Real World Adventures

Nine Worlds and Loncon 3

When I’m at conventions I am so fully immersed it takes me a long time to be able to order my thoughts well enough for a blog post. Sometimes I never get round to writing about the particularly intense cons because there’s simply too much trying to get out of the narrow funnel from my brain to my fingers. As I said to a friend earlier, trying to write about Nine Worlds and Loncon 3 back to back is like trying to stuff a pillow down the nib of a pen.

By the same token I never take pictures whilst I’m there; it never occurs to me. I’m in it, not watching through a lens. I suppose I’m saying: the following account will be imperfect in the extreme and I wish I had more pictures to illustrate.

We’ve just had two conventions back to back and straddling the two I had another kidney infection. The first was Nine Worlds and the second was Loncon 3 (Worldcon) and they were both amazing.

Nine Worlds

I came down with the kidney infection on the first full day of the con, so my partying and ability to just sit and absorb the con and attend panels was severely curtailed. I managed to meet all of my commitments (panels and tea dates) but very little else.

However, I was present enough to be filled with a passionate love for the space that the creators of Nine Worlds have created. I felt safer there than at any other convention of that size and larger I’ve been to. And I’m not just talking about safe from harassment, I’m talking about the sense of being held gently, of being in a place where not only I felt safe but others too – people I rarely see at other cons. There was greater diversity, a younger crowd and – most importantly for me – a vast array of gender fluidity that was being celebrated and enjoyed in a way I’ve never seen before. Seriously, I want to live in that world all the time; a world where people are feeling safe enough to express who they are in a way that’s impossible in the current society we live in.

On the Saturday night when I had to retire to my room and bemoan the dreadful state of my kidneys I felt tearful when I thought about how beautiful that space was. I want to publicly laud Dan, Ludi and Erich and everyone else who have made Nine Worlds into one of the most important dates on the annual convention circuit. I will be there next year, and every year it’s on, if I possibly can be.

Loncon 3

Still on antibiotics and with that unmistakable ache in my lower back, we arrived in London for my third Worldcon.

Honestly, it was incredible. And now I want to gush about a million details but if I did we’d be here all day and I doubt it would be as exciting for you! Suffice to say that it was the first Worldcon at which I felt not only actively welcomed, but genuinely part of a bigger community. I think I have to devote an entire other post to the Hugos and just how special and important that night was to me.

Something I do want to talk about right now is the generosity of people I met – most for the first time – at these two cons. For the first time in my life I was given gifts by people who love what I create (we, in the case of Tea and Jeopardy) and, quite frankly, the written word – nay, the spoken word too! – is (are?) simply unable to capture how thrilling that is.

Let me share them with you.

First up, the lovely Ron Davis created a crest for the Order of the Sacred Tea Cup (people who support Tea and Jeopardy through Patreon). In fact, he created two so we could pick our favourite!

A lovely lady called Laura (@Lbebeard) made us a bag full of little Keep Calm and Drink Tea & Keep Calm and Eat Cake badges for the newbies we held a tea meet-up for at Nine Worlds. I gave the few that were left to those who came to my Kaffeklatsch at Worldcon, Laura, I hope you don’t mind! They were just too sweet to be left in a bag unloved.

Actually, I need to give a really big thank you to the lovely people who helped me look after the Nine Worlds newbies, including Andy Piper, Annie Tchaikovsky, Steven Ellis and Marcus Gipps.

Then M Horst gave us a special blend of tea from Chateau Beeblebrox with this splendid description on the label: “This fine white tea is guaranteed to turn completely black in the presence of even mild peril“!

I met up with the very splendid Jane Hanmer (@pipsytip) who crocheted a Loki for me. LOOK AT THIS DARLING!

loki_with_helmet

loki_without_helmet

At Worldcon the very lovely Jeff Wooliscroft (who was at my very first book launch in the whole world for From Dark Places in Bristol) brought me a teapot.

A TEAPOT WITH A TEACUP AND BISCUIT FOR A LID! IT’S JUST SO META. Here is a picture for you to admire and covet it.
teapot

Then a lovely lady called Felicia who is a friend of the also lovely Paul Weimer gave me this beautiful crystal teapot charm. Isn’t it gorgeous?

crystal teapot

Speaking of Paul, he took a picture of me on the Iron Throne. I’ve been resisting its lure for over two years now and finally caved when someone said “Red Queen” to me. I was trying very hard to be evil which is surprisingly hard when in a huge room full of happy geeks.

I would be a benevolent queen. If you brought me tea and cake regularly.
I would be a benevolent queen. If you brought me tea and cake regularly.

Thanks to the Loncon3 organisers for a fantastic event and to all the people who made me feel welcome. There is so much I haven’t talked about here (surviving I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue being one of them) but suffice to say it was the most amazing Worldcon I’ve experienced yet. Stay gorgeous, SFF fandom.