FOGcon Recap

Attending FOGconearlier this month was a surprisingly different experience than when I went to Worldcon in Reno last summer. When I stop to think about it, I really shouldn’t have been surprised at the difference.

Worldcon is arguably the biggest convention of the science fiction/fantasy community. It also hosts the Hugo Awards, which are like the Oscars for the genre. It’s a giant convention, with multiple panels happening concurrently, all day long. There are so many attendees, you almost feel anonymous. At least, I certainly did. I fortunately attended Worldcon with my sister, so while I felt anonymous, I never felt lonely.

FOGcon, on the other hand, is a brand-new (as of last year) convention in the San Francisco Bay Area and is relatively lightly attended. This meant when I met someone at a panel, I invariably saw them throughout the weekend. It created a much more intimate convention experience than Worldcon had.

In addition, because there were fewer panels, I spent more time meeting and socializing with other writers, editors, and fans of the genre. I met some incredibly wonderful and interesting people there, and put faces to some of my twitter friends.

I also attended my first reading. At Worldcon, my sister and I had eschewed readings for two reasons. One, there were so many panels we wanted to attend! We had a difficult enough time choosing merely between panels without adding readings to the mix. Two, we felt fully capable of reading stories on our own and didn’t feel the need to have them read to us. I’m really glad I decided to go to the reading Friday night. In addition to hearing three fabulous stories (one of which I’d already read), I got to provide moral support to three writers. The three stories I heard were: Vylar Kaftan’s “The Sighted Watchmaker” (Lightspeed Magazine), Christie Yant’s “Transfer of Ownership” (Armored), and and the first half of Liz Argall’s “Blunt Force Trauma Delivered by Spouse” (Machine of Death 2; unlike the other two, I don’t believe it’s yet available online).

I had a great time meeting new people and exchanging ideas. I hope FOGcon has a third convention and that I’ll be in a position to attend.