#KiScon2024

[kiscon]

The K/S Gazette Newsletter

Greetings and Felicitations, dear K/S friends! Happy New Year! We hope those of you in the Northern Hemisphere are staying warm and that those of you in the Southern Hemisphere are keeping cool. We have so many fannish activities going on. Let's take a look... 1. Submissions for the KiScon 2025 con zine are open now!

It's a new year, there'll be a new con, and we'll have a new con zine! Our brave 1lostone and Alice West are reprising their roles as zine editors and look forward to working with you.  While we know this is currently a contentious topic, please know that AI-generated works are not welcome here as AI-generated material is in diametrical opposition to artistic integrity, based on plagiarism, and a substantial consumer of valuable natural resources.

We are looking for new and never before seen art and writing (both fic and meta!) focusing on the relationship between Kirk and Spock.

You can read more here!!

2. Comments Made Them Do It: the February comment drive

For the month of February, we'd like for you to bring a little self-love into your life. 😏

Think of a fanwork (fic, art, vid, podfic, etc.) you created that you would like to see more interaction with. Maybe it features a tag that isn't as popular. Maybe it just happened to be posted on a busy day and only a few people saw it. Maybe you're just really darn proud of it!

Send your link to 1lostone by email or by Discord message, and she'll post it in the #self-love channel on our KiScord. Then, we'll have a lovely list of recs for people to enjoy. For the purposes of this, we ask that the fanwork has been posted for at least four months and ask that only V'Ger, the creator, send it to 1lostone.

Inspired by and special thanks to the Voiceteam Mysterybox mods for their 'Spread Love' challenge.

3. Kirk/Spock Spring Fever 2025 is happening

Here’s the schedule for 2025: Sign-ups and prompt posts: open until Jan 31 ("sign-up" is only needed for submitting prompts, not for filling them!) Prompt claims and creation period: open until March 10  Works due: March 10  Works revealed: March 22  Creators revealed: March 26 The time for all these steps is: 12:01 AM UTC.

Rules and FAQs can be found on the AO3 collection profile. They are pretty much the same as in previous years, but it’s worth checking them out for a quick refresher.

117 prompts have been collected during January and are now waiting to be filled by authors, artists, podficcers, etc. You can fill as many or as few prompts as you want, and prompts can also be filled multiple times.  There's a dedicated #ks-springfever channel in the KiScord, for discussion and mutual encouragement, and announcements are also posted to Tumblr. 4. Kirk/Spock Advent Calendar 2024 Masterlist Thank you to everyone who contributed to the Kirk/Spock Advent Calendar 2024!  93 fanworks were posted throughout December, by 26 creators; the works consist of 55 fics and ficlets, 26 poems, and 12 artworks. The 2024 collection is now closed for posting. The K/S Advent Calendar will return next year for a new round.  You can find the masterlist (in chronological order) on Dreamwidth and Tumblr. Or directly check out the AO3 collection. 5. KiScon Bingo 2025

KiScon Bingo has returned for 2025! Ping our bingo mod 1lostone to get your card!

You can (and are encouraged to) interpret the prompts in any way you can, in any medium of fanwork you choose: fic, meta, podfic, art, vid, gifset, etc.

You can also participate as reader/consumer of fanworks! Filling your bingo card by enjoying fanworks and leaving comments is a wonderful way to join the fun.

You have until Dec 31, 2025, to fill your prompts. If your fanwork is Kirk/Spock or Kirk & Spock in any universe, and you post to AO3, please use the collection link (or put "KiSconBingo", without the quotes, into the collection field during the posting process)! If you use your card to post something outside of the Trek fandom, that is perfectly fine, but it won't go into the KiScon collection.

The "challenge" comes in here: If the prompt is just something that you're iffy on, you have the option of either ignoring it and filling another line, or challenging yourself to create it!

As for 'filling' a bingo card, it's meant to be low-stress. You can fill any way that makes sense to you. Some examples are: you may create one fanwork per square, or one fanwork that uses a vertical/horizontal/diagonal line, or even a fanwork (or several) that uses everything on the card! The "free" space means you do not have to write a fic for that spot. You do not HAVE to fill every space on your bingo card! Once you fill the fanwork, please post the fill(s) (and the marked out card) in ⁠the #ks-bingo channel on the KiScord so we can celebrate you! See the pinned directions there on how to embed your card in your AO3 submission.

Feel free to use this writing event with any other writing event that tickles your frals. (Some suggestions: K/S Spring Fever and the KiScon Zine!) Have fun, and get creatin'!

6. Spotify Playlist: Last but not least, we would like to rec a beautiful playlist that Romeo made, including suggestions from the KiScord crowd: Pon Farr Night at the Vulcan Nightclub! 

