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Current Post On Trae’s Blog:
- Traegorn
So this has been probably one of my most productive years creatively in a long time. Back in January I published my first novel, The Witch and the Rose, and followed it up in June with a sequel, Bloody Damn Rite. Well, today I'm excited to officially announce the third book in the series, Shadowcasting, will be available on 12/15/2024! Like the earlier books in the series, you can pre-order the book on Kindle immediately, and it will arrive on your device December 15th ready to go.
Honestly, I'm super excited about this one. It's probably my favorite book in the series, and I can't wait for you guys to get your hands on it. Here's the back of cover synopsis:
Winter has clawed its way into the heart of Parrish Mills, and something far darker may have come with it. When Mia Graves, a witch with a habit of getting into trouble, and her best friend Riley Whittaker stumble across a grisly scene along the Wabash River, they find it reeks of dark, forbidden magic and has left at least one charred body in its wake.
With the help of young Bobbi Crawford, the further Mia and Riley dig into the events that took place on that cold Indiana morning, the more dire their circumstances reveal themselves to be. Between a stolen grimoire and a group of young witches who may not know how dangerous their actions are, shadows loom in the dark of winter.
And one of those shadows may be more dangerous than anyone imagined.
(Also, and this is unrelated, the non-Kindle, DRM free ePub version of Bloody Damn Rite is now available in my Patreon store too)
I’m assuming the question is ?
Looks like Jasper was named .
Curse my stupid ineptitude with tags!
Probable question: http://www.unconventional-comic.com/2010/10/closing-confusion/
Jasper named: http://www.unconventional-comic.com/2013/10/the-final-question/
Had to search the archive to find his question, though I then have to ask if it’s been a repeat issue, why not get the contract updated?
That said, I sorta hate Q&A sessions, because 90% is the same stuff that gets asked every single year. And of that, 90% is something the convention can’t do anything about.
‘The vendor hall was crowded.’ ‘So don’t go there. Then at least others don’t have to squeeze past your fat ass.’
‘You didn’t have the panel I wanted.’ ‘So run it yourself.’
‘There were two panels I wanted to see at the same time.’ ‘Join staff, set the schedule yourself.’
‘This event wasn’t run right.’ ‘Join staff, run it yourself.’
‘Parking was bad.’ ‘Ride the bus.’
‘I didn’t get to spend time with the Special Guest.’ ‘Neither did 2000 other attendees. You are not special.’
…..I might be a little bitter…
I look at the Q & A part of the closing ceremony to be the part where you make a request and the staff tells you why they can’t do that. Like you said only 10% of that is something and maybe among that, on 5% of that can get implemented. I said this a long time ago but with that said I still see the closing ceremony to be rather unproductive and to a huge extent, depressing.
Sometimes it isn’t as simple as just updating the contract. Some hotels put very specific restrictions on serving food to the public and abiding to those rules can be costly, especially if the hotel requires the con to purchase the food through its own catering services. Hotel food is usually not cheap and when push comes to shove, it makes a con suite kinda frivolous financial-wise because those funds are better spent on equipment, con space, security measures, guest fees, and other expenses.
Note, there is a huge difference between a con suite and a staff lounge. I’ve been to cons that feed staff, volunteers, and guests, but not attendees. The guest get fed via their contract and the staff/volunteers as part of a bartering system, which is a legal form of payment for services in the state I live in.
Regarding the comic though, it sounds more like this one person asking the same question every year rather than it being a repeated issue. You can’t please everyone, so sometimes it’s not realistic or doable to cater to a small group who want a specific thing.
Anthrocon did away with the Q&A in closing ceremonies years ago. It had become long, drawn-out and unproductive, and it was evident many of the people were just grabbing a moment of our chairman’s attention (he’s a popular guy).
Instead we developed an online survey to collect feedback, and keep the closing ceremony brief and positive: thanking the Guests of Honor and other notables, announcing the total amount collected for charity, total attendance and fursuit parade numbers, etc. Takes about half an hour.
Great Idea. Also by that point, everyone is tired and ready to go home. Also almost everyone is gone by then that sounds more productive.
As y’said. There were also a share of ‘I love this con *snif* *bawl*” that were sweet to hear but took up valuable time.