Well, that was fun.

While the Utena showing in Tampa wasn’t the liveliest group I’ve sat with, it wasn’t the worst, either. At least they weren’t screaming “What’s going on?” during the movie like the kids at the Japan Society in NYC….

I’d like to thank Margaret Murray and the folks from the Tampa International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival for having me down. I’m looking forward to working with them next year too – we’ll have a whole line-up of anime titles for them then.

Next up! (Get it? It’s a pun…) Anime Next in Secaucus, NJ. Yuricon will have a table in the Dealer’s Room. We’ll have a few T-shirts, some yummy shoujoai comic titles and flyers. Please drop by and say hello to me and my lovely staff. We may even have balloons! LOL

Firstly, I want to say that the Con Chairs and Vice Chairs of Shoujocon and Anime NEXT are really nice people and I am very glad that we shared a table with them! Between the lot of us, I think we were able to make quite a splash this weekend. Thanks to Doug, Eugene and Paulette for their help and their great company. Our three cons are in a position where we can help each other and have a lot of fun – and it looks like it’ll be good for all three of us. So get out there and support your local NJ/NY area cons!

Secondly, the best moment of the weekend was walking out of the hotel right into the midst of a throng of humanity on Times Square. I’ve lived in the NYC area my whole life and I NEVER get tired of the spectacle. :-) I was immediately swept up in a mob of people, most of whom had never heard of anime. It was refreshing and very grounding.

Thirdly. The two panels and one workshop I participated in were great and the one panel I attended was very edifying, so I have to say that, AFAIC, AXNY was a success. As for Yuricon, I think we have made great strides in the past year. I’ll be vague for really good reasons, but I will say that we made some personal and professional contacts this weekend which may make a big difference in Yuricon 2003. Let’s just say that it was all very, very good.

My personal triumph this weekend was when I found out that the editor-in-chief of Animerica was in attendance when I introduced the Utena movie at Shoujocon. She told me that she was impressed by my intro and had read some of my essays on the Yuricon website (http://www.yuricon.org/essay.htm). Not surprisingly, that made me feel rather good. :-)

I was also overwhelmed by the attendance at the Fanfic Workshop this past weekend. About 50 people listened with various degrees of raptness, while I expounded on what, IMHO, makes a good story. LOL

And a huge thanks to the people who stopped by the Yuricon table to say hi! I’m getting used to having my picture taken. :-) Thanks for all your kind words about my stories, about Yuricon, about the mailing list, etc.

I have about a month before my next “appearance” at the Tampa Gay and Lesbian Film Festival to once again introduce the Utena movie. If you’re from that area, don’t forget to drop by and attend the showing – and come up and say hi after the movie!

For those of you who might want to actually know *when* the respective panels I’ll be on are, here’s
the tentative schedule – all of these are taking place at the Marriot on Times Square, Room LP3 – the Karaoke Room (the Hudson and Empire conference rooms):

Sunday

1PM-3PM – Yaoi/Yuri Panel

You must be over 18 for this panel, ID will required

4PM-6PM – Fanfic Panel

Monday

3PM-5PM – Fanfiction Workshop

The panel about running an anime convention was aborted, so that’s that. :-)

Show your support of Yuricon and attend a panel sporting our new official Yuricon t-shirt! Drop by our Yuricon shop and pick up an official Yuricon shirt, wow your friends and have the chicks hanging all over you! We’ve kept the price as low as we can, so you won’t suffer from sticker shock.

Yuricon will, along with Shoujocon and Anime Next, have a table at Anime Expo NY/Big Apple Anime Festival. Drop by for registration materials, posters, volunteer opportunities and possibly, if the gods are good to us, t-shirts. Say hi to our staffers and our friendly neighborhood conventions.

I’ll be running the Yaoi/Yuri Panel, and a Fanfic Writing Workshop as part of the festivities, and you can find me on the Fanfic Panel, or as part of the Panel on running anime conventions. Please stop by and say hello at any of those venues. I always enjoy meeting new people. (And since I’m giving you two whole weeks warning, you have no reason not to come by.)

As the date gets closer (and I find my notebook where I mark this stuff down) I’ll let you know *where* and *when* these panels and workshops are.