Novacon con report
Novacon

Rule 1: do not have a flu jab the day before going to a convention.

Rule 2: do not develop shoulder trouble the week before a convention

Rule 3: do not have a sore throat, when the convention is going to have lots of cigarette smoke.

Rule 4: Do your damn best to ignore all of the above and have a good time anyway.



Arrived at Novacon feeling half asleep due the the aftereffects of a flu jab. I was also a little behind on sleep as the shoulder had been playing up all week and I hadn't been sleeping well.

Not the best possible start to the weekend.

Still, I passed the time on the train by reading a book on invertebrates that my sister gave me for my birthday and it proved to be quite interesting (I would have read the one on flogging that I extracted from my son as penance for forgetting to get anything on my birthday, but I didn't want to embarrass the lady sitting next to me.) When I got onto the Walsall train at Birmingham, I recognised two familiar faces and promptly joined up with two other fans and we cheerfully gossiped our way to Walsall and split a taxi to the hotel.

Talked to lots of people and had interesting conversations that I cannot now remember. Unfortunately, we were all in the smoking area of the bar and my throat was starting to get sore.

Met my room mate greengolux who was every bit as likeable and interesting as her journal and fanzine suggested that she would be. (It would be hard for me to dislike anyone who is not only an environmentalist, but is also an athiest who likes to study religion.)

Helped to assemmble the stage and was awarded groats.

In spite of my complete inability to acquire any of Ian Watson's books before the con (I tried charity shops, second-hand book shops, Ottakars, and the local library) I went along to the opening ceremony to hear his talk. He does a very interesting impersonation of HG Wells.

Talked for the rest of the evening, mainly with dougs as far away from the smoking end of the bar as it was possible to get.

I seem to recall turning in at some crazy hour like ten, the legacy of the flu jab. Froze. The room was really cold. Added extra blanket and just about survived. I can't remember if the radiator was working or not, but I assume not.

Saturday morning - Woke up far earlier than I wanted to, resigned myself to the fact that I wasn't going to get back to sleep and headed down to breakfast. I actually had to sit and read a bit first - it was that early. Had breakfast, then ended up telling stories to Karen (circa 5) so that her dad could have breakfast in peace. One of those win/win/win situations. Nige got a quiet breakfast. Karen stopped throwing a tantrum and I got to do something I really enjoy, which is spending time with small children (and being able to hand them back afterwards)

I also got to hug Penny a few times as well. 12 weeks old and adorable. Hugging babies is very theraputic. My boys are still huggable, but they're big enough to pick me up rather than vice versa.

As more fans arrived, I went and nattered to people still eating. We ended up having one of those wonderful fannish conversations that epitomise what I really enjoyed about this convention. We got started on a discussion, sparked off by Andrew Adams, relating to 'young teens porn' that is legally available, and whether this affects people, whether action should be taken if it does, what kind of action would actually be possible in any case, whether it made sense to have age limits on who can legally be photographed in the nude (when they can get married at a younger age), age of consent legislation in different countries, etc.

I just love intelligent conversations and this one was typified by people with intelligent informed opinions who could discuss a topic of this nature without arrogance, temper or ranting.

If some of us hadn't wanted to go to the programme item on religion, we'd probably still be there now!

The religion panel was good too. Can't remember much of the detail now, but I know I enjoyed it.

Had lunch at some point (soup) and went to a panel on diseases. Another interesting one, looking at what diseases might develop in the future and where they might come from. A fairly broad definition of disease let to an interesting discussion which involved both panel and audience.

Another good panel on whether it is best to have characters in novels to be at the centre of power or on the periphery. A very good panel including Jon Courtney Grimwood and Charles Stross among others. I'd recently finished one of Jon's novels, so wasn't surprised by his knowledge of Islamic culture (I used to have an interest in that area myself). Was also impressed by Charles Stross's breadth of knowledge - decided that I must read one of his books.

At some point, I can't even remember if it was Saturday or Sunday, I went book hunting with the_magician. I needed the help. The shoulder pain had gone into overdrive (sadly triggered by the wonderful breakfast conversation where I was trying to look at people seated all around me) and I was having trouble looking down or concentrating on anything for more than a few seconds.

I ended up telling Chris what books I wanted and he kindly searched the different stands for me.

In the evening, I went to a 'radio play' by Tony Keen, which was very funny and full of fannish in jokes. What's scary is that I got most of them. Even the one about the violet wand... Actually, I'm not sure which is scarier: the fact that I got it or the fact that most of the rest of the audience did too. Noticed an attractive young woman in a corset and was delighted to later discover that she was pmcmurray's Australian girlfriend, whom I'm been looking forward to seeing.

