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Setting off for Eastercon on Friday I felt roughly equal parts terrified and excited, but I had a fantastic time and ended up feeling rather sorry that Easter being so late meant that this week is week 0 of term so I couldn't stay until today and take Tuesday off to recover (though by the time I left yesterday afternoon I was feeling tired enough that I was probably ready to come home).
I went to lots of interesting panels, and really liked how much of the content was focused on books, rather than the more media-centred content at Nine Worlds. Particular favourites included the art of reviewing, #ownvoices, maps and landscapes in fantasy, decolonising SFF and the Moomins; I only went to one panel that I really wasn't impressed with, on romance in SFF, which suffered from poor moderation and an unwillingness to explore the topic more widely, but I wasn't too sorry to leave it early given that romance in literature is something I have a fairly hit-and-miss relationship with anyway (and I had an excellent conversation about romance in SFF with the people I was sitting with before the panel started).
It was also really good to spend time socialising: with people I already knew but don't see in person nearly often enough; with people I hadn't met before; and, best of all, with people I have known online for a very long time but had never managed to meet in person before (in once case, someone who is almost my oldest internet acquaintance who I was absolutely thrilled to finally meet). The membership skews much older than Nine Worlds, so rather than feeling like one of the oldies I was firmly in the middle, age-wise, and in a lot of ways I felt much more like I belonged than I have done at Nine Worlds. I think there's a strong probability that I will be going again next year. If I do, I think I would probably stay in the con hotel; I'd picked the Ibis over the road this time on the grounds that it was close enough to get to easily but might give me a bit of space if I needed it, but I didn't really take advantage of the space and it did strike me that if I'd been in the con hotel I could have nipped upstairs to make tea between panels rather than paying £3 for a teabag and some hot water in the hotel bar...
I went to lots of interesting panels, and really liked how much of the content was focused on books, rather than the more media-centred content at Nine Worlds. Particular favourites included the art of reviewing, #ownvoices, maps and landscapes in fantasy, decolonising SFF and the Moomins; I only went to one panel that I really wasn't impressed with, on romance in SFF, which suffered from poor moderation and an unwillingness to explore the topic more widely, but I wasn't too sorry to leave it early given that romance in literature is something I have a fairly hit-and-miss relationship with anyway (and I had an excellent conversation about romance in SFF with the people I was sitting with before the panel started).
It was also really good to spend time socialising: with people I already knew but don't see in person nearly often enough; with people I hadn't met before; and, best of all, with people I have known online for a very long time but had never managed to meet in person before (in once case, someone who is almost my oldest internet acquaintance who I was absolutely thrilled to finally meet). The membership skews much older than Nine Worlds, so rather than feeling like one of the oldies I was firmly in the middle, age-wise, and in a lot of ways I felt much more like I belonged than I have done at Nine Worlds. I think there's a strong probability that I will be going again next year. If I do, I think I would probably stay in the con hotel; I'd picked the Ibis over the road this time on the grounds that it was close enough to get to easily but might give me a bit of space if I needed it, but I didn't really take advantage of the space and it did strike me that if I'd been in the con hotel I could have nipped upstairs to make tea between panels rather than paying £3 for a teabag and some hot water in the hotel bar...
