Business2024-03-27T17:39:22Zhttps://d.moonfire.us/categories/business/D. MoonfireCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 InternationalICON 43 Retrospective2018-10-09T05:00:00Zhttps://d.moonfire.us/blog/2018/10/09/icon-retrospective/After a four day weekend of having fun at ICON, my home convention, it's time to focus on other things. The fleeting moments, though, are always good to write down.
<p>Every year I look forward to <a href="http://iowa-icon.com/">ICON</a>. This year was a good year, with some ups and down.</p>
<h1>Previous ICON Retrospectives</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="/blog/2012/11/04/icon-37-followup/">ICON 37</a></li>
<li><a href="/blog/2013/11/18/icon-38/">ICON 38</a></li>
<li><a href="/blog/2014/11/03/icon39-retrospective/">ICON 39</a></li>
<li><a href="/blog/2015/10/18/icon40-followup/">ICON 40</a></li>
</ul>
<p>Apparently I haven't done ICON 41 or 42. Not sure why, but that's life.</p>
<h1>Thursday</h1>
<p>On Thursday, I joined the authors at the Barnes and Nobel signing. That was fun, though a bit smaller this year than the last few ones. I got a chance to chat with a bunch of authors and a few fans.</p>
<p>They didn't have my books due to a remarkable series of shipping difficulties in my life. Even though they ordered with plenty of time, the printer couldn't get them to me in time so I had to do consignment (which was actually a better deal in terms of percentages).</p>
<p>I really talking to people, did you know that? It's going to be a common theme for the entire weekend.</p>
<p>There was a little more drama so I got to play money courier for a day to deliver an envelope with secrets (cash) to another author on Friday.</p>
<h1>Friday</h1>
<p>Friday continued my difficulties with shipping when a counter book stand didn't show up. According to Fedex, it was delivered on Wednesday. I wouldn't find out until today (Tuesday) that our dog was in the driveway so they just abandoned it. So far, Amazon and Fedex still can't find it so there is a “trace” going on. That was a bummer because I really could have used it.</p>
<p>As usual, everyone at work wanted to ask me questions so I almost didn't make it on time. I managed to get everything set up with three minutes to spare (better than being an hour late from the year before). I had a great time chatting with some of the other vendors. I was opposite of <a href="https://www.albanlakepublishing.com/">Alban Lake</a>, next to a couple others.</p>
<p>At the tail end, <a href="https://www.cassieleighauthor.com/">Cassie Leigh</a> showed up in the first of many pinup outfits (check her out and vote for her if you see her in a contest). She had these adorable faux blow-up shoes.</p>
<p>I got to play <em>Portal 2</em> in the gaming room with Cassie's offspring. It was also my first time playing on an Xbox 360 (so tiny controllers). I had a lot of fun, more so since I recognized one of the puzzles from watching a trailer from the <em>first</em> game before it came out and knew exactly how to solve it.</p>
<p>The opening ceremonies were enjoyable as usual.</p>
<p>I managed to lock my keys in the vendor hall. When I went to go home, I couldn't get to them so I started walking home until my spouse picked me up. They were annoyed because my formerly broken ankle, walking for a long distance hurts. Plus it was raining. And I didn't have my coat.</p>
<p>I did remember that I did the same thing last year, so I'm going to tape a “do not put your keys here” on the bottom of my raffle box.</p>
<h1>Saturday</h1>
<p>Saturday was pretty busy. Mostly I was there as a vendor, but I had a chance to wander around a little too.</p>
<p>I was on two panels: <em>Creating Distinctive Characters</em> and <em>RPG Mechanics in Writing</em>. I didn't have a panelist for the latter and my material sputtered out at the forty minute mark. I had ten minute of talking about running RPG games to fill in the space. Overall, not my worst panel but not my best.</p>
<p><a href="http://weirdauthor.com/">Shannon Ryan</a> and their spouse joined us at the table as did my spouse in an <strong>adorable</strong> Harley Quinn outfit. We had fun talking and I got invited to chat with the <a href="https://mindbridge.org/paradise-icon/">Paradise Icon</a> folks. They are a lot of fun to chat with and we went to their two readings after that.</p>
<p>Spouse and I did wander into a thirteen person <em>Cards Against Humanity</em>. That was a lot of fun. Everyone laughed, I didn't know most of them. It was a blast.</p>
<h1>Sunday</h1>
<p>For me, Sundays at ICON starts with the benefactor's brunch. I had a lot of deja vecu through most of it but… that's expected.</p>
<p>After that, a reading with <a href="https://www.alexandrapenn.com/blog/">Alexandra Pen</a>. Both of us have similiar themes in our writing but approach it in very different ways. I read the second chapter of <a href="https://fedran.com/flight-of-the-scions/">Flight of the Scions</a>.</p>
<p>Beyond that, lots of talking, chatting, and having fun. I ended with a long conversation with some friends before I had to head home and rejoin Mundania.</p>
<h1>Vendor</h1>
<p>On the <a href="https://typewriter.press/">Broken Typewriter Press</a> side of the convention, it was a disaster. We didn't have that many new books and this is a convention we've sold for a lot of years. I wished I could have gotten <em>Second-Hand Dresses</em> out but… I couldn't and be responsible. So, not a lot of sales. Overall, I ended up a couple hundred in the hole this year.</p>
<p>Looking around the vendor hall, it looked like there was a general lack of spending. I guess that a lot of people are worried about the economy. I know I was, which meant I couldn't do my usual “author groupie” thing and buying every new book by an author who shows up.</p>
<h1>Post-Conventions</h1>
<p>As an attendee, ICON was a blast because I like interacting with people. The more I talk, the more energy I have. It was also small groups and one-on-ones, which is my comfort zone.</p>
<p>The other aspect of conventions is that review of everything I said where I berate myself for saying stupid things. Most of the time, this weekend was just stress leaking out. I felt “off” most of the convention.</p>
<p>As I've mentioned on this blog before, I try really hard to keep “happy” or only talk about positive things. This weekend, I failed a couple of times and feel really guilty about it. But I didn't seem to bum anyone out, so “win.”</p>
<p>I also had a strange identity crisis, which is <em>really</em> strange since I thought I resolved most of those years ago.</p>
<p>Overall, I always get down after conventions (no more people to interact with). That's expected and plannable.</p>
<h1>Plans</h1>
<p>I'm going to see if I can get into the erotic reading next year. I think <a href="https://fedran.com/second-hand-dresses/">Second-Hand Dresses</a> would be perfect.</p>
<p>I'm also hoping to have a little better planning for the convention so I don't feel off. Getting into more author readings and panels might help but there is also the balance of being a vendor for Typewriter verses attending. Those two are contrary at time but I also feel that I'm representing others.</p>
<p>I'm also hoping that the shelving unit shows up and I have enough books that my master plan will start to be visible.</p>
<p>I have some more plans for <a href="https://fedran.com/patrons/">patrons</a> because this is the fifth year running where I get less than $10/month. For some reason, this really bothered me.</p>
<p>For all the negative, there was far more positive. I can't wait to go back next year.</p>