Tis the season! While there were no large conventions in December (it's really not a good month for them - and for good reason!), there were a number of holiday events I had the opportunity to participate in. As I never got the chance to do individual write-ups for each of them, lets spend a few paragraphs to chat about the Dammit Liz Holiday Special, the Child's Play Dinner Auction, and Epic Foods.

Glamorous, dazzling, imaginative. Steamcon V was a three-day event at the Hyatt Regency in Bellevue, focused entirely on the Steampunk Genre, and it took its theme seriously. Each year, the organizers take great care in having every part of this convention reflect the idea of steampunk - from the vendors in the “mercantile,” to the panels and parties, right down to the games that we had featured in the tabletop library. The people walking around in costumes were wondrous and beautiful. This was my first ever Steamcon, and while I was mostly happily helping out around the games area, I felt like I had gotten to experience a whole new sort of event.

Join me as I explore all the things I loved about Steamcon, and all the things I was critical of!

Costumes, fandoms, and feminism - this was my first year participating in GeekGirlCon, and boy was it a good experience. The con feels smaller and calmer then many of the nerd-based cons I work at, but had this great, positive energy and feeling of camaraderie running through it for the entire two days. Many people I've spoken with think of GeekGirlCon as having a, "girls only," sort of attitude, but instead it strives to be as inclusive as possible. There were plenty of attendees of the masculine variety there, and I felt right at home.

This is my write-up of my observations at the con, and what I took from the experience. It ended up being quite lengthy, so bear with me as I babble on about my experiences.