Swancon 2016!!! First of a series of posts

[alias_sqbr]

So that was fun! And I am predictably tired, it has taken a few days of napping and playing Stardew Valley before I felt up to poking at the notes I took. I managed to achieve all my goals: my panels went well, talked to friends, met new people, attended other people's fun panels, saw some cool costumes, spoke to some of the guests.

The notes all blur together, so I'm going to start from the beginning and see what structure emerges.


Speak for 3 minutes about local fannish events

I was planning on just being an audience member for this but ended up spruiking Let's Make Games. I asked about (wheelchair) accessibility for each event, there was also questions about age limits and codes of conduct but I didn't write that down. This was originally planned to just be about boardgames thus the skewed data.

Unisfa: UWA scifi and fantasy club. Inaccessible clubroom.

Unigames: UWA board gaming club. Inaccessible clubroom.

Ghengiscon: Cheap, open scifi convention. Wheelchair accessible.

Concentric: Adelaide board gaming convention. Wheelchair accessible.

WABA: WA Board gaming Association. Wheelchair accessible.

Cafe Miriade: Boardgame cafe. Wheelchair accessible.

RFLAN/Red Flag Land: Private gaming LAN once every 3 months. Wheelchair accessible.

SCA/Society for Creative Anachronism: Medieval-ish re-enactment and activities. Accessibility varies.

CrimeScene: Forensic science and mystery writing con. Probably accessible?

As yet unnamed West Australian Wargame group: check out WABA guild page, still in development.

JAFWA: Anime club. Mostly acessible.

Furwag and Perthfurs.net: Furry community and con. Venue TBA.

Meetup: Lots of different great groups! Accessibility varies even within the same group. PerthRPG, Final Frontiers (tabletop RPG I think?), Perth Geek Girls, Perth Science Fiction Fans

Let's Make Games: For makers of video games. Has moderately inaccessible shared workspace Level One (has steps and is also unairconditioned, I park in the backyard), very accessible yearly Games Festival.

Authors Like Lois McMaster Bujold
This came at the end of a general Lois McMaster Bujold panel which was interesting but I didn't write anything down about. Asterixes mean I agree with the rec.

• Rose Lerner*
  
• Liaden Series*
  
• Connie Willis*
  
• Laundry Archives
  
• C J Cherryh
  
• Species Imperitive Jule E Czerneda*
  
• Dorothy L Sayers*
  
• Jane Austen*
  
• Dorothy Dunnet's Lymond
  
• Inspector Allen
  
• Anne Leckie*
  
• Nalo Hopkinson
  
• Nnedi Okarafor
  
• Xenogensis by Octavia Butler (I liied this but it didn't feel very Bujold-y to me)
  

Other people recced but I personally dislike (it's my post I can say that ;)):

• Georgette Heyer
  
• Sheri S Tepper (see dreamwidth comments for caveat)
  

Other people recced, I haven't read but some audience members made faces:

• Joel Shepard
  
• Lynn Flewelling
  

Comments

[fred_mouse]

Given that I was the person who recced Tepper, I'm going to flag that this is because both Bujold and Tepper make me rage at the world (and sometimes the author), in similar ways, and so it is only recommended if you are somone who has that reaction to Bujold's writing, rather than the somewhat uncritical reading the other panellists appeared to have.

[alias_sqbr]

nods will edit the post. The difference between them for me is that while Bujold is angry at the world, she seems to have a genuine compassion for all the people in it, even the ones she's angry at, while Tepper, from what I've seen, does not.

[fred_mouse]

I agree - Bujold still seems to have hope, while Tepper reads like she has given up on hope, but I wonder how much of that is that Bujold is writing in far future/off Earth, and Tepper's really angry books are all set near future/on Earth.

[alias_sqbr]

I don't know, my introduction to Tepper was Beauty. Though now that you mention it, as I vaguely recall it did get more pointed when dealing with the present/near future.

[fred_mouse]

:)

[velithya]

I've read and enjoyed books by Lyn Flewelling!

[alias_sqbr]

nods I think the reaction was less that she's bad, and more that she's not very much like Lois McMaster Bujold. I haven't read her myself so can't say.