This one is more personal. The more professional one is at Southern Indiana Writers, where I at least attempt to pretend I’m a responsible adult. Go there for a rundown of our panels on Blogging 4 Writers and Smashwords, Kindle, POD and Other Dirty Words (self-publishing), including downloads of our handouts.

Okay, we drove up to Marcon uneventfully (Thanks, GPS lady!), taking a trunk full of food — I mean books. After last year, we did not stay in the convention hotel. There’s only so much money in the world, and we don’t have that much of it. We stayed in The Red Roof Inn down the street. Loved it.

During the short walk to the convention hotel, we came upon this sign, which was apparently produced by one of my spommenters (spam commenters). We were like, “Woah! Never knew Columbus was such a wide-open town! Better a happy one than a grumpy one, fo’ shizzle.” We thought the MF was uncalled for, though, so we didn’t go meet her. I hope that didn’t make her sad. Four to seven ain’t bad odds, though.

Wonderful costumes! The emphasis this year was on Steampunk, which delighted us. Personally, I never was too crazy about zombies, and I prefer my vampires to be more “two small puncture marks” than streaming with gore, so gears and airships make me do the happy dance. ~waves at Amanda Borenstadt~ I’ve never written Steampunk, but I’ve read some lately (Crystal Rain by Tobias Buckell [reviewed here] and The Burning Sky by Joseph Robert Lewis [currently reading]) and, of course, I’ve read many of the precursors (Jules Verne et al). I love the concepts, I love the clothes, I totally love the jewelry.

The costumes ranged from formal to less formal, airship pilot, scientist, inventor, upper-class, lower-class, totally alternative Victorian, straight Victorian, male and female and a lot of stick-a-gear-on-it-and-call-it-Steampunk. The variety was delightful, and the absence of ick was refreshing and wonderful. Poor MomGoth (me) didn’t have to up her dosage or anything.

It wasn’t all Steampunk. There was a large contingent of Whovians (fans of Doctor Who), with various incarnations of the Doctor and his various companions in all shapes and sizes. There was even a wonderful costume, which I missed snapping, of a dalek. A woman had on a crinolined skirt covered in those dalek bumps, carrying a silver plunger. 😀 The Doctor’s transportation device — disguised as a police call box — had pride of place in The Green Room, where us panelists were allowed to hang out. We never saw him come or go, though, we we suspect it might have been a prop and not the real thing at all. 😉

There were also costumes unrelated to Steampunk and Doctor Who, like this one, which I thought was totally gorgeous. She was a fae of the Winter Court. I kept meeting her in the ladies’ rooms, reapplying the silver to her hands.

I felt like a scrub, what with just being dressed in my regular clothes, but being on panels and stuff inhibits me. If I were to wear a costume, though, I would totally want it to be Steampunk. With trousers or a shortish plainish skirt, though. I love the long skirts, but I wouldn’t want to have to keep track of all those layers and all that length.

We arrived home after the convention without incident (Thanks again, GPS lady!) with fewer books, little food, less money and some good stuff. T got a new walking stick, I got a new bracelet, not sure what Samantha scored, but it was probably good.

WRITING PROMPT: What kind of sf/fantasy costume would you wear, if you HAD to wear one?

MA