Minicon Report and A Conspiracy Unmasked (quite long, sorry)

[pegkerr]

Minicon was a really remarkable experience for me this year.

We decided to stay at the hotel this year, at least on Friday and Saturday night. I treated the girls and myself for lice on Thursday night and we packed. On Friday, the girls went off to day care (no school for Good Friday), Rob and I worked on taxes, I did mountains of laundry (lice clean up) and some whacking at HPEF board stuff, and then Rob went off to deal with a legal client and I picked up the girls and checked into the hotel.

I stopped by the dealer's room and visited elisem's jewelry table, saying hello to truepenny and papersky, and to visit "my necklace." elisem had a good number of new pieces out for the convention which I duly admired ("Death's Maiden Aunt" was particularly good; Pat Wrede bought it the next day), but of course, I had my eye primarily on a necklace which I've been pining after for a year and a half (since I first saw it at the Minneapolis World Fantasy). It is a very lengthy piece (almost five yards long!) made of irridescent glass, Sworovski crystal, and vintage German beads, and the colors remind me of light shining through ice, like the ice palace. What made it even more perfect was that Elise had entitled it, "Down All Those Glittering Halls."

However, the retail price was quite expensive, so this was not something that could be a little impulse purchase. I had told elisem that I wanted to buy it as a reward for myself when I sold the book--although lately the work on the book had ground to such a halt that I have been wondering sadly whether that day would ever come. truepenny and papersky greeted me cheerfully, and told me, as they have before, that they have not been above discouraging potential customers who have looked at "my" necklace. I thought hard about it, and decided that this wasn't fair to Elise, to put the necklace off limits for me if she had another serious buyer. So I decided, in sort of an act of faith in myself and in my ability to finish the book, to put some money down on the necklace myself. I wrote out a check, which represented about a tenth of the tag price of the necklace, and watched with jealous possessiveness as elisem marked it as "Sold." It was a big relief. It would take awhile, but I'd find some way to pay for it, and at least now no one else could buy it out from under me.

I hung out with friends on Friday night and enjoyed some good conversations, including ones with harryleblanc, Laurie Winter, Jim Frenkel, and minnehaha B and K. Went to the Kruschenko's party and talked with Shari (S.N. Arly) and others about Tolkien's poetry, and The Simarillian.

The next morning, before I set off for my panels, I asked Rob to check my head over. He has not been able to check my head as regularly as I've been checking the girls, because he has been off a good part of the time doing work for a legal client on the side. He found a live louse on me, and we found another live louse on Fiona.

Our second lice treatment, again, had failed.

I found this excruciatingly depressing. Now we would have to start all over again with the laundry and cleaning and nit-picking when we got home. I also did not relish the prospect of having to explain to the hotel when we checked out that we had contaminated their room with lice.

I went off to my panels. Unfortunately, I was not able to attend the young reader's roundtable that Fiona and Delia participated in with the convention Guest of Honor Sharyn November (sdn). I am told that Delia brought down the house by remarking artlessly that her mother tended to recommend boring books. Fiona made an unabashed appeal to Sharyn to send her more books, and Sharyn, bless her, promised to do so.

Meanwhile, I was doing the Tolkien poetry panel. We opened with my pointing out Humphrey Carpenter's observation that Tolkien's mythopoeic work could be said to have sprung, in fact, from a poem. When he was twenty-one, he became fascinated with a line from an Anglo Saxon religious poem, Crist of Cynewulf:

Eala Earendel engla beorhtast
ofer middangeard monnum sended.

"Hail Earendel, brightest of angels/above the middle earth sent unto men." In response to this, Tolkien wrote his "Voyage of Earendel" poem:

Earendel sprang up from the Ocean's cup
In the gloom of the mid-world's rim;
From the door of Night as a ray of light
Leapt over the twilight brim,
And launching his bark like a silver spark
From the golden-fading sand
Down the sunlit breadth of Day's fiery death
He sped from Westerland.

which, of course, shows the first indications of his own personal mythology.

All my panels went well. I had thought I would cut the one on writing groups, but I ended going to that one, too. Rob and I and the girls went out for dinner with Pat Wrede afterwards, where the girls eagerly plied her with suggestions for what she should write in her next Enchanted Forest Chronicle book.

After dinner, my head was itching, and I was worried, so I told Rob I was going to the room to comb it out and see what I would find. I knelt over the tub and read The Languages of Middle-earth upside down as I vigorously combed out my hair. After about fifteen minutes, I took a look at the hairs I had combed out and my heart absolutely sank at the sight of the lice crawling around amongst them. Despite the two treatments, my infestation was obviously worse than ever, the worst I'd ever had.

It was an extremely low moment.

