Hello, readers,

It's been quite the exhausting trip, but I have returned from Everfree Northwest 2013 as well as purchased my badge for next year, all but confirming my presence there. The convention was a great deal of fun. Oh boy, was it fun. I got Andrew Francis yelling about corn dogs, including the crowd chanting corn dogs instead of his name after the Guys of MLP panel, asked a question at the AKR as well as the AKR + Sibsy panels on Friday (look 'em up on Youtube when they're out!), hit the beer every night, and had a nice writerly chat with Amy Keating Rogers, just to name a few things.

However, one of the most important parts of the convention to me was the writing. I attended the lion's share of the panels, contributed some (hopefully) insightful information, and met many fine writers. On top of meeting a few people who had actually heard of me, which was a surprise, I met totallynotabrony, Silver Quill, Skywriter (for the second time), Pen Stroke (also for the second time), horizon, Piquo Pie, Couch Crusader, and others whom I've inevitably forgotten thanks to such a large shuffle.

While the panels were great and in the style of interactive lectures (I highly recommend attending if you're reading this), my favourite part of the writing aspect of the convention was the meet and greet. For a few hours on Friday and Saturday nights, a 50-person panel room was opened up for writers to come and go to sit around several large round tables and just chat, both well known authors and lesser known writers (such as myself), and people who weren't even writers at all. Meeting people who I've seen around the site or the community and people who have heard of my work or read it was great fun, especially since we got to talk about writing stuff for hours on end. Here's a photo from the panel, stolen from totallynotabrony's blog post:



Left to right: totallynotabrony, Silver Quill, Me, horizon, SR Foxley, and Hazard (photo by Piquo Pie).

Beyond that, I managed to get a few photos taken. Apologies if I look stoned in some of these; as per convention standard, I was run quite ragged during the weekend, on account of being up until 12-2 AM each night getting drunk with my friends and then waking up at 7 AM sharp to get a relaxing shower in and heading over to the Denny's. Note that most images in this post are very high resolution, so you can right click and click "view image" to see the full quality if you so desire.



I was pretty easy to spot at the con. I plan on wearing a similar badge to Bronycon and Bronycan. Be on the lookout for it, and come say hi!



Peter New! My friend and I bought drinks for all the VAs (I hope everybody got them), and Peter was quite surprised and pleased to receive a gigantic can of Foster's (the biggest can we could find in the 7/11).



The Cutie Mark Crusaders. Yes, Sir Babs Seed had empty coconut halves and they Monty Python'd around the con a few times. It was glorious.



Sibsy and Raven.



Andrew Francis. Turns out Shining Armour's affection for corn dogs is canon, according to him, the Sparkles would be the Starks (not the Lannisters) if they were a GoT family, and I made the right call in picking Fruit Punch flavoured Four Loko for him.



No comment. Just no.



Zomg, a real fan!



See? I even signed an unpublished clopfic for him! Expect to see this story in a couple of weeks.



Apple Bloom! Her favourite drink is orange juice. Yes, I'm serious; she hates apple juice.



Can I be a CMC too?



Amy Keating Rogers. She is very nice and is more than willing to chat with you at length if she isn't too busy. I cannot say enough good things about her.



Dinner at 13 Coins. Highly recommend, but only if you're prepared for the expense. My dinner tab after tip was $71.00 USD, which got me some french onion soup, a New York steak that came with a side of spaghetti (heheheh), and two pints of beer. It was worth it.



LINE MONKEY. This lady worked like I've never seen from a con volunteer. For the entire weekend, she managed the lines to both the panels and autograph room. This means informing people the line is cut off, the autograph room/panel is delayed, etc. Mostly delivering bad news all weekend to tired con-goers who had been standing in line for hours. Not only did she do this, but she hurt her back so badly she was wheelchair bound after the second day, and she completely lost her voice. What did she do? Manage the lines on Sunday.



Addendum: This guy in the Shining Armour fur suit with the Cadence was at the con. Much fun was had, though this pic was him at a different event.

That about wraps it up. I really hope I didn't forget anything or anybody. All in all, a great experience, which is making me look forward to Bronycon this August.

On the note of stories, if anybody is still reading, I plan on getting back to work on my writing promptly. I still need to add additional scenes and polish to my slice of life before it is done, and another story of questionable morality will be out in two and a half weeks. Beyond that, I have a first draft I need to get back at soon, as well as two or three other short story ideas in the pipeline. We'll see how many I can release before school starts again, at which point my productivity will slip until winter break.

Thanks for reading and I hope to see some of you at Bronycon and Bronycan,

-Gary