[1lostone]

Congrats congrats congrats to the winners!

Philon Awards 2024 Winners

(officially announced on 3 Nov 2024, at KiScon) Short fic (word count under 10K):  🏆 Gold: A Perfect Fit by ThereBeWhalesHere 🏆 Silver: And Filled With Tomorrows by Android_And_Ale

Long fic (word count 10K-50K):  🏆 Gold: Hurt by ThereBeWhalesHere 🏆  Silver: Please Don't Take Him Just Because You Can by spaceisgay (ChancellorGriffin)

Novella/novel (word count over 50K): 🏆 Gold: Regulatory Relations by indeedcaptain 🏆 Silver: I Shall Do Neither by onwhatcaptain

Podfic: 🏆 Gold: The 1,000 Hour Sleep (written by spqr) by cookiemom6067 🏆  Silver: I must confess (written by USS_Queertastic) by 1lostone

Traditional art: 🏆 Gold: The Ritual by Purple_Enma (Tumblr post) 🏆 (ex aequo) 🏆 Gold: Alright mr Spock by knezidon 🏆 (ex aequo) Silver: Spock's Tattoo by SButler (Shelley Butler)

Digital art: 🏆 Gold: Captains' Gambit (comic) by lorvee (Tumblr post) 🏆 Silver: By the Fireplace by lorvee

Poetry: 🏆 Gold: all of me, unguarded by indeedcaptain 🏆 Silver: blanket me by USS_Queertastic (BoldlyQueertastic)

Zines: 🏆 KiScon 2023 Official Zine (editor: 1lostone) (download link)🏆 Silver: Wild Heart – A NSFW AOS Spirk zine (editors: borbtrek, remylebae, nicbutnasty) (download link)

[kiscon]

Dear K/S friends, the deadline for an in-person registration to KiScon 2024 is ... TODAY!

Last chance to sign up and join us in Seattle for a weekend of inspired and inspiring K/S discussions, Trek love, lots of fun activities and games, cosplay, cake, vidshows, and more!

https://kiscon.conline.club

[kiscon]

Some highlights from the KiScon Newsletter...

[kiscon]

Sock Puppets Parade

This year we will reboot a KiScon activity from 2019 that had found much love and praise: the sock puppets parade! You can either bring your DIY Star Trek or K/S themed sock puppet along or create one directly at the con during the Friday and Saturday sessions; socks and crafts supplies will be provided. The idea is simple: any sock can be a cosplay for your hand, given enough glitter, googly eyes, tentacles, ...

Be it an "alien of the week", a crewmember or even one of our boys, a ship, or the accurate depiction of a Vulcan todger during pon farr, go crazy! You just need to have it ready for the parade on Saturday night. Online attendees are encouraged to post pictures of their creations in the #sockpuppet channel on the KiScord. There will be prizes (1st, 2nd, and 3rd place).

Rules: Max. 2 sock puppets per attendee, Trek-themed (any universe or series), must have been made by you!

[kiscon]

K/S Gazette (Jan and Feb!)

First, a reminder: Early Bird Registration for KiScon is still open through Valentine's Day!

If you have not yet registered for KiScon and want that sweet sweet Early Bird Registration rate of $150, make sure you sign up within this window!

The price of in-person attending registration will go up on February 15th to $165. Registration will remain available at that price through the 31st of July. On August 1st the price will go up again to $180. All registration for the convention, both online and in person, takes place through Conline! Register here: https://kiscon.conline.club/ We have also produced a helpful Conline How-To pdf: https://kiscon.org/resources/Conline-How-To-2024.pdf

More information regarding registration, membership tiers, as well as scholarships, can be found in the previous issue of our newsletter, archived here. 2. Submissions for the 2024 KiScon Zine are open! Submissions for the 2024 KiScon Zine are open now through August 1st!

Our editor, @1lostone, is looking forward to working with you.

We are looking for new and never before seen art and writing (both fic and meta!) focusing on the relationship between Kirk and Spock.

For a full rundown of the submission guidelines and access to the submission form, please see the zine page on our website: https://kiscon.org/zine.html

The hard deadline for zine submissions is August 1st, 2024. 3. K/S Spring Fever is in full swing!

February finds you feeling frigid? Not to fret! K/S Spring Fever, our delightful springtime Kirk and Spock prompt fill fest will have you thoroughly warmed up in no time! The prompting phase of the fest has generated 120 glorious prompts, which now beckon to be filled.

You can view said prompts and find out more information about the event on the 2024 Collection Page on AO3. 4. K/S Bingo is also in full swing, and will be for the rest of the year!

If you are active in our KiScord Server you may already be aware, but 1lostone has put together a splendid, low-pressure K/S fannish creation event in the form of a bingo challenge!

The way it works is like this: 1. You fill out this Google form. 2. 1lostone, powerful Wrangler of the Bingo, will then generate for you a custom bingo card, and send it to you either via Direct Message on Discord or via e-mail. 3. You have until the end of the year to obtain the state known as bingo (horizontal, vertical, diagonal, blackout, Texas T – any way you like) by creating fanworks to fill the prompts upon thy bingo card. Don't forget to add your work to the AO3 collection: KiScon Bingo Challenge. 5. Curious what else is going on in online K/S fandom?

The lovely Thia has put together a handy dandy calendar of K/S and K/S adjacent fandom events, anniversaries, and deadlines for the year 2024! It lists the events in chronological order and has links to websites where you can find out more information on many of them listed at the bottom of the page. Neat!

You can view the calendar on Thia's website here.  6. Not enough K/S in your social media feed?

KiScon is now on both Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/kisconnews/) and TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@kisconnews/).

Our lovely social media wranglers @cate-adams and @purpleenma are currently conducting and posting a fascinating fannish interview series, as well as KiScon and K/S fandom related news and updates in delightful bite-sized social media format. If you are active on either of these platforms, please consider giving us a follow!

And that's the news! Thank you all so much for taking the time to read this.

We've said this before but we'll say it again: we love to hear from y'all! If you have a question or comment about anything discussed in the newsletter or maybe a piece of K/S news we've missed, such as a new zine coming out or an online fanwork creation fest or anything else you think might be worthy of note, please let us know! You can get in touch by replying directly to this e-mail. :-) Yours in K/S,

T’Lara & StarshipLillian

[kiscon]

KiScon 2024 Program Survey:

KiScon 2024 Program Survey:

It's here. The moment you've all been waiting for. The blood fever of August has descended upon us and with it, this year's KiScon Program Survey. We've collected your suggestions and also brainstormed many more topics and now it's time for you to vote! You can access the form in your newsletter!

 Please submit your response ASAP; the form will close on 15 September 2024.

[kiscon]

May- K/S Newsletter!

(You can find the complete post in our newsletter. There is quite a lot of info so I only put the highlights!)

Dear K/S Friends, Summer is upon us, and we have mail for you! This time our newsletter is dedicated to only two topics, but they are so important that they warrant their own issue. 1. KiScon 2024 – Hotel Reservations:

We are happy to announce that room registration for KiScon is officially OPEN!

Our venue, the Seattle Airport and Conference Center, is now accepting room reservations for KiScon 2024!

Basic Information About The Rooms:

There are two types of rooms available to book. Rooms with one single king bed have a maximum occupancy of two people. Rooms with two double beds have a maximum occupancy of four people. Our group discounted room rate is $164 per night, plus hotel taxes and fees. Con group rates are good until the room block runs out! (See newsletter for specifics)

2. The KiScon 2024 Art Show & Auction

As KiScon 2024 is a hybrid con with an in-person AND online art show and auction, these traditional and much beloved parts of the convention are more complicated than they were at a purely online or purely in-person event. In the following, we are trying to explain everything as clearly and concisely as we can. Should you still have questions that have not been answered here, please get in touch with us at artshow@kiscon.org.

First things first, the art show and the auction usually have a certain overlap, but you can sell artworks at the auction that are not featured in the art show, and you can submit art to the art show that is not for sale. You do not need to be a registered attendee to submit art to the art show or to the auction!A. The Art Show

The art show aims to showcase a great variety of K/S fanart, trying to convey how rich in talent and creativity our fandom is.

To ensure that both in-person and online attendees can enjoy the show, it will be presented via a slideshow vid that will be accessible online throughout the convention weekend (and afterwards on our website). We will also show it on the big screen during the opening ceremony on Friday night.

In addition there will be space in the Rec Room at the hotel to host a small exhibition and show physical artworks that attendees bring to the convention in person. If you plan to bring physical artworks to the con, please do not forget to submit a photo or scan of it to the art show vid, so that our online members can also marvel at it.

For all submissions to the art show, please use our online form. Deadline: 15 September 2024.

B. The Auction

You do not need to be a registered attendee to offer items in the auction, but only attendees (in-person or online) are able to bid on items.

What is accepted for the auction?

Traditional, physical artworks:paintings, drawings, prints, but also three-dimensional artworks like sculptures, amigurumi, fibre craft, jewellery etc.

Digital artworks or hybrid artworks (e.g. a drawing on paper that you digitally altered afterwards); AI-art is not permitted, without exception. Digital items will be delivered to the buyer as high-resolution files; it is sensible to include clear information what rights the buyer acquires along with the artwork, i.e. what the buyer is allowed to do with the file (e.g. use it as illustration for their fic on the AO3? use it to prettify their website?)

