kate_nepveu

Originally published at Con or Bust by Kate Nepveu. Please comment there ( comment(s)).

Con or Bust, which helps fans of color/non-white fans attend SFF cons, is accepting requests for assistance to attend cons in July, August, and September 2013 from now until Saturday, May 25.

These cons include Readercon (July 11-14, 2013, Burlington, MA, USA), which has donated three memberships to Con or Bust. Readercon is “devoted to “imaginative literature” — literary science fiction, fantasy, horror, and the unclassifiable works often called ‘slipstream’”; its guests of honor are Maureen F. McHugh & Patricia A. McKillip, and its memorial guest of honor is Roger Zelazny. (Your humble Con or Bust administrator is also planning to be there.)

Edit: they also include Diversicon (August 2-4, 2013, Saint Paul, MN, USA), for which a kind individual has donated a membership. “Diversicon is a serious, nerdy SF/Fantasy convention” that aims for cultural diversity, diversity of fan groups, and diversity in media. Its guest of honor is Jack McDevitt; special guests are Catherine Lundoff and Roy C. Booth; posthumous guests are Cordwainer Smith and Peter Cushing.

Here’s how to request assistance. Please spread the word!

Originally published at Con or Bust by Kate Nepveu. Please comment there ( comment(s)).

Edit May 16: characters from SFF are eligible, not just fantasy works! (“Fantasy” in the original phrasing referred to fantasy sports.) I have edited the subject line to be less ambiguous.

Posted on behalf of Lizbet, coordinator extraordinaire of Con or Bust’s fun at Wiscon:

It is time again for Wiscon, and that means it’s time for another Con or Bust Fantasy Face-Off! The Fantasy Face-Off takes the classic geek pastime of arguing over which fictional character would win in a fight and melds it with fantasy sports. Because it is sponsored by Con or Bust, all characters in the Face-Off are characters of color. Even though the final rounds of the game get played at Wiscon’s Gathering and the Carl Brandon Society party, everyone is invited to submit their nominations! Nominate as many badass characters of color as you like; the characters with the most nominations will be slotted into a bracket and the face-off will be determined by votes received at the Gathering and CBS party until only one winner remains! This game both encourages geeks to fiercely debate the merits of their favorites — always a bonus — while introducing people who may not have encountered them to new characters of color to explore.

Enter the name and fandom of the character you’d like to nominate below. (You can nominate more than one, there’ll be a link once you submit the form to start over.) If it would be helpful, add whether the fandom is a movie, book, etc.

(If you’re viewing the LJ crosspost, you’ll have to click through to the WordPress post or go straight to the Google Docs form, because LJ won’t allow this kind of embedding.)

We welcome your nominations! Nominations continue through Thursday, May 23, 11:59 p.m. Eastern time. After that, Lizbet will count up the nominations and prepare the bracket for the Friday Gathering. If you’re going to be at Wiscon, please come see us at the Gathering each hour to cast your votes and encourage your friends to do the same; the final two rounds will be held at the Carl Brandon Society party on Friday night, after which this year’s winner will be announced.

Edit: check out how your favorite characters are doing at the nomination list! (But remember, the field will be narrowed based on number of nominations, so use this for inspiration and recruiting only.)

Questions should be directed to popelizbet@gmail.com; questions left in comments may not be answered quickly as Lizbet has only phone access to the Internet for most of this week, but she will try. Thanks so much for your participation, and GAME ON!

Originally published at Con or Bust by Kate Nepveu. Please comment there ( comment(s)).

Fans of color/non-white fans, are you going to be in the mid-Atlantic region of the U.S. in May and are you interested in going to a con for free?

If so: I have available two free memberships to Balticon (May 24-27, Hunt Valley, Maryland, USA) and a whopping twenty to the Steampunk World’s Fair (May 17-19, Piscataway, New Jersey, USA). Please don’t be shy about requesting them! I hate to see free memberships go unused, and especially for the Steampunk World’s Fair, there is no reasonable possibility that you will be depriving someone else of a chance to go.

In addition, if anyone is interested in attending ConTemporal, June 28-30, 2013, Raleigh, NC, USA, a steampunk con whose guests of honor include Ursula Vernon, Thomas Willeford and Sarah Hunter, and Tom Smith, please contact me at knepveu@steelypips.org, as there is a possibility of a membership to that con as well.

Request the free memberships to Balticon and the Steampunk World’s Fair through this Google Docs form, or read more about the cons below:

• Balticon, the Maryland Regional Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention, has donated two memberships to Con or Bust. Balticon takes place from May 24-27, 2013 in Hunt Valley, Maryland. Its guests are: Joe Haldeman (Guest of Honor); Rick Sternbach (Artist Guest of Honor); Nnedi Okorafor (Special Guest); Ada Palmer (Music/Filk Guest of Honor); and Sassafrass (Featured Filkers). Balticon will have sign language interpreters at all major events and on call as needed.
• The Steampunk World’s Fair, has donated twenty (20) memberships to Con or Bust. The Steampunk World’s Fair takes place from May 17-19, 2013, in Piscataway, New Jersey. It is the world’s largest steampunk event and welcomes steampunk veterans or total curious bystanders, “no matter how you’re dressed, no matter what your background is, and no matter how much or little you’ve ever played with Steampunk!”

Please spread the word!

Originally published at Con or Bust by Kate Nepveu. Please comment there ( comment(s)).

Con or Bust, which helps fans of color/non-white fans attend SFF cons (about), will be accepting requests for assistance to attend cons beginning in July, August, or September 2013 from May 15-25, 2013.

These cons include Readercon (July 11-14, 2013, Burlington, MA, USA), which has donated three memberships to Con or Bust. Readercon is “devoted to “imaginative literature” — literary science fiction, fantasy, horror, and the unclassifiable works often called ‘slipstream’”; its guests of honor are Maureen F. McHugh & Patricia A. McKillip, and its memorial guest of honor is Roger Zelazny. (Your humble Con or Bust administrator is also planning to be there.)

Here’s how to request assistance. Please spread the word!