PicoCon 37

Left to right: Juliet Kemp, Roz Kaveney, and Tamsyn Muir.

This is probably the only SF convention we will go to this year. The promo material played up the the celebration of LGBTQ+, which is a thing, but for me to quote Marx, "I don't care to belong to any club that will have me as a member." Call me conflicted.

But for some people, fandom is a way of life. I tend to fall into the camp that sees fandom is/as just another goddam hobby.

The first talk was by Roz Kaveney, a well known big name British fan. She gave a laid back talk about her early life, her interests, and things that she's passionate about. Roz writes both fiction and non-fiction, and for the Times literary Supplement.

Next up was Tamsyn Muir, who I'd never heard of, but she was charming and witty, which goes a long way in my book.

Tamsyn's writing sounds interesting. After all, who couldn't fail to be interested in Lesbian necromancers in space! Colour me interested. Besides, I exchanged a few words with her, and her positive response to hearing that I write Mil-SF made me like her.

Call me biased.

Finally, Juliet Kemp did her talk, which was slightly marred by having lost her voice. She persevered and she's on the Locus 2018 recommended reading list.

After the individual talks there was the tradition panel discussion, which was driven by questions from the audience that went well. So, by the end of the day I had thoroughly enjoyed the convention.