pegkerr | Entries tagged with conventions

Sending this out a little early.

Minion 59 was this past weekend. I stayed at the hotel, and to my joy, Delia joined me. I really appreciate it when a member of the family comes to Minicon with me.

Somewhat rashly, I had signed up for a glut of panels. I had a reading, too, which was relatively well attended, considering that it scheduled rather early in the con. I read from the latest chapter of my book in progress, and people seemed to enjoy it well enough.

I definitely had a good time, with excellent conversations, although I found myself getting tired in the evenings and was glad I had decided to get a hotel room. (I also ate way too much.) I made some nice acquisitions in the dealer's room, including a new sterling silver ring and my first set of gaming dice ("Baby's first gaming dice!"

lydamorehouse exclaimed when I showed them off to her). I liked them because of the leaf motif on the sides of the dice.

gaming dice

I've done collages about Minicon in the past, because it's such an important event for me each year (I've been attending since, I think, 1988). It's getting increasingly challenging, however, to come up with something new. The flying saucer is an enormous blow-up thing that sits in the Garden Court each year. The picture of the various guests of honor and convention personnel was taken at Closing Ceremonies, where traditionally people in the audience bat around ballons. I always miss Rob during Closing Ceremonies--we would separate as we each enjoyed the con, but we always came to sit together at Closing Ceremonies.

One thing that was announced at the Closing Ceremony is that I will be one of the two Guests of Honor at Diversicon this year, which will take place July 24-26.

Image description: Bottom: a panel of speakers sit at a long table. Background: a view of deep space. Center: a flying saucer hovers over a field of flying ballons. Top: Peg's schedule at Minicon (a reading and six panels).

Minicon

14 Minicon

Click on the links to see the 2026, 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022 and 2021 52 Card Project galleries.

For those unfamiliar, Minicon is a science fiction/fantasy convention held in the Twin Cities (Minneapolis, specifically) on Easter weekend every year. I've been attending since, oh, 1988 or so?

Scheduled events where you can find me:

Thursday: Maybe I'll go to Opening Ceremonies, but not likely.

Friday:

READING: 12:00 Noon Peg Kerr. I will have a half hour time slot and I'll be reading from the work in progress. Bonus: in the scene I will be reading, I'll be bringing back a character from Emerald House Rising.

7 PM – Books We Cull, Books We Keep: Curating your personal library.

8:30 PM - Research and World-Building, or "Write the Story Already !"

Saturday:

10 AM – The Enduring Allure of Regency Romance

7 PM - On Writing Badly [heaven knows I know a lot about this]

8:30 PM - Reading Dystopia vs. Living Dystopia

Sunday:

11:30 AM – How to Create a Character

Current Mood: cheerful

By all rights, I should be doing this collage about attending Mythcon. But another matter rather preoccupied my mind this past week.

Specifically, my health had deteriorated to such a point that my coworkers kept ordering me to go home because of my out-of-control coughing. As I mentioned, I contracted some type of viral infection at the beginning of of July, and last week, my asthma really spiraled out of control. It destroyed my sleep, and exasperated my patience and--gah. Finally, I went back to the doctor. My chest x-ray was clear, thank goodness, but the doctor ordered all the big guns. I went to Mythcon, as I said, wearing a mask (both because of the local Covid surge and because the meds lower my immunity), and enjoyed the con as best I could despite all the side effects.

I am finally starting to feel a bit better.

The sword in the card is one of a pair of hair sticks I wore to the con. I lost one of them during the course of weekend but fortunately found it again. But as I was looking for the hair stick, I started thinking about swords, about defense, and that prompted the concept behind the collage.

Image description: Center: chest x-ray. Foreground: an N95 mask, overlaid with a sword. Lower left and lower right corners: prescription bottles. Pills stream out of the bottles toward the lungs.

Defense

31 Defense

Click on the links to see the 2024, 2023, 2022 and 2021 52 Card Project galleries.

I've been thinking about Minicon, which I attended last week. And I've been thinking about the concept of a palimpsest:

a manuscript or piece of writing material on which the original writing has been effaced to make room for later writing but of which traces remain.