I didn't stay out too late on Saturday night. We had enjoyed a little more freedom this year with the girls at the convention, because we felt they were old enough to leave alone occasionally in the consuite, and in the room, with the understanding that they could call us on the cell phone and one of us would come right away. This new additional freedom was a real relief. The girls did a shift volunteering as gophers in the Con Suite, and they enjoyed that enormously. Nevertheless, when they were ready to go to bed Saturday night, I really was, too.

I didn't attend any panels on Sunday. We had brunch at Hell's Kitchen, hung around the dealer's room, where I bought yet more books, including 1crowdedhour's A Scholar of Magics.

Then, we attended Closing Ceremonies, where I received one of the greatest shocks and surprises of my entire life. The Closing Ceremonies began as always, with the balloons being batted around by the people in the audience, and the ceremonial assassination of the Minn-stf President. And then, papersky came to the podium and grabbed the microphone.

My eyes widened as she made her announcement, and then I started to cry. I don't remember exactly how she put it, because I was so stunned by the import of her announcement, but Jo told the assembled onlookers the story of my necklace, and then said that a collection had been taken up to buy it for me. "We believe in her," she said. "We are giving this to her as a sign of our faith in her. We believe she will write this book." And then, beaming, she pulled the necklace out of her pocket and beckoned to me to come up so that she could put it on me. I stumbled up, so blinded by tears that I could hardly see. "Wear it," Jo whispered as she draped that beautiful necklace over my neck. "Wear it, and write the book. We know you will." I turned to the crowd and cried even harder as they cheered. "I'm overwhelmed," was all I could manage to say. "Thank you so much."

They told me afterwards that once Jo had the idea, the money was raised so quickly that it surprised even the authors of the conspiracy, in just a day and a half. Jo couldn't even tell me how many people contributed, but many of them included people on this friends list.

I am so grateful to all of you, and I'm moved beyond all measure, beyond any way that I can describe (and me a professional writer, too!), by this sign you have given me of your belief in me and my writing.

Thank you. Thank you all. Thank you so very much.

dd_b took some pictures, and we'll post them as soon as may be so that you can see the necklace.

Comments

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

yay! i think i was snagged relatively early in the conspiracy, and i skipped closing, so i wasn't sure if enough had been collected to make it all work. i am glad to hear it did.

[sdn.livejournal.com]

now i am even MORE pissed that we missed closing ceremonies. i slipped jo my $20 by elise's table, and then you came over and announced that you had put a down payment on the necklace, and i was highly amused.

your daughters are the best.

[kate_nepveu]

I'm actually sniffling. That's beautiful. Go forth, slay lice, and write your book!

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Oh, how completely appropriate and wonderful, about the necklace.

If that were the only thing I heard about Minicon, it would be enough both to be satisfying to contemplate--and to strike me quite hard with envy for those who were able to be there and contribute.

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow. That's *so* wonderful! I wish I could've been there to contribute! *many hugs*!

[shellefly.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's sweet!

Don't forget to wear the necklace in your author picture for the book jacket. :)

[misia.livejournal.com]

How fabulous! I wish I'd been there.

You will be valiant in the slayage of the licemonsters. Valiant, I say!

[sternel.livejournal.com]

you have some amazing friends, peg.

[cloudscudding.livejournal.com]

We believe in her," she said. "We are giving this to her as a sign of our faith in her. We believe she will write this book."

Aw. I consider myself a tough cookie, but this made me tear up. Just a little.

Also, is 1crowdedhour going to keep her journal permanently friends-only? She's one of my favorite authors, and I'm quite sad that I won't get a peak into the inner workings of her mind.

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, I was not able to attend the young reader's roundtable that Fiona and Delia participated in with the convention Guest of Honor Sharyn November.

Ah, they must have been the "little girls" that Rachel, who was also on the panel, referred to. She thought they were rather amused by her saying that she still liked Barney and Power Rangers.

I did not know of the necklace conspiracy; I would have been honored to contribute to it. I did, however, have tears in my eyes as the story unfolded at closing ceremonies, so I can just imagine how you must have felt!

[kristenj.livejournal.com]

Exactly what cloudscudding said! (Both parts!)

You are blessed to have such friends.

[tinymich.livejournal.com]

Awww! *sniffles and tears a little* That's absolutely lovely. Do please let us see what you look like in your gift!

[roadnotes.livejournal.com]

I'm glad that I'm not the only one who teared up while reading this post...

...and I'll observe that as I read about you putting the downpayment on the necklace, I was thinking of emailing elisem to ask her if I could contribute towards it. It's nice to know that other people feel the same way.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

You forgot to mention how thoughtful and clever you were on the "How to Talk to Pros" panel. I'd do another panel with you any time.

Jo told me about this necklace buying deal, and we chipped in, but I didn't know it had been bought and that she planned to give it to you. I might have gotten to closing ceremonies if I had known.

K. [me, I never have any doubts of your abliity to work hard and show off your imagination, but I know sometimes you can't remember this about yourself, so having this beautiful tangible reminder might help out with that, mightn't it?]

Photos of Peg with necklace are up

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

They're here, the first two on the page so the link is to the index rather than the individual photos.

Yes!

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much, David!

[red-queen.livejournal.com]

What a wonderful way to show support for you. True friends can take over believing in you when you need a break from it.

(Is there a short-story idea in all the human vs. lice battles? Or in what it's like to cut waist-length hair so short?)

You will write this book. Its progress may not be what you want or expect, but you will write it. Hang thee in there!

[kijjohnson.livejournal.com]

Oh, honey, I just cried and cried when I read this. You are so loved, and not just by me.

[penmage.livejournal.com]

That's so beautiful! Wear the necklace and write the book!

On a lice note, if everything else isn't working, you might want to try the margarine treatment. As nasty as it is, when nothing else worked for us (a household with six kids, three girls with long hair!) it got the job done for good.

Much luck.

[elisem.livejournal.com]

Is the margarine treatment like the mayonnaise treatment, where you slather it thickly on the hair, then wind plastic wrap around your head like a turban and wear it for a half an hour or so? I have been told that this does indeed work, but I have not tested it myself.

As for the great necklace conspiracy, it did indeed go very quickly. One moment I was hearing Jo explain the idea, and the next moment there were all these hands pushing money at her, or delivering it directly to me. It was quite something. Especially how one person would be handing some money to Jo, and another person would come by and ask what was up, and upon being told, would say, "Ooh! Yes! I'm in!" and start fishing bills out of their pockets or purses.

Besides all the other goodnesses, Peg, people had a heckuva good time contributing and spreading the conspiracy. They were bouncing about with absolute glee at getting a chance to do something that they felt needed doing.

It was pretty cool. I made them tell me all about it after Closing Ceremonies. (I was packing up my table of sparklies and enchanted branches, so I missed it. However, it did mean I was in the dealers' room when the woman who had been wistfully mentioning copper wandering wire earrings came in, and we were able to hand her the pair I made the night before and that we had kept off the table until she should appear, so that was another good uniting of person with proper sparkly.) It sounded like a job well done, happy tears and all. (I got all sniffly when they told me about it, too.)

[holyoutlaw.livejournal.com]

Very cool, wonderful, and sweet. Congratulations!

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for contributing! I'm absolutely tickled to learn that you were in on the scheme, too.

I'll e-mail you my address; Fiona mentioned again how eager she is to get more books. Thanks! I'm glad that it worked out well having them on the panel.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Good point. I'll be sure to do that!

[papersky.livejournal.com]

If we'd had any idea how quickly we were going to do it, we'd have told people that we were going to present it at the closing ceremony, but it just exploded. It wasn't until quite soon before that we added it up -- and when we were thinking we had about enough, someone came up and handed me more!

As I said, I have no idea how many people contributed, but it was everyone from award-winning writers to readers whose first convention it was, and amounts from just a dollar on up. Quite few of them read this journal -- and I'm not at all surprised that others reading wish they could have helped -- I did say right at the beginning that if I could have announced it on LJ we'd have raised it overnight. We raised it overnight anyway, which still strikes me as wonderful.

People are cool. And we believe in you.

Oh, and on the icky lice topic, if you can get to the stage where there are live lice but no eggs -- all young ones -- dying your hair with semi-permanent fade-out type dye seems to be quite effective at actually killing them. I found this out by mistake. It is possible to dye your hair the colour it already is if you don't want to change -- which I bet the girls don't -- and it's worth a try if you have the revolting kind of lice that are immune to the usual poisons. Really dying it, with bleaching first, ought to be even more effective, I don't think anything can live in hydrogen peroxide.

Margerine didn't work for us, and it's horrible to get out after.

[penmage.livejournal.com]

Margarine didn't work for you? Ouch. It was the only thing that worked for us, after trying nearly everything else. Left nice silky, lice-free hair, but it took a lot of time and nasty mess to get to it.

[penmage.livejournal.com]

Yeah, sounds just like the mayonnaise treatment. Though I'm not sure which I'd rather have sitting on my head - and when we did it, we were told to leave it on for a few hours to make sure to suffocate all of them.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

The "How to Talk to Pros" panel was a lot of fun. I'm pleased it went so well, and yeah, I'd do another panel with you in a heartbeat, too.

Thanks to you both for contributing to the necklace. I'm not sure when I've ever received a gift that will mean so much to me.

[oracne.livejournal.com]

How wonderful!

I was so happy to hear about the Great Necklace Conspiracy!

[green-knight.livejournal.com]

I'll second that. The necklace is absolutely georgeous, and I can understand why you would covet it!

Will you wear it to Worldcon 2005?

[serendipoz.livejournal.com]

*hugs* and tears Peg.

*hugs*

[copperwise.livejournal.com]

That is lovely, and a good sign of what kind of person you are.