[Conventions] SoonerCon 20

I was REALLY looking forward to SoonerCon this year. It’s the first of the “summer convention season” for me, and one I have enjoyed in the past. Not having the exhaustion of Scarborough on my back this year, I was ready. Fortunately (and unfortunately) the challenges to SoonerCon this year were in the traveling and getting INTO the convention (and I continue to apologize for snapping at Julie from FenCon). After dealing with ESL check in clerks, road construction, and unclear parking directions – and not knowing the new hotel layout – I wasn’t at my best when having all my luggage draped on me, going through the main convention floor, and being told by four people in rapid succession where convention check-in was… My fault. Bad Rhonda.

BUT… we did manage to work out the hotel weirdness, to our benefit. We all thought the Sheraton only had rooms with King Sized Beds and Sleeper Sofas – that was somewhere because I’m not the only who thought that (and the reservations were 1-4 people…) so we had Tim Frayser sharing the room, to find out what we all THOUGHT was “Sleeper Sofa” was “Sleeper BED” – the brand name of the Sheraton mattress (whatever). BUT they were able to get us into a room with 2 double beds, and unlike the Biltmore in years past, the Sheraton DID NOT try to kill me. 😎

SoonerCon itself was cool. I ended up on panels with several people I’ve never done panels with before – on new topics that I haven’t done panels on before. So that was fun. It was kinda nice to have that dynamic. On two panels, I was the only Girl — which is ALWAYS FUN. 😎 I enjoy being the Odd Person Out – let’s face it, that’s the “job description” for being part of YardDog Press, right? The Road Show on Saturday was fun for me – I was part of the murder mystery in which I managed to surprise Selina (which takes some doing, let me tell ya). My reading was during Check Out Time on Sunday, so that was that. But still, all was fine. The paneling was decently attended, the audience receptive.

The convention “floor” was crowded and seemed to alternate between hot and cold. There just seemed to be people everywhere, but until Sunday – they were not giving up money. We tried our best to talk to people and gently sell books, but it was one of those conventions where no one forked over the cash until Sunday. So, I hope it turned out well for folks. If you were LOOKING for someone SPECIFIC, that was hard – mostly because it was a little maze like, so you’d “Just Missed Them”, but you COULD find people.

Jimmy and I did get to spend some lovely time with Darrell K. Sweet – the legendary artist. We haven’t seen him since before we got married. SUCH A LOVELY MAN. If you’ve never had the opportunity to meet him – Dude, so missing out. Noddy and the Green Room Crew saved us all – since the hotel is downtown, a lot of the more “convenient” food is closed for the weekend. On Friday we did find THE LIBRARY OF FOOD AND SPIRITS still open (which ROCKED ), but Saturday was sparse.

I’m looking forward to seeing what happens with this hotel and convention in years to come – SoonerCon is one of the more fun conventions.

Tags: Conventions, Soonercon, YardDog Press