Well, so far, Otakon has been great. Along with running the Yuricon/ALC/Onna! table in the Dealer’s Room, I and my beloved team of fighters for justice are on Spec. Ops, and the Yuri Panel rocked.

Our day began early with a meeting at breakfast, then a quick orientation at the DR before it opened. When the people started coming in, the just never stopped. It was *dizzying*. Today is going to be so…yeah. Fun, cool, surreal…

The Yuri Panel didn’t start 11:30, so I had to be all caffeinated to be coherent, so my reward was two hours sleep. But we had, at the max point, almost 200 people at the panel. Seriously. It was fun, everyone enjoyed the “screensaver o’yuri” and I hope I’ll get lots of visits tomorrow at the table.

Time for breakfast – I’ll be more coherent later!

Eight weeks left to Onna!, the most yuri-friendly con of 2005, and things are heating up!

We’re pleased to welcome Gelatine, a underground Japanese band from New York whose eclectic sounds blends everything from jazz to anime music. You can hear some of their music at their home page and, of course, you’ll be able to catch them live at Onna!

Registration for Onna! is still at a discounted rate, so don’t miss your chance to save a place at what is functionally Yuricon III, and Register for Onna! today!

Today is a scoop! I’m announcing this before the official press release can go out, because I can. :-)

Onna!, a three-day festival of women’s roles in animation and comics, is proud to welcome Tania Del Rio as a Guest Speaker and Artist!

Tania is the new artist for the classic American girls’ comic, Sabrina, The Teenage Witch. She’s been hired to bring a shoujo manga look to this American standard.

Tania will be joining Paige Braddock of Jane’s World, the only lesbian comic to be syndicated in major metropolitan newspapers, and Sin Comix, a fabulous group of women who are drawing just about everything under the sun, as guests at Onna!

I really hope you’ll join us at Onna!. We’ll have very yuri-strong video and panel programming, plus yaoi, shoujo, josei and even, yes, shounen, because this is all about strong women in roles behind and in front of the screen.

Pre-registration for Onna! is still open, and available online or by mail. Vist the Onna website to register, and to participate in any of our many contests and games! We’ll see you there!

Join the staffs of Onna!, Yuricon and Shoujocon at Anime Next this weekend at the Meadowlands Exposition Center in Secaucus, NJ.

Onna!/Yuricon will have a table in “con row” right outside the Dealer’s Room, and Yuricon’ll have some discount yuri goods on sale – only $5 for yuri doujinshi and translated manga! Let’s call it our 5th anniversary sale, shall we? :-)

We’ll also be offering discounted registration to Onna! – the price goes up on June 20th, so get those pre-registrations in and save!

Join me for the Fanfic Writer’s Workshop at 5:00 PM on Friday, June 17th in Panel Room III, and again for the Yuri Panel on Saturday, June 18th at 7:30PM in Panel Room IV.

Interestingly, this is the only con I’ve attended that had a yuri panel, but no yaoi panel. Has yaoi peaked? Or is Anime Next just not girly enough? (There’s no shoujo or josei panels, or really anything to do with women/girls’ anime or manga at all.) Or maybe everyone’s just waiting to get their fill of women in animation and comics at Onna! lol

P.S. – Extra special congratulations to Yuricon and Onna! staffers Serge and Donna, who are getting married this weekend (their reason to not be working the con…pfft.) Blessings on both of you for a happy life together!