I have been going to Minicon for forty years (well, aside for the years when it wasn't held due to Covid). That means a lot of memories. Minicon has long been a joy and a delight, an event to which Rob and I looked forward every year. We brought our kids--Fiona went to her first Minicon when she was only ten days old. We always got a hotel room. Many years, we worked on the convention committee. Rob was the Head of Operations when Minicon was in its heyday, when Minicon attracted more than 3,000 people. I cut my writing teeth at Minicon. I made so many friends, so many personal and professional connections. It was a cherished family ritual.

Now, I am the only member of my family who still goes. And as much as I still love it, and as much as the familiar soothes and comforts, it is also painful. Going to Closing Ceremonies and not seeing Rob there is so, so painful.

I didn't go to Closing Ceremonies this year.

I wandered around the con and took pictures of all the signs hanging up. They put those signs in storage and pull them out again every year. The memories are the same, yet different. I see a sign, and I see the sign again in my memory, in all the different Minicons in my mind.

So I created the collage from the signs seen around the convention, and over them, I placed ghostly memory images of Rob and myself. Back when we were young, when Minicon was nothing but joy, a string of dazzling conversations and fascinating interactions. I still feel ghostly echoes of that joy, but it's not quite the same. Minicon is not the same.

I attend Minicon, and I see traces of all the previous Minicons.

I don't see Rob.

Image description: logo for Minicon 57 March 29-31 2024. The rest of the card is made up of tiled signs seen around the convention (Consuite, Bar, Art Show, Dealer's Room, Programming This Way, Opening Ceremonies, Minicon Volunteers). Semi-transparent black-and-white images of a young man on a telephone (Rob, working as the Head of Operations on the Bridge) and a smiling seated woman (Peg) hover over the signs.

Palimpsest

13 Palimpsest

Click on the links to see the 2024, 2023, 2022 and 2021 52 Card Project galleries.

Current Mood: contemplative

It is my 33rd anniversary today, but I have been a widow for over a year. I have been going to Convergence today, but it hasn't worked as well as last year at keeping me distracted.

Maybe it's because it's a different hotel, so there isn't the comfort of familiarity.

Maybe because I don't have my girls with me.

Maybe it's because I am not staying at the hotel itself so I don't have opportunities to slip away and rest in a room and decompress.

Maybe because I'm lonely, and I know fewer people here.

I managed to go to some panels and enjoy discussions, but other times I was walking around muttering to myself you should be with me; how come you're not here; I can't believe you're dead. How can you be dead?.

Did not stay for the late panels. Came home to be miserable by myself.

This sucks. Rob, you should be here with me. You should be here. Holding your ashes on my lap is not good enough.

I like these pictures, which were taken at Infinitus in 2010. Rob found them poking around the HPEF Flickr website.

Fiona and Delia at Infinitus in Orlando, Florida, July 2010

Fiona and Delia at Infinitus in Orlando, Florida, July 2010

Peg signs Alternity Posters - HPEF Infinitus July 2010

We haz 'em. And my daughter Delia (

ooh_pretty_mine) is maintaining them.

Minicon Tumblr.

Minicon Twitter: @minicon.

I've been asked to pass along word on this by

kate_nepveu:

As you may know, I organize con_or_bust, a fundraiser to help people of color attend Science Fiction and Fantasy conventions, which in the past has been principally WisCon, but we're looking to expand. This year's auction is currently live, and will end Sunday the 6th.

I don't know if you've anything you might donate--signed books, food or craft things, blog posts, etc.--but in any event, I'd be really grateful if you could spread the word about the auction. The announcement post is designed to be linkable, and has information on how to bid, offer items, and request assistance.

Sounds like a worthy cause, so I am passing the word along. Check out the community, and make an offer or donation.

I've avoided saying this outright until now, but now we have a house sitter for the two weeks we'll be gone (my lovely nephew David) and so:

All FOUR of us will be going to Infinitus. So if you'll be there, you'll not only meet me, but Rob, Fiona and Delia, too. This was made possible by the generous assistance of some lovely people who really wanted us to be there. Thank you!

The girls are beyond excited. Hurrah!

I am going to be at Infinitus!

How many of you will I see there?

To get us all in the mood, here's the new trailer, in case you haven't seen it yet.

