Writing, Panels, and Parties!

Morgan’s Imaginarium 2023

Last Thursday, my friend Sako Tumi headed over to my house so we could carpool once more across two and a half states to Imaginarium 2023. From Northern Virginia, through the winding roads of West Virginia, across most of Kentucky to arrive over nine hours later in Louisville. This was our third trek, and my fourth time being a panelist at Imaginarium (the first time, a purely virtual experience in 2020).

Thursday

As I was packing up, Sako messaged me and decided that we did want to host a room party. So, I added another suitcase and a few coolers to my pile of stuff. Once she arrived, we loaded up the car, grabbed gas and lunch, and headed West. It was about 11:30am when we hit the road, with our ETA around 8:30pm. But, of course, that assumes no traffic, weather, or pit stops.

Sako was a serious trooper. We drove through about six heavy downpours, with her driving through the worst three lightning storms, with driving rain. At one point, we pulled over until the storm lightