#albacon

[duckprintspress]

Attend Albacon This Weekend!

This weekend, Friday (Sept. 13) through Sunday (Sept. 15), come say “hello!” to Duck Prints Press at Albacon at the Marriott Courtyard in Clifton Park, New York!

We will be vending on the Dealer’s Row, room 103, with Tris Lawrence – right next door to the game room and a few doors away from the Hospitality Suite. I expect our open hours will be roughly:

Friday: 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

I’ll also be participating in a panel, an autograph session, and doing a reading!

Saturday, 10 a.m. to 11 a.m.: autograph session

Saturday, 4 p.m. to 5 p.m.: Relationships Beyond Romance

Sunday, 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.: reading from A Glimmer of Hope

Author Tris Lawrence, who publishes with Duck Prints Press, will also be in attendance and participating in panels and events. Check out her schedule!

There’ll be a lot of other really awesome folks attending both in person and remotely – Elizabeth Bear, Scott Lynch, Geri Sullivan, and Cory Doctorow are the guests of honor, for starters! – so if you’re in the area, come on over and get your con on. We’d love to see you!

[tryslora]

Post-convention -- Albacon

A couple of weeks ago I attended Albacon in Clifton Park, NY.

I’ve been a part of this convention since we brought it to life in 1996, so it holds a special place in my heart. It has always been tiny, which is both frustrating (hard to keep a con afloat when it’s always running barely in the black) and wonderful (want to meet a guest and chat informally? there are so few folks around, just hang out…).

The entire convention is maybe 120ish people on site. We have two programming rooms and a reading room. We have a dealers’ row (this year we only had two vendors, unfortunately). We have a social space con suite and a gaming room. Our convention is fully hybrid. For unofficial spaces, there is the lobby (many folks hang out in these cool high-backed chairs that sway back and forth—we love these chairs), and the patio with a huge fire pit.

I get frustrated as hell helping bring this convention to life, and at the same time, I always enjoy myself there.

This year, our on-site Guests of Honor were Elizabeth Bear and Scott Lynch, and our Fan Guest of Honor was Geri Sullivan. Our online Guest of Honor was Cory Doctorow.

I did a reading and four panels, and enjoyed all of them. I also got to spend time with Bear, who I’ve known for years (since before I had my kids) and finally got to know Scott a bit. And same with Geri—I’ve known her for years but never really got to talk before. I spent both evenings of the convention out at the fire pit, just chattering away and catching up with Bear. So lovely.

One of the other lovely things about the convention is that for the first time in decades, I decided to dress up. I rewarded myself with a shopping binge for things that I could pull together with things I already owned and create a set of outfits. One of them will continue to be worked on because I need to build some cosplay accessories to make an OC “retired magical girl” outfit. Like. If I’m gonna dye my hair and not need a wig, I need to use this to my advantage, right???

Keep reading past the read-more for pictures of cosplay and information about the panels!

The first one was Friday night—an all in black outfit with an off-the-shoulder long-sleeved “pirate” top with a waist-cinched belt, jeans, and cute low boots. On Saturday I wore a black long jacket and vest top over black leggings and combat boots for a vaguely military look. I want to add steam-punk elements to that one, I think. And Sunday was magical girl day with an under-bust corset vest, a red pirate top, and a mini skirt, fishnets, and sparkly high heeled shoes. The secret to the heels? They are Skechers and so comfortable I can literally run in them. But they are also SPARKLY. I need to make bracers, flowers for my hair, a choker, and a staff for that outfit before it’s done.

Anyway, these will go to other conventions with me, along with my vest + long-sleeved shirts outfits, and t-shirts for when my brain is DONE with costuming.

As for programming… my reading was… uh… not attended. :D I performed well for the recording, and hopefully some folks happened to catch it afterwards online! I read the first part of my short story “A Bright and Clouded Future” which will be appearing in the Yay! All Queer anthology from Inkd Publishing. 

Saturday’s panel on tropes was a blast, and the one on relationships beyond romance was everything I had hoped it would be. Saturday evening I moderated a panel on new SF voices from around the world, and the first thing we agreed on is that these voices aren’t new, they are simply finally being recognized which is important. We also talked a lot about translations and how translators can help bring these voices to the English-speaking world, particularly for short stories.

Sunday’s panel was fun—it was about how we found fandom, and things that we wished we’d known, and how things have changed. Of the five members of the panel, I was the only one who entered fandom as a tween and who grew up in fandom as a cis female. We had a lot of fun going back and forth, and I was really impressed at how positive it was. I also made a friend, meeting someone who grew up in fandom at the same time I did, at the same cons I did, and somehow we’d never known each other. So that was really awesome and I look forward to seeing them again in the future (and online! Hi!!!).

This year we wisely took the Monday after the convention off from work and I was very very relieved we did. At that point, it had been two weeks of complete chaos in life and work and family, and I needed that break. It was nice to just… rest… and get the chores done, obviously, since we hadn’t been home for it.

Going back to the cosplay… I think the last time I cosplayed I was in my 20s. Like. More than 30 years ago. I haven’t had the confidence, or the ability to see characters in the mirror until recently. This felt like returning to myself and becoming a person who has been hiding so far in my subconscious that I wasn’t sure she’d ever come back. I am so thankful to have been able to do that. I am also glad that I made the decision to combine my fandom and professional lives. I don’t think I could go to conventions as a pure professional—too many people have known me since I was 12. But I am thankful for all of those fandom connections, too, and it’s like seeing family when we go to conventions. I’m also learning that there are people who are happy to help as we branch out into more conventions, and help me reach out to get on programming, which I need for my career.

Our next convention won’t be until February, when we head to Boston for Boskone. I’m already excited for that one—I was chatting with folks at Albacon about potential ideas for things I can do on programming. It’s going to be fun.

And that’s the best part—this aspect of my professional life is fun. Scary sometimes, but in the end, enjoyable. And that’s great.

[thefranconian]

Hitting the road

_uacct = "UA-6068927-1"; urchinTracker(); I'm just about ready to head out to my first Albacon, a regional SF&F convention. October is the best time to do any kind of road trip as the foliage will be beautiful and I'll be attending with my trusty partner-in-crime, Peter V. Brett. Pete will be participating in his first panels as an author and I'm very excited to support him as he takes this next step in career as a fantasy author. Check out his blog here for updates on the con and his experience as panelist. I'll also attempt to capture some of the convention experience from the point of view of an editor on the prowl. Stay tuned.

[tryslora]

Albacon

Albacon is coming up the weekend of September 13-15, 2024. The convention takes place in Clifton Park, NY, BUT it is also a fully hybrid convention, which means you can attend online from anywhere in the world! Well, time zones ARE a thing, but you get what I mean.

When I say fully hybrid, I mean that panels may be in-person panelists, or online panelists, or a blend of both. I know that at least one I'm on is very much a blend. Albacon does this very well, and the cost for an online membership is only $15, so well worth it for the weekend. We run two tracks of programming, plus readings, and a few events. We also have a Discord (doesn't everyone?).

Currently it looks like I'm reading at 5pm on Friday, and yes, that will be broadcast as part of the online attendance. I'll be reading from the story that was recently accepted into the "Yay! All Queer" anthology from Inkd Publishing.

The full program schedule is not available publicly yet, so I'm not including times on these, but right now it looks like I'll be doing four panels:

Why are tropes popular?

Relationships beyond romance

New SF voices from around the world (note, I'll probably be focusing on SF/Fantasy from Japan and China, myself--I'm also moderating this one)

How I found fandom & SF conventions

For anyone interested in attending in person ($30 in advance for the weekend, $35 on-site, and there's a discount if you have a student ID), I will also be vending with Duck Prints Press on our (tiny) Dealers' Row, so come to my room and check out the cool queer books and merch!

[duckprintspress]

Duck Prints Press Summer 2023 Con Wrap!

We’ve now vended at our first two cons, and we wanted to take a few minutes to blog about it!

I (press owner Claire Houck/unforth) attended Fandom Fest in Schenectady, NY, and Albacon in Clifton Park, NY, and vended on behalf of the Press. Authors Nova Mason, Shea Sullivan, Catherine E. Green, and Tris Lawrence helped me out with manning the booth, handling transactions, participating in our first DPP panel, and more, so huge THANKS to them. (Also to Prof. Robert Heverly from Albany Law School, for contributing his expertise on copyright law to our Fandom Fest panel). I wrote about our Fandom Fest panel here, and about our events at Albacon here and here.

To be honest, we really had no idea how things would go, and I’m not exaggerating when I say that we far exceeded our expectations. Going into this, I’ll own I was very afraid – would people be interested in our Press? Would we make money? Or would we be that sad, lonely table that everyone walks quickly by? But things couldn’t have gone better – they went so well we’re already looking at more events to attend in the future.

From a fiscal standpoint, we made almost double what I anticipated and completely made up the expense of buying the supplies and equipment necessary for us to vend at these events and going forward. From a panel perspective, our events were nicely attended. From a “growing the business” standpoint, we added many names to our mailing lists and gained social media platforms. And, from a networking standpoint, we had a fantastic time and met a lot of awesome people – and that’s primarily what this post is about!

You already know about us; we’re here to shout-out some other folks we’re now very happy to know!

Top Row, Left Picture: The amazing Syrren (@syrren) and I bonded instantly over our shared love of the men of Mo Xiang Tong Xiu books and Stardew Valley romance options. I miiiight have ended up with some merch (though the Genshin Impact ones are gifts for a friend).

Top Row, Middle Picture: jiadoesart had many lovely things, and I picked out some stickers for my Ghibli-loving kids.

Top Row, Right Picture: The Consol Collection, sadly, has no website that I can find, but they had a lot of things such as this adorable Totoro sticker I got for my kids. And when the owner of Eclectic Arts approached me in an absolutely fabulous Hawaiian shirt featuring Pride-flag-colored twenty-sided dice, I instantly agreed to a sticker trade.

Bottom Row, Left Picture: According to the Fandom Fest organizers, it was 100% a coincidence that we ended up next to Duck and Cover, but we couldn’t have had a cooler or more appropriate neighbor. A con attendee felt it was so on-brand for Duck Prints Press that they actually bought us this one-of-a-kind hand-painted James Bond duckie! We also talked with Duck and Cover about maybe offering some of their custom ducks as campaign add-ons in the future, so be on the lookout…

Bottom Row, Right Picture: The owner of The Cogitation Zone, Lisa, is a long-time friend of Tris Lawrence, who commissioned us this custom Duck Prints Press business card holder that’ll be accompanying us to all our future cons! Lisa also had made a large number of adorable creatures, and I miiiight have traded a copy of one of our anthologies for an axolotl. Because. Axolotl.

Some Other Neat Folks We Met:

Pastel Prince Shop: lots of gorgeous queer art and merch; I’m hoping to get one of their asexual pride bracelets in the future (it got sold before I could grab it, sadly).

Bear and Bird Boutique: a local business that was vending at Fandom Fest, too, they have a lot of amazing bits and baubles, both fandom-related and original. We’ve bought everything from the Hilda graphic novel to a dragon puzzle at their store.

Picnocline: the only reason I didn’t buy things from Picnocline’s shop is that there were so many cute things that I literally couldn’t pick.

It’s Getting Dicey: dice, one of my true weaknesses! They have metal pride-flag dice sets, and lots of queer dice trays. I wish I could get them all…

Two-Penny Nerdlesque: a local burlesque troupe; they were very enthusiastic about And Seek (Not) to Alter Me and our queerifying of Much Ado About Nothing, and delighted told me about their own very queer versions of Shakespeare and other plays – I’m definitely going to have to check them out in the future.

(There are others too, but I didn’t grab everyone’s information, and I think this is plenty for one post. 😀 )

If any of you all are seeing this post, it was an absolute delight to meet you, and please don’t be a stranger!

Going forward, we’re looking forward to participating in more events and making more connections with other creators, especially other queer creators! Just today, we’ve applied to vend at A Big Gay Market, taking place in Washington Park in Albany on October 29th, 2023. We’ve also got a tentative schedule for 2024, and we’ll post more about where you’ll be able to find us as the dates grow closer and we find out if the juried shows have accepted our applications. We’re going to do our best to continue the success we’ve enjoyed at our first two conventions by pursuing vending as a way to meet potential readers and customers, grow relationships with other queer creators, and get the Duck Prints Press names out there for the benefit of all the authors, artists, and others we work with!

Got a con in New York State or Massachusetts that you love and think we should try to attend in 2024? Let us know in the comments or by dropping us an e-mail at info at duckprintspress dot com!

[tryslora]

I'm partly packed for Albacon!! I love how the Triple Duty Caddy fits the books so perfectly in the center and then papers and pens on the sides. And it's personalized!!! This is my favorite new piece of convention gear. If you are going to be at Albacon, stop by and say hi! I will be in the art show. #albacon #thirtyonegifts #thirtyone

[tryslora]

If anyone happens to be going to Albacon this weekend, let me know. I will be there.