There's a nice photo pool for Portus accumulating at Flickr. I've added my photos. If you couldn't make Portus, check 'em out to see what fun we had.

( A few last pictures from Portus )

( Dessert with Jim Dale )

( The Masquerade Ball )

Fiona as a Beauxbatons student, Peg, and Delia as Rita Skeeter:

( More friends at the Masquerade Ball )

pennswoods shows off her Spectral Specs:

( Acoustic wizard rock jam )

( Me with the Ministry of Magic )

( Snapecast Live )

( Just a few pictures at the Welcoming Feast )

I took several pictures of the first night's dance, with The Mudbloods and the Moaning Myrtles, but they didn't turn out very well, so we'll skip those.

It was wonderful. It was distinctly peculiar to be there without delivering a paper. But that gave me a little more freedom to attend panels myself. The programming was multi-track, so I wasn't able to see everything that caught my eye, but on the other hand, that meant that there was usually something interesting going on. One panel (on Severus Snape) was a disappointment. It turns out that none of the four panelists (all fans rather than primarily academics) had done much preliminary thinking or planning about the topic at all. They simply said, "Well! Let's talk about Snape." And then made no attempt to moderate the audience at all. I left after a half an hour of frustration.

I caught two of three of the panels that Barb Purdom (

psychic_serpent) held, as well as Catherine Schaff-Stump's (

awelkin) panel on Neville Longbottom. Professor Ed Kern continues to please, with interesting panels on postmodernism, and the King's Cross chapter in Deathly Hallows (the two of us got into a fun and lively debate as to whether the Potter books demonstrated Tolkien's concept of eucatastrophe or not; he thought they didn't, whereas I thought they did). I had a great talk with him at the small HPEF reception, where we discussed the influence, among other things, of Jane Austen's work on Rowling's writing. It is always a pleasure to speak with Ed.

It was so much fun to see so many of the people I've been corresponding with online for years. Met all the

snapecast crew and sat through the live

snapecast podcast. I spent time with

flourish, and got really excited discussing the preliminary planning of a new RPG. And I finally (FINALLY!) got to meet

moony! We met first on line when her Snape was tormenting my Neville when we were on

nocturne_alley together.

We enjoyed Jim Dale's presentations hugely; he was SOOO delightful and funny. We heard his Saturday morning program, and then we were also at the special dessert event--I have pictures of him sitting next to the girls, which I hope to post later. We also attended the luncheon with Monique Trotter. Wish we could have attended the one with Dr. Henry Jenkins, but couldn't swing that one financially.

I caught a few of the acoustic wizard rock sets, but the highlight of the weekend for me was the ball. Oliver Boyd and the Remembralls was first up, and then Ministry of Magic. They were just as great live as I hoped they would be, and we had a great time being dancing fools. My hips are still hurting, days later, I danced so hard. So many people said to me afterwards, "OMG Peg, you were right about wizard rock! It's fabulous!" Which felt really good.

Both girls had a wonderful time, too. They bought stuff in the huckster's room, played Quidditch (and unfortunately, both as Seekers on opposite teams, managed to crash each other when chasing the snitch; Delia was icing her leg for a 1/2 hour afterwards). They made mosaics at the Smashing Times art event; they danced to wizard rock; they brainstormed RPG with

flourish; they sang along to "The Mysterious Ticking Noise" with

moony; they volunteered at the Common Room, they were everywhere. So many people were so kind and friendly to them (after reading about them for years in my journal) that they felt very welcomed.

bekkio and the rest of the Portus team, you did a wonderful job. Excellent conference.

It was really tough to come home. (And Rob, true to form, practically gave me a heart attack on each leg of the trip. On the trip out, he was so late from his interview that I feared we'd miss the plane. When we were ready to leave to come home, he realized at the last minute that his driver's license was missing, so we feared that we wouldn't be allowed on the plane. He finally found it in a frantic search through the sofa cushions in our hotel room.)

If you saw us (or have pictures!) leave a comment. Wasn't it fun?

We're home safely. Now it may be said: not only Rob and I went, but both girls went too. We had a MARVELOUS time. The wizard rock was awesome. Lots of pictures to download, and I'll have to do a con report, but I have to get to bed. Later.

Current Mood: happy

I didn't think we were going to do it. But despite our bad news, in the last 24 hours the universe has all sort of aligned itself in extremely surprising and generous ways, and gee, Rob doesn't have to ask for time off from his job anymore, does he?

So here's the news, and I hope people will be happy to see it:

Rob and I are going to Portus. And I'm going to have a lot of fun dancing to Ministry of Magic at the Ball.

So. How many of you will we see there?

And can we convince any more of you to go, given this news? We REALLLLLY need to see more people there!

Current Mood: excited

We came, we saw, we kicked butt!

Delia passed the double black stripe belt test this morning. I did not attend, but Rob was there and took pictures. Hopefully I will be able to download and post some of them tomorrow. She was actually not feeling particularly well, but Rob said that she pulled herself together and had a good test.

We also got the word that Fiona passed the third pre-test screening.

Fiona is testing for Black Belt on December 1.

The test will take place at 9:00 a.m. on a Saturday morning, and yes, you are invited. This is the black belt exam which is held quarterly for all the National Karate schools citywide, and it is quite interesting to watch. I will post more information about the exact location later, but again, you are invited to come watch. The whole test takes (I think) about two hours.

As for me, I had two appearances today at the Fantasy Matters conference. The first was the panel on The Wild Swans, held at 8:30 a.m. I read two sections of the novel, one from each storyline. David Lenander suggested the sections, and although I hadn't done those ones at readings before, I thought they were well matched and both suitably dramatic. The first was Elias' second visit to the baths, when he was looking for Sean, and then the scene at Central Park where Sean tells Elias he has AIDS. The second was the scene where William and Jonathan follow Eliza to the graveyard, followed by the scene where she is arrested. The advantage to reading the scenes together was that (hopefully) the juxtaposition made it clear to the listeners that the language describing the men at the baths was exactly the same as the language describing the ghosts in the graveyard. That reading took twenty minutes. It was actually an excellent suggestion on David's part; I think I'd chose those two selections for future readings (if I have many other occasions to do readings from Swans, which probably won't happen, actually. The book is getting harder and harder to obtain, although it isn't quite out of print yet). Then David talked for about a half hour about the novel, relating it to the tradition of fairy tale retellings in general and H.C. Andersen in particular. It was lightly attended, but given the panel time, I expected that.

What totally took me by surprise was the turn out at my presentation on the Heart of Flesh/Heart of Stone. My jaw literally dropped as more and more people came into the room. I thought it would be empty because of the panel opposite on Stardust, but I guess they might have ended it early. Anyway, maybe thirty-five people or so showed up, which was a good turnout. I cut one section of the paper on the fly, but that turned out to be a good decision, because it was really just a secondary example of the point I made in the previous section, and that way, the paper came in at exactly the right amount. NOBODY THREW TOMATOES. On the contrary, there were a gratifying number of thoughtful questions and gracious compliments afterwards. It went much better than I ever expected it would.

Hurrah for all of us!

Current Mood: ecstatic

I asked for and got permission to get tomorrow afternoon off. With that extra time, I think I'll be able to finish it.

I still don't think it's very good. I probably should cut it: I have another couple of sections to write, and it's already 4200 words.

I am not sure which days I'll be attending. Saturday, certainly, but other than that I'm not sure.

Current Music: I Found A Loophole - The Whomping Willows

Peg Kerr's Journal

The Holy Tree Grows Within the Heart

2026 52 Card Project: Week 14: Minicon

My Minicon Schedule

2024 52 Card Project: Week 31: Defense

2024 52 Card Project: Week 13: Palimpsest

Convergence. And my anniversary. Without Rob

Just because

Minicon Twitter and Tumblr

Boosting the signal

And now it can be said

Announcement: Infinitus!

Portus 2008 Flickr Pool

Portus: Sunday, July 13

Portus: Saturday, July 12

Portus: July 11

Portus pictures: Welcoming Feast July 10

So. Portus

Back from Portus

Well, here's some good news at least!

The Kerr Family TRIUMPHANT!

Fiona is testing for Black Belt on December 1.

Paper report

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April 2026

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