RavenCon

You can read about the 2023 RavenCon, held in the Richmond, VA, area this past weekend, here:

RavenCon

The guest of honor was Esther Friesner. I watched her "Ask Auntie Esther" presentation (consisting mostly of funny anecdotes about life in writing, publishing, and fandom) and part of an interview. She's as entertaining in person as her stories and anthologies are (e.g., the CHICKS IN CHAINMAIL series she edited). Another special guest, horror host "Count Gore De Vol," of course costumed in vampire regalia, acted as MC for the masquerade contest. Although I didn't recognize the sources of most of the costumes, I enjoyed seeing them anyway. The only child entrant played a role I did know, Luna Lovegood from the Harry Potter series. The most unusual costume, I thought, was "Jor-El in the Fortress of Solitude." The contestant wore a cardboard diorama of the interior of the ice fortress on his head. His actual face, in white makeup, emerged through an opening in the back, with a tiny figure of Superman looking up at him. The intermission featured entertainment by a filk music group called Dimensional Riffs, whom I liked. (For one thing, most of the lyrics were clearly understandable, often not the case with instruments drowning out vocals in some groups' performances.) They sang Star Wars and "Firefly" material.

My husband and I appeared in a session on creating memorable character names, which I thought went well. Recommendations of resources for finding or generating names, plus lots of discussion about what not to do.

Some panel highlights: "Raising Children in Space," including both generation ships and extraterrestrial or extrasolar planets. "Should We Be Genetically Altering Humans?", ranging from correction of genes that cause severely disabling or life-threatening conditions to radical redesign of human embryos. Both of these had actual scientists on the panel with solid information and substantive issues discussed. Same with "Writing Believable Aliens." The panel on how not to think about women characters, focusing more on reader response than on strategies for writers, was interesting but not quite what I expected. The "Mary Sue" concept, since it figured prominently in the printed schedule's panel description, took up a lot of time, and in my opinion the panelists sometimes applied it too broadly and not quite accurately. Some interesting discussion anyway. An archaeologist gave a presentation on medicinal and magical plants found in "spell bags" (usually, in fact, pots rather than bags, which don't last very well) in burials of shamans. She showed slides of plants and the burial sites, with skeletal remains. The lecture explored two different sites, one in England and one Native American burial from the eastern U.S. She barely managed to fit all her material into the allotted time; I wish the talk could have gone on longer.

Same hotel as last year, spread over three different buildings on a beautiful, green campus. Buffets were available for breakfasts and dinners, fortunately. We heard from those who ate lunch in the "tavern" that service was painfully slow. Typical of a convention hotel, sigh. Luckily, there is also a "grab and go" food counter, although their selection is limited. The location is within less than half a day's drive from us. We had nice weather for the most part; the predicted Saturday rain didn't turn out to be much. On the whole, a satisfactory weekend at a not-too-big con.

Margaret L. Carter

Carter's Crypt