# ICON 43 Retrospective => .. Up a Level Every year I look forward to ICON[1]. This year was a good year, with some ups and down. => http://iowa-icon.com/ 1: http://iowa-icon.com/ # Previous ICON Retrospectives => /blog/2012/11/04/icon-37-followup/ ICON 37 => /blog/2013/11/18/icon-38/ ICON 38 => /blog/2014/11/03/icon39-retrospective/ ICON 39 => /blog/2015/10/18/icon40-followup/ ICON 40 Apparently I haven't done ICON 41 or 42. Not sure why, but that's life. ## Thursday 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. 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). I really talking to people, did you know that? It's going to be a common theme for the entire weekend. 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. ## Friday 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. 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 Alban Lake[2], next to a couple others. => https://www.albanlakepublishing.com/ 2: https://www.albanlakepublishing.com/ At the tail end, Cassie Leigh[3] 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. => https://www.cassieleighauthor.com/ 3: https://www.cassieleighauthor.com/ I got to play Portal 2 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 first game before it came out and knew exactly how to solve it. The opening ceremonies were enjoyable as usual. 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. 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. ## Saturday Saturday was pretty busy. Mostly I was there as a vendor, but I had a chance to wander around a little too. I was on two panels: Creating Distinctive Characters and RPG Mechanics in Writing. 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. Shannon Ryan[4] and their spouse joined us at the table as did my spouse in an adorable Harley Quinn outfit. We had fun talking and I got invited to chat with the Paradise Icon[5] folks. They are a lot of fun to chat with and we went to their two readings after that. => http://weirdauthor.com/ 4: http://weirdauthor.com/ => https://mindbridge.org/paradise-icon/ 5: https://mindbridge.org/paradise-icon/ Spouse and I did wander into a thirteen person Cards Against Humanity. That was a lot of fun. Everyone laughed, I didn't know most of them. It was a blast. ## Sunday 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. After that, a reading with Alexandra Pen[6]. Both of us have similiar themes in our writing but approach it in very different ways. I read the second chapter of Flight of the Scions[7]. => https://www.alexandrapenn.com/blog/ 6: https://www.alexandrapenn.com/blog/ => https://fedran.com/flight-of-the-scions/ 7: https://fedran.com/flight-of-the-scions/ 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. ## Vendor On the Broken Typewriter Press[8] 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 Second-Hand Dresses 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. => https://typewriter.press/ 8: https://typewriter.press/ 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. ## Post-Conventions 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. 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. 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.” I also had a strange identity crisis, which is really strange since I thought I resolved most of those years ago. Overall, I always get down after conventions (no more people to interact with). That's expected and plannable. ## Plans I'm going to see if I can get into the erotic reading next year. I think Second-Hand Dresses[9] would be perfect. => https://fedran.com/second-hand-dresses/ 9: https://fedran.com/second-hand-dresses/ 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. I'm also hoping that the shelving unit shows up and I have enough books that my master plan will start to be visible. I have some more plans for patrons[10] because this is the fifth year running where I get less than $10/month. For some reason, this really bothered me. => https://fedran.com/patrons/ 10: https://fedran.com/patrons/ For all the negative, there was far more positive. I can't wait to go back next year. # Metadata Categories: => /categories/business/ Business => /categories/writing/ Writing Tags: => /tags/conventions/ Conventions => /tags/icon/ ICON # Footer Below are various useful links within this site and to related sites (not all have been converted over to Gemini). => /now/ Now => /contact/ Contact => /bio/ Biography => /bibliography/ Bibliography => /support/ Support => /fiction/ Fiction => //fedran.com/ Fedran => https://mfgames.com/ Coding => https://moonfire.us/ The Moonfires => /categories/ Categories => /tags/ Tags => /privacy/ Privacy => /colophon/ Colophon => /license/ License => https://lists.typewriter.press/subscription?f=RDQ6f3AFHXnX2o763d5TgUmaYP7N763gR6FjZyGUUFWhyRkpgZF9I35ySICDBEdFFtgG Mailing List => https://d.moonfire.us/blog/2018/10/09/icon-retrospective/