I’ve never been to a convention before. Film Festivals, yes, but not a full on convention.

I’m not 100% sure I see the appeal, unless you’re a serious collector. I’m not sure, personally, if I’d pay money to go and, um, spend money. But I’m definitely in a minority there, judging by the queue that was still pretty epic when I arrived, halfway through the last day of the con.

I was there to help Jess Meats at her booth, selling copies of Child of the Hive. She managed to shift three quarters of what she took with her over the course of the weekend, which was awesome. We took it in turns to wander around (Jess less so, on account of all the signing she had to do 🙂 ) and I did end up coming home with some DVDs for all my skepticism. I was tempted to get an autograph off Clive Barker, but I’d run out of cash at that point, as had all the ATMs in a ten minute radius.

Personally, I’m a completist rather than a collector. There were tons of autographed photos, rare dolls, hard to find boxsets and vintage comics. And, hey, they looked awesome. But I’d rather have a complete set of cheap books than a single expensive book. What I did pick up that look awesome where ads for a couple of webseries – Blood and Bone China and Mind’s Eye.

What I did love was all the costumes; I could guess the comic ones but I hadn’t realised how out of date I was on my anime until I realised I was failing to identify Sailor Moon amongst all the other sailor suited senshi. I completely get the desire to go and show off your awesome costuming skills.  Overall I did  enjoy working at the con – it made for a good balance between looking at things for sale and selling things to people looking at them! – but I don’t know if I’d buy a ticket for one. It’s kind of like an agricultural show in that respect: it’s entertaining and I’m glad for the opportunity to go, but it’s not actually where my interests really lie.

It’s weird, realising you’re just plain not geeky enough. Especially when you just finished a draft for a space opera erotica.