Went to another panel that wasn't quite as good, had more interesting conversations and went to bed around midnight.


Sunday:

Had two breakfasts. The first breakfast was a cold one as the hotel had problems with the gas. Later, when they'd found some way of cooking, I went back and had hot bacon and mushrooms as well. The standard of breakfast conversation was still holding at a high, though I can't remember what I discussed at either breakfast.

The first panel item - biomimetics - should have been interesting, but was not the right item for 10am Sunday morning. I'd had more sleep than most and I wasn't up to discussing thesis and antithesis even though I'd probably have really enjoyed it on, say, Friday evening.

The rest of the day's programming wasn't nearly as interesting to me as Friday's and Saturday's had been. I ended up spending a lot of time on the Redemption con table, as it was away from the bar.

The bar was smoking at one end and non-smoking at the other, but it was all open plan and the smoke drifted. So, I ended up on the con table, where at least I had the people on the other con tables to talk to. Chatted to frandowdsofa about hotel negotiations. We're both using the Hanover International at Hinckley for our next con, so we'll probably try and make sure we ask the hotel for the same things. Nothing like a united front.

The shoulder was getting bad again (I was getting very glad I'd brought a supply of paracetemol with me). I went into the art auction but had to leave when someone started smoking. There's supposed to be a ban on smoking in function space, but apparantly there's an exception for people helping with a panel item.

By this time, I was actually feeling quite distressed. I was in pain from the shoulder; I'd been driven out of the bar by the smoke and now I couldn't even attend the art auction.

I spent a couple of hours feeling really down and collecting theraputic hugs off my favourite huggable males. Thanks go to the_magician, dougs and pmcmurray.

After feeling slightly better, I decided to try and find a solution. I wanted something I could do in the room with the con tables that would take my mind off the shoulder pain. I decided to try Tarot readings. It was to work even better than I expected. I found people willing to let me do readings for them, sat them opposite me so that I didn't have to look sideways at all and focused on the cards. I'd been so bad that I was speaking in rather disjointed sentences, but once I was fully focused on the cards instead of the pain, I started speaking normally again. I'm normally an okay reader, but not brilliant. Today, though I was reading really well - possibly because my need to focus was so strong.

I have an odd relationship with Tarot. I claim no psychic abilities. I do not claim to be able to read the future, nor do I believe that it is actually possible for anyone to do so. However, I do believe that the cards can be an amazingly useful tool for analysing a situation and suggesting courses of action. I do believe that they can provide people with useful advice and insights. There are days when I'm very hesitant and suggest several possible card interpretations to the person I'm reading for, but this time, I was calling them straight and nearly always hitting it correctly. (I put it down to intuition and also the value of archetypes - I didn't know much about most of the people I was reading for and some were total strangers).

Thanks go to all those who allowed me to read for them, from the believers to the sceptics.

Relaxed by the Tarot readings, I was able to return to the bar area and risk the smoke once more. Had some great conversations. Can't remember most, though a group of us spent at least half an hour talking about the work of Flanders and Swann, which was wonderful. I think we probably touched on sparrows and the reasons for their decline. How to rescue a dragonfly or a starling from your lounge. I don't think SF got mentioned once, but I really enjoyed myself (and people were very good about shifting their chairs to positions where I found it easier to look at them).

Went home Monday. Shared a train with greengolux as far as Birmingham. We were discussing family and she asked me why the daughter outlaw irritated me. I said it was because she wouldn't eat any proper food, never offered to help and was a spender who couldn't hold a job for more than four weeks, but after she'd left, I realised it was really none of the above. At a superficial glance, the daughter outlaw looks like an SF fan. She's a Tolkien fan, she likes most of the TV shows I do. She reads some SF. When we talk on that level, we get on okay. But she doesn't reach beyond. All the fans I really enjoyed talking to were interesting because they broaden their knowledge - they're interested in learning. They're interested in maths, history, other cultures. They never pre-judge; they debate rather than argue. They argue from knowledge rather than opinion. They don't regard any one source as infallible. The daughter outlaw looks inward. She could probably tell you what Picard had for breakfast, but she'd never be inspired by Picard to study archeology (or not beyond a very superficial level).

And I guess that's why I'm tempted to go back to Novacon again, in spite of the damned cigarette smoke. I really really like the people (even the smokers).