I’m here, once again, with a late con report! As always, I had a blast at Balticon this year. This event is a fantastic way to connect with fans, fellow nerds, other industry professionals, and old friends. Though Balticon has phenomenal online programming, I decided to only participate in in-person events this year. Since this is a “local” event for me (I worked 2 blocks away from the host hotel in downtown Baltimore for years), I also commuted from home for the weekend. This made for some long but worthwhile days!
Friday
Once I finished work for the day, I hopped in the car and headed into the city! I met up with a friend from grad school I hadn’t seen in years, author and musician Jacob Baugher, and we had a great time grabbing dinner and catching up on life.
Then, time for my first panel of the weekend! I moderated a panel on “crossovers,” a concept that has interested me since I started reading and writing fanfic back in my teens. Our conversation did involve some fanfic, such as how weird the combination of possibilities can become (Power Rangers plus Metal Gear Solid, anyone?). We also discussed some of the canon team-ups that have occurred over the years, both on page and on screen, and the ways that the concept can appear in the gaming realm.
I closed out the evening in the hotel bar, chatting with people for a bit, before heading back home.
Saturday
I returned around lunchtime to set up for my autograph session, where I always appreciate the chance to chat about my books with anyone who wanders by. I always think about getting a table in the dealer’s room, now that I have so many books available. Maybe next year!
Later that afternoon, I powered through two panels in a row. The first, on how fanfiction now intersects with the traditional publishing industry, was an absolute blast. I appreciated that the entire panel was made up of fanfic readers and writers who are also professionals in the field, so we didn’t spend any time on whether fanfic has the “right” to become part of the mainstream. Instead, we addressed some of the ways that fanfic has already impacted the industry, for good and for bad, and what traditional publishing can actually learn from what nerds on the internet have already been doing for decades.
Next, I moderated a panel on editing, which was a definite tonal shift but just as interesting a topic to me. We attracted a much bigger audience than anticipated, based on our room assignment, but we made the cozy conversation work well. The discussion was a great mix of best practices for how editors should work with writers and how aspiring editors should approach the field.
The spirit was willing to hang out later in the evening, but the body decided to drive home and crash so I could return the next day!
Sunday
Signing up for an author reading is always a roll of the dice, no matter what time slot you end up with. In this case, my fellow authors and I spent a lovely 20 minutes chatting with each other before giving up on an audience. You should definitely check out M. Flagg (paranormal romance) and Brigitte Winter (cozy sapphic horror), because their work sounds great!
A perk to being friends with the person in charge of programming, besides being assigned awesome panels, is getting to hang out in the secret back rooms of an event. Sometimes, it also means intending to get some writing done in a corner of the back room, but then having to pretend to be the programming coordinator when a fire alarm gets her stuck on a different floor of the hotel! I did my best, solved a few problems for people, and made a printer work. Go me! (No writing got done.)
For my final panel of this year’s Balticon, I got to share recommendations of what is currently the best science fiction and fantasy available on the various streaming services! I also may have realized that the way I’ve ended up structuring my day-job working time over the past few years (thanks ADHD!) means that I watch A LOT of television. But I refuse to feel guilty for finding a method that works for me, especially when it means that I get to spread the love for things that deserve an audience. (I was good and only talked about Heated Rivalry once! And it was used as a genuine example as part of a conversation about television pacing and season length!)
After the standard long convention goodbyes, I made it home in time to have a late dinner with the spouse and start looking forward to the rest of my summer.
Final Haul
- ADHD sticker by artist Brittany Cole
- Cat sticker by artist Stephanie Smith
What’s next?
- Rainbow Readers Cruise (August 10-14, 2026; Celebrity Reflection)
- Capclave (October 2-4, 2026; Rockville, Maryland)
- Farpoint (February 5-7, 2027; Towson, Maryland)
- Read the Rainbow (April 17, 2027; Havre de Grace, Maryland)
Attending any of these events? My books are available for preorder!
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