Everfree Wrapup · 7:42am Jul 12th, 2014

First off, yes, Chapter 6 of The Hole In The Sun is with my editors/prereaders. It should be published soon.

Also, scores have been emailed to everyone that requested them as part of the Iron Author contest. If you didn't get yours, let me know.

Now, on to the convention!

Holy cow was that a whirlwind of a weekend. I mean, it was fast last year, but as staff this year, I'm not quite sure where I even found time to breathe! It was a really fun time though. Let's see if I can pick it apart a bit...

I arrived on Thursday, and got my staff badge early. Thankfully avoiding the four hour long line from last year. Met up with Piquo and Dusk Watch, and actually relaxed for the most part. Even hit the hot tub and the pool.

Next morning the fun began. Starting off with opening ceremonies, the only non-writing event I managed to attend in full. Nothing too impressive, but amazing to see just how big the attendance was this year. After that, off to the Fanfiction: The Community and You panel. First panel I've been on, and I think it went pretty well. I tried to emphasize the idea that just being friendly gets you friends in return, and proper popularity/fame comes from merely that.

Right after that was the first ORC. This is an "Open Read and Critique" session, and something I specifically pushed for in the schedule. The basic idea is that a group of five or so authors sit around, and take turns reading an intro to their story for five minutes (or less.) The others then have a minute each to respond, closing with one minute for the original author to respond. It's very fast paced, but great feedback on how well you've hooked a reader. I had no idea how many people would turn up for this, especially on friday, but it worked out well, with ten participants, letting us make two groups. Everyone had positive things to say about it, and I'm really pleased that it worked out.

I got a quick break while another panel I wasn't on ran, and then came back for the big "Peer Review" workshop. This was meant to be a proper critique group thing. Authors bring full short stories (3,000 words or so) and trade them. Everyone reads and critiques overnight and while in line and such, then returns the next day. Sadly, very few people showed up, and many showed up without any printed copies of their stories. In the end, we only had four participants. Definitely have to get the word out and run this better next year. Those that participated seemed to like the idea though.

Then, no break, Iron Author! This was the big one. I'd spent the past four days writing (from scratch) a web system to handle submissions, scoring, and everything else for this. We had two dozen participants, and all my code actually survived and worked! I did have to make two live edits to fix some minor formatting and admin-side issues, but... it worked! After all the stories were finished, it was 10pm, and then the judging started. Basically, we all stayed up until about 2am scoring stories for this thing. That really sapped us all, but... it was worth it. I think most authors felt this was the main event for the convention for them. Sadly, didn't get to particpate in the fanfic chillout OR go to Ponystoke and listen to music. Missed several of my favorite bands because of that. Oh well.

After scoring was done, I went back to my room, and still had to read the top entries (as I was a final judge.) Finally zonked out at 3am. Such a comfortable room and bed. Such a shame I spent so few hours in it.

Saturday morning! Go time! I think I had a cliff bar and a banana on my way to the first panel. This was "How to write a good comedy" and I was nominally in charge. I think it went pretty well overall, but... well, it got more technical than I wanted. I had really hoped for some fun, witty banter between the panelists, but we were down to only 3 besides myself, and I got the impression that this was WAY too early in the morning to be witty for the most part. I think I was my usual, slightly-manic self, and GaryOak pulled his weight... but I still felt like Gil from the Simpsons due to the lack of sleep. Oh well, we'll do it better next year.

After that, another ORC. This had 15 people, three full groups, and my thanks to Pen Stroke and Horizon for helping manage the other two. Basically, it went great, and I think everyone got a lot out of it, and made some new friends in the process.

A long lunch, and a trip to the vendors hall. I tried to go back and sit in for the Villains panel, but... it was full. I ended up doing hall monitor duty and very gently telling people they couldn't go in. Apparently this was the most fun panel of the writing track, so I'm sad I missed it. Oh well, such is the life of staff.

Second part of the critique workshop next, and... well, we only had two people. Got some good, long discussion about stories in, but with only two, it was really unstructured. I think it was great for those involved, but definitely going to nail this down better next year.

