Family day, February 21 of 2022, my hometown hosted its annual comic convention, and for the first time in my life I was behind a booth as an author hawking his own books.
It was nerve racking. The first convention since the pandemic, so many people, but they were masked, vaxxed, and social distance was maintained.
This is just a little blog on my participation in the event.
Firstly, there was preparations for the day before.
It was held at Carleton Place Arena, and Vendors were encouraged to show up the evening before to set up. I decided to go there that evening and scout out the show space, but I couldn’t go there empty handed.
It wouldn’t look good to just have those sitting on a table. They needed to be sitting up tall and proud. It’s probably the only convention I will get to this year due to my wife’s health so I’d best do it right.
Trying to be socially and environmentally conscious, I built a stand out of packing Styrofoam that had come with some already-delivered packages, and some hot-glue.
It was nice, light weight yet tall… And that proved to be a problem because I brought it with me on the 20th to recce my booth position, and the wind was so strong it broke my display rack into while I was walking the 15 feet to my car, so I hastily repaired it.
Well, there goes day one’s con-flop. There has to be an issue every day, one bad thing for the rest to go well. If that was all there was, great.
So when I arrived I found it already bustling, with a bunch of bright young volunteers eager to help. After scanning my vaccination’s QR code I was let in and encouraged to set up.
And yes, that’s not a white table cloth, but a shower curtain. Why? BECAUSE IT WAS LESS EXPENSIVE and washable.
I did have a little help, but I didn’t need as much as some of the other vendors. Still, I hope my positive and cheery attitude was infectious.
After mounting my rebuilt display and my 2022 cover banner,
I realized that I needed to mount Devon J Hall’s “Welcome to My Worlds” banner better. Time to head home and hot glue something together, while pre-loading my books into the vehicle.
After a hearty breakfast I arrived the next morning bright-eyed and less bushy faced, having shaved the night before.
And after bringing in most of my books I realized I had left Nobilis: Seedling at home.
There’s that day’s con-flub. I had more than enough time to head home, grab it, and set up before the opening.
There was one thing left to do. Set the prices of the books.
Because I don’t self-publish, but instead rely on indie presses, I had to set the con-prices in a way that wouldn’t undercut the publishers too drastically, so I logged into their websites, and set the books just a little lower.
There were some familiar faces in the crowd. Kobold’s Corner has long been my go-to comic-stop, and I was happy to see them represented.
And to my left, (con-goer’s right) was the charming Cruzie’s Nerdy Games & Apparel
And my backdoor buddy, I mean, the vendor behind me, and someone who shared in some antics of the day, was Liam Gibbs , author of the superhero-meets-spaceballs adventure comedy series, “In a Galaxy Far, Far Awry”
Right at 10, on the nose, guests began arriving. It didn’t take long for the hall to fill. People were eager to get back to conventions, and be nerds in the crowd once again.
The view from my booth only seconds to go. The Geek community is masked, alive, and well.
And then it got busy, a bit too busy for me to be looking at my phone. Still, in the moments I could I appreciated the costumes and con-flow.
And the one costume that amused me to no end was TIK-TIK ON GROWTH HORMONES!
And the first time I’ve actually seen an inflatable dino!
By 15h30 it had wound down, and I had survived. I hadn’t broken the bank either way, but I had met some awesome people, made some new friends, and hopefully some new fans.
I may not make it to another Con this year, but I will cherish this one, and hopefully, at the next con, present myself with lessons learned from this one.