Sunday morning I slept in a little bit later and missed the Kaffeeklatsch. But we did have time for a leisurely breakfast in the hotel restaurant before checking up on our bids in the art room. I think we managed to win all but maybe one or two of the items we bid on. We’re looking forward to installing the Cthulhu doorknocker on the powder room door. ::evil grin:: My boyfriend bought a matching balaclava in the dealers’ room and suggested I buy one of their Viking helmets. They were out of my size, but she had one far enough along that she could finish it before the end of the con, so I got to customize the final product a bit. (I will add a photo here soonish.) And I also got a matching dragonscale purse.
After loading the car, I went to a reading by Carrie Vaughn and Molly Tanzer. I’ve been a Carrie Vaughn fan for some time, but one thing I like about these readings is that they often pair an established author with a newer author, and I get to discover a fresh talent. I thoroughly enjoyed Molly’s reading selection from A Pretty Mouth and immediately rushed to the dealers’ room to purchase a copy. Molly just happened to be on hand to sign it for me, and we had a lovely conversation.
Once we collected our art and got it loaded into the car, I went to the Geeks Assemble! panel featuring I. Brazee-Cannon, M. Denny, Sam Knight, A. Ritchey, and K. Seibert. This was a boisterous discussion about the mainstreaming of geek culture. For a few tense moments, it appeared that Aaron and Karonda were going to resort to fisticuffs over Star Trek. Instead, it was skillfully diverted into an examination of the “gatekeeper” trend that seems to be popping up throughout various geekdoms. There was also some debate about terminology. Some of us are still wondering when “nerds” became “geeks,” and others cautioned against the indiscriminate application of the “-geek” suffix. For example, “beer-geek” might meet with approval or at least understanding, but “gun-geek” is a little riskier.
And then we went to IKEA.
Exploding Steamboats 