With a little time to spare, I ate a crummy hotel burger with Horizon and Pen Stroke, while we compared and ranked picks for the Iron Author winners. As we were finishing up, the most awesome thing happened. It was already pretty awesome to see a ton of actual kids around all day Saturday, far more than last year, or any other con I've been to. But then, while we were eating, someone brought this little girl over, and introduced her to Pen Stroke. She was cosplaying as Nyx, the main character from his Past Sins story. The really cool thing was how he was pretty much just as excited to meet her as she was to meet him. They took some photos, and he ended up digging out his own (and one of the few remaining) copies of the hardcover print of Past Sins, signing it, and just giving it to her. He had to run to be on the next panel, but after he left, she was super excited and talking with her parents as I overheard. "I am so glad I cosplayed!" she said. That one moment made the entire convention for me. Seriously, a little kid, the intended audience for the show itself, a genuine, cosplaying fan of a fandom work... that's too awesome for words. But then the way Pen Stroke reacted, and the generosity in just giving her a relatively rare copy of the book he'd written. That's everything this fandom should be about! Needless to say, I had to sit there at the table for a few extra minutes, as I kept getting rain in my eyes.

After that, a little time to relax, then Iron Author results! This was fun. The winners were announced, and got to read their own stories out loud. There were some amazingly good entries this year, and it was awesome to see everyone so excited about fanfiction. Check out the entries here: http://ironauthor.xepher.net/story/publiclist for the next month or so. Our winners were:

Title by TailsFox88
Weather and Stellar Phenomena (It's Somewhere in the Stars) by EternalOctopus
Twilight Sparkle's Not-So-Secret Shipfic Folder by GaryOak

Finally had time to breathe, and bounced back and forth between the Chillout and Ponystock. Got in almost 40 minutes total of music, then spent the rest of the evening supervising the chillout so Horizon and Piquo could get some sleep (as they had earlier mornings on Sunday.) I loved the chillout and met some great people. Ended up hanging with a trio of artists for a bit, and even bought a print off one of them.

Sunday was more mellow, and I was only on one panel, for how to write hero. That was fun too though, as I got to sit next to Georgia Ball, author of the Celestia Micro comic. Really cool to see the fanfic world crossing over with the canon stuff. The panel itself went really well too, with lots of good info put out there. I had people actually coming up to get details about books and such I referenced as examples. Fun times!

Lastly, one final ORC. Only ten people again, and several without stories, so we did a big group and just went over time, since the line for closing ceremonies was way too long. I ended up tossing my own story intro in at the end, and it was nice to get some positive feedback on it. This was probably the most social of the ORCs as well, since by this point, many of the participants had met and knew each other from the previous days and events. I think pretty much everyone at that table has exchanged info and followed each other on fimfic by now.

All in all, a great closeout to the weekend's official events. Ran to dinner with Horizon, LoyalLiar, Jesse, and Dusk Watch afterwards. First real food all weekend, at BJ's Brewhouse. After that, played a game of "A Quiet Year" while killing time before my flight.

So yeah, fun times across the board. My only regrets were that I didn't get to enjoy more music at ponystock, and didn't get to spend as much time at the chillouts. Next year, I think we'll have to schedule things differently, especially for the Iron Author judging. Still though, my pride in this fandom and community is higher than it's ever been, and I can't wait for next year.

Lastly, some shoutouts to the people I met. My apologies if I forget someone... there were SO many new names and faces this year, I can't keep them all straight.

Piquo Pie: Writing track lead, great to see him again in person.
Horizon: Writing track second. Had fun with him at BABS, and it was great working with him again here.
Dusk Watch: Heh, one of my editors and now soon to be roommate.
Pen Stroke: Like you don't know who he is... but also now at the top of my "nice guys" list after the Nyx cosplay incident.
BronyWriter: Cool guy I met at BABSCon earlier in the year. Seems to think he owes me a burger still.
Bookish Delight: Met him last year at Iron Author, great to see again. Also seems to think I'm good at "oration" for some reason.
-Hidden Identity-: Met last year as well, and great to catch up with. Some good feedback in the ORC too.
Grand Moff Pony: Finally put a face to the memorable name, was in like every writing thing.
Pony Tim: Our media director, but also won the commission I put in the charity auction. Going to be interesting to see what he has me write!
Loose Leaf: HR director. Plays a mean fiddle!
GaryOak: Panelist and all around funny guy.
Flint Sparks: Great watch_dogs cosplay, and fun author. Actually said I "inspired" him with some of the words I was spewing about "giving back to the community."
Ckat_Myla: Another fellow panelist, and super nice person.
Naive Wolf Josh: Artist I met at the chillout and ended up buying a cool Doctor Whooves & Vinyl Scratch print from
Jonathan Games: Another artist, working with 3dsmax (my old stomping grounds) so I got show my old high school models
Hazard, Silver Flare, Flashburn37, wdelon, Scarlet Ice, Latent Spark: All ORC participants and aspiring authors.

And so many others I'm sure I'm forgetting a ton. Mea culpa!

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