Trek merchandise or collectibles (mugs, T-shirts, plates etc.)

Trek zines (especially rare editions), pro novels (especially hard-to-find ones)

The item must be K/S or K&S or Star Trek in general.

You must be the rightful owner of the item that you offer for sale or have express permission from the owner if you sell it for someone else.

In the case of artworks this means: you do not need to be the artist, but you need to be the current owner of the artwork; the artist’s permission is not needed.

(sorry folks, that's the limit for this post!)

[kiscon]

KiScon Newsletter- K/S Gazette!

(You can see the newsletter information on our website. I didn't put the entire newsletter to save your dash!)

1. K/S Day is March 24th

K/S Day is a fannish holiday created by the K/S Press in 1997 to celebrate all things Kirk and Spock! It falls between William Shatner's birthday on March 22nd and Leonard Nimoy's birthday on March 26th. Though chosen originally for being a Monday in 1997, the date rather than the day of the week ended up being what stuck. To read more about the origins of and activities associated with K/S day, check out the Fanlore article here.

If you do something fun to celebrate the holiday, we'd love you to write in and tell us what you did!

2. Kirk/Spock Spring Fever 2024

Itself a celebration of K/S Day, K/S Spring Fever has wrapped up its creation phase and gone live today! 114 works are waiting for you to enjoy them. Their creators will be revealed on March 26th. Check out the AO3 collection – its cup is truly flowing over with K/S riches.

The K/S Advent Roundup looks awful when I post it to tumblr, so again, to save your eyes, you can access it here:

~Lost

[kiscon]

Deadline for Advertising Space in Con Book

Did you sign up for an in-person dealer's table at the con? Or for an online dealer space (i.e. a booth on Conline and a dealer channel on the KiScord)? Then, advertising space in our con book (i.e., the program booklet, which will be given to all attendees) is yours to claim! Promote your table and whet people's appetite! Or promote your Etsy/Ebay/Redbubble/etc. shop! Send us a short text, any links you want us to include, and – ideally – also a photo or two of the goods you have to offer.*

* Note: Unneutered tribbles are excluded from trading at the con hotel. Do you run a fan archival project and want to make sure people know about it? Are you putting together a zine or a fannish event and looking to get some submissions? Advertise in our con book!

The deadline to submit your advertisement is August 31st, 2024. Send your submission to: larissa@kiscon.org

[kiscon]

December KiScon Newsletter!

Dear K/S friends,

Greetings and felicitations! We hope you are enjoying a joyful winter holiday season, and we send you our best wishes for a happy, creative, inspiring, and peaceful New Year filled with good luck, good health, love, and laughter.

1. Early Bird Registration for KiScon 2024 is open:

Many of you who attended this year's online KiScon have already heard the news, but for those who have not we are delighted to announce that KiScon will be returning in person in 2024 at the Hilton Seattle Airport & Conference Center (address: 17620 International Blvd, Seattle, WA 98188).

There will be a banquet. There will be a cake. There will be a con suite. There will be Pin the Cock on Spock. It's going to be a rowdy good time! But KiScon 2024 will also be a hybrid convention, combining the in-person event at the hotel with virtual programming to include and interweave with each other the best of both worlds. We aim to get both online and in-person attendees into the same big room to enable real and meaningful interaction with all.

Early Bird Registration is now open! All registration for the convention, both online and in person, takes place through Conline! Register here: https://kiscon.conline.club/ We have also prepared a helpful How-To pdf: https://kiscon.org/resources/Conline-How-To-2024.pdf

The rates for KiScon 2024 are:

In-Person Attending: This tier gets you in-person admission to the convention, plus a physical goodie bag, plus the digital goodie bag. It also gives you access to all our online activities (e.g. for rewatching the vidshows). As an EARLY BIRD you can get this tier for $150, but only until Valentine's Day (14 February 2024)! From 15 February – 31 July 2024, the In-Person Attending tier will be available for $165, and on 1 August 2024 the price will jump to $180.

Online Attending: $25. This tier gets you online admission and a digital goodie bag as we've done the past two years.

Supporting Membership: $10. This tier is for those who cannot attend the con, but want to support us with a donation. You will get the digital goodie bag, as we've done the past two years.

For all membership tiers we offer add-ons during the registration process, for example a physical goodie bag ($40) for online members; in-person members can choose this option if they need an extra physical goodie bag (e.g. to take home as gift for a friend). You can also choose to sponsor a membership during the check-out process.

[kiscon]

Follow us on Socials!

We are so pleased to announce that Purple Enma  and @cate-adams are on our social team!

Tiktok | Instagram | Bluesky

You can see our interview with Star Trek fandom creator Starshadow!