There were panels for all tastes, some closely related to furry and some more general; some focusing on art, some on fursuits, some on subjects relevant to the Middle Ages theme, like sparring and chain mail making. I was mostly interested in the writing track, and with top furry author Kyell Gold as one of the Guests of Honour, this was well-represented.
Ultrafox was up first, speaking on the 'Craft of the Story' with lots of pop culture references. Soon after his talk finished, it was my turn with 'Writing for Anthologies'. I had an audience of about a dozen, at least half of whom were buddies who'd promised to come, which meant a friendly and receptive crowd.
Next on the agenda was 'Meet the Guests of Honour', a Q&A with
kyellgold and Gabapple. Gab, a.k.a. Melissa Douglas, draws adorable kittehs and is an all-round excellent person. During the course of the session she revealed that she works in web dev but really wants to write children's books, hates spiders, and loves orange. I found her afterwards and declared that we had been Separated At Birth.Kyell Gold gave a tantalising reading from an upcoming publication, after which I escaped into the sunshine to sit drinking, watching the passing suiters, and chatting to
chapcalledjules (a longtime lurker on these pages, apparently - hi there!). We moved on to the Banner Brawl, in which two teams of artists compete to create the most pleasing giant canvas with subjects pulled from a hat and drawn in two-minute slots: Furry Steve McQueen on a motorcycle! The undead hordes! A badger in drag! Now make everyone in the picture drunk!Just before 8 I tiptoed out to discharge the last of my obligations for the con by reading an extract from my Hot Dish story. This was a joint effort with
kandrel, and it seemed to me that the contrast of our very different stories (my domestic rom-com versus his sci-fi), not to mention our very different accents, worked well. I hope there will be further joint projects!When that was over, Ultrafox and I went for a very welcome swim and chillout in the hotel pool. Ultra had been invited to a room party, and I tagged along so that I too could be one of the cool kids. The party suite turned out to contain many of my favourite furs plus some delightful new people, and I met another long-serving LJ friend,
jessie_pup, who was even lovelier than anticipated.The day was such a feast of things to do that I didn't have time for lunch, grazing on crackers instead, and managed to miss dinner too. Luckily I'd had enough breakfast for that to count as my two meals.
