Friends 4 Realz! #InConjunction2017

When you live a certain amount of your life online, you “meet” people from here and there, right? Sometimes, you find yourself in the vicinity of one of those people. Sometimes, you actually get to meet an online friend.

Yeah, true, sometimes you get murdered with an axe and chopped up into little pieces, I’m not saying you NEVER do, but the number of times that’s happened to me is so small as to be insignificant. And I got most of the pieces back, so….

ANYWAY, I was in Indianapolis this past weekend, and guess who lives there? JOEY of JoeyfullyStated, that’s who!

Brave soul, she actually came to the hotel where InConjunction Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention was being held.

That meant she was right outside the Expo Hall a.k.a. Vendors Room! I ran out and yelled, “Joey!” And there she was!

I couldn’t go have a coffee, because there were only two of us partners to tend the table, and the one who isn’t me was on panels for two hours in a row. So we sat behind the table and talked, except when I leaped up, showed my teeth, and attempted to charm unsuspecting strangers into spending money on our books rather than on other things. I mean, I like people, I just don’t always feel like showing it.

Peopling is hard. But Joeying is delightful.

Thank you, Joey, for coming to see me. You turned the dreadfulness of hanging out in public for hours into a magical visit with an electronic friend, who is electronic no more, but 4 realz.

Joey and FatFace. Er, I mean MomGoth.

I’m posting today at Fatal Foodies about Twice-Baked Potatoes. Guess what that is.

A WRITING PROMPT FOR YOU: A character meets someone they’ve only known by reputation or phone or electronic remove.

MA

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About

I was born in Louisville, Kentucky, but now live in the woods in southern Indiana. Though I only write fiction, I love to read non-fiction. The more I learn about this world, the more fantastic I see it is.

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One thought on “Friends 4 Realz! #InConjunction2017

    • Author

      Marian Allen

      July 4, 2017 at 8:35am

      It WAS! It was like, “Wow, my internet connection is really good here: it’s almost like we’re talking face to face!” Oh, um, yeah, WE ARE!

      Permalink  ⋅ Reply
  1. Alice

    July 4, 2017 at 12:02pm

    First things first: Any digital friend of Joey’s is a digital friend of mine.
    Second things second: Anybody who hangs out making irl friends of digital friends near the shadow of A FREAKIN DRAGON is beyond hard-core epic.
    Third things third: One and two notwithstanding, why I am most pleased to make your virtual acquaintance today is that I’ve been noticing your face at the bottom of blogs and misrecognizing you for months now. In your tiny face square (the one that shows up when “liking” a WP post), you look astonishingly similar to a friend of mine. An irl friend. And I mean, how she looks in her own tiny face square. Or how she would look if she had one, which is to say: if she herself blogged. And before this little story-telling jaunt to nowhere gets any wordier, I’ma stop here.

    TL;DR howdy-doo Ms. Author Lady! pleased to meetcha!

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    • Author

      Marian Allen

      July 4, 2017 at 5:59pm

      Pleased to meetcha right back! Full disclosure: the dragon was only an inflatable, not a realio-trulio one, alas! I am beyond happy to look like anybody’s friend, in my tiny face square or anywhere. Say hi to your irl friend for me and ask her to give you a hug from her tiny face square doppelganger.

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    • Author

      Marian Allen

      July 4, 2017 at 6:03pm

      It WAS a treat! Joey said she was socially awkward, but I sure never felt that she was. She was kind and funny and gracious and all the things I expected from her blogging. Except she didn’t cuss as much. That was vaguely disappointing. lol

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  2. joey

    July 5, 2017 at 11:34am

    It was such a pleasure 🙂 Your commentary is so kind, thank you.
    I laughed so hard when I saw our text convo!!!
    I don’t much swear in public. That tends to add to the socially awkward feeling.

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    • Author

      Marian Allen

      July 5, 2017 at 1:07pm

      Just don’t ever ever EVER go to a Fandom Fest or a Comicon unless you steel yourself for it first. InCon was relatively mainstream, actually. I saw no aliens or BDSM practitioners or zombies this weekend. I saw no Klingons in hula skirts and coconut bras (WAY-off-Broadway production of South Pacific). I saw no Godzillas or wookies stalking the hallways. No dueling Captain Americas. BIG SQUISHY HUGS again!

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      • joey

        July 5, 2017 at 9:13pm

        I’m just not a Con person. My kids LOVE them, and thank goodness they have friends to go with, lol! I’ve seen the photos, and I can sincerely say, “No, thanks.”
        BIG SQUISHY HUGS for you, too!

        Permalink  ⋅ Reply

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