gotta love Kids These Days.
I also attended a reading by Sarena Straus, who I’d heard with interest on yesterday’s panel, and Nicole Glover. I will at least try samples from both of them.
The genre mixing panel and the romance in fantasy panel were both really enjoyable. Later in the day, the sex in SFFH panel was even better. It’s really clear that there’s a big age gap around content / trigger warnings / descriptions. People my age acknowledge the need for some trigger warnings; the younger folks seem to grasp that it’s not JUST warning people and potentially scaring readers away. Some of us are using the information to _find_ the stuff we _want_. I’d rather see it presented as “here’s what you can expect to find in this book”, rather than “stay away if this is bad for you”. In general, I prefer Content Warning (would really like to see it as “Content Disclosure”) over Trigger Warning.
A. was not tolerant of being outdoors for the laser presentation, so we arrived late and left almost immediately (but did see the match lit, so, yay). The neurofollies presentation was not much like its description; it was like an Introduction the Neurology, and at the very boring end of things.
We had dinner at Tokyo Sushi. It was good. A. had the chicken Katsu.
I also missed part of the Masquerade in favor of a Cozy Gaming panel, which had the author of the Cleric’s Guide to Smiting on it (bought at the dealer’s room). I’m increasingly curious what exactly people mean by Cozy. I thought I knew, but it’s clear people have different ideas (and also, people know it sells, so they are saying their stuff is cozy more or less independent of any conception of Cozy beyond It Sells).
Masquerade was enjoyable, but a little short.
The Imminent Peril live was okay — that could actually be a fun game to try with friends when it comes out.
I met a lovely young woman at the spice panel, and we chatted after until 11:30 when I bailed to get A. to bed. She reads even more than me, and was very happy to tell me all about it and I was overjoyed to hear her describe it. I finally got one person’s answer to the appeal of MM — it’s sexy, but without involving anyone doing anything to a body that she feels is like hers. Which, first, wow, that’s a clue I’m nonbinary if I ever needed one (I did not), and second, oh, honey.
Ownby was a sweetheart, who attempted to engage the other man with descriptions of more contemporary work that might be of interest to him based on other things he said he liked. Gotta love Kids These Days.
I also attended a reading by Sarena Straus, who I’d heard with interest on yesterday’s panel, and Nicole Glover. I will at least try samples from both of them.
The genre mixing panel and the romance in fantasy panel were both really enjoyable. Later in the day, the sex in SFFH panel was even better. It’s really clear that there’s a big age gap around content / trigger warnings / descriptions. People my age acknowledge the need for some trigger warnings; the younger folks seem to grasp that it’s not JUST warning people and potentially scaring readers away. Some of us are using the information to _find_ the stuff we _want_. I’d rather see it presented as “here’s what you can expect to find in this book”, rather than “stay away if this is bad for you”. In general, I prefer Content Warning (would really like to see it as “Content Disclosure”) over Trigger Warning.
A. was not tolerant of being outdoors for the laser presentation, so we arrived late and left almost immediately (but did see the match lit, so, yay). The neurofollies presentation was not much like its description; it was like an Introduction the Neurology, and at the very boring end of things.
We had dinner at Tokyo Sushi. It was good. A. had the chicken Katsu.
I also missed part of the Masquerade in favor of a Cozy Gaming panel, which had the author of the Cleric’s Guide to Smiting on it (bought at the dealer’s room). I’m increasingly curious what exactly people mean by Cozy. I thought I knew, but it’s clear people have different ideas (and also, people know it sells, so they are saying their stuff is cozy more or less independent of any conception of Cozy beyond It Sells).
Masquerade was enjoyable, but a little short.
The Imminent Peril live was okay — that could actually be a fun game to try with friends when it comes out.
I met a lovely young woman at the spice panel, and we chatted after until 11:30 when I bailed to get A. to bed. She reads even more than me, and was very happy to tell me all about it and I was overjoyed to hear her describe it. I finally got one person’s answer to the appeal of MM — it’s sexy, but without involving anyone doing anything to a body that she feels is like hers. Which, first, wow, that’s a clue I’m nonbinary if I ever needed one (I did not), and second, oh, honey.