Another Excellent FOGcon

I spent the weekend at FOGcon and had a fantastic time. It would appear that last year I had whole paragraphs of interesting things to say about the con afterward, but I don't find myself feeling so insightful this time. It was fun, I met cool people, karaoke!

Last year I signed up to participate in a couple of panel discussions, which was exciting, but since I didn't volunteer for anything this year, my weekend was more relaxed and unconstrained. I made a greater effort than last year to meet new people rather than only hanging out with my old friends, and that resulted in a lot of great conversations.

This year's theme was The Body, so many of the sessions focused on different ways to think about bodies, both in speculative literature and in real life. I attended an illuminating discussion of advanced topics in body image and an equally illuminating but sillier panel about stories involving sex with aliens.

Some non-thematic panels of note included a discussion of how tropes are used to good and bad effect in creative works and a session on the problem of enjoying a work that presents a flawed depiction of race, gender, etc.

I attended a number of readings, which I didn't do last year, and heard some great work read by the authors. And of course there was karaoke -- over three hours of singing and dancing our hearts out.

It was a fabulous con. I came home tired and inspired and full of thoughts. I can't wait for next year!

Good Stuff Out There:

→ Jim Behrle offers a few tips on How To Write The Great American Novel: "The entire world economy depends upon the Great American novel to enrich the world with vampire and werewolf love triangles that become giant blockbuster movies that sell popcorn, tickets and movie tie-in gear. Have you ever seen a blockbuster movie based upon a French bestseller? Camus’ Stranger in IMAX 3D? No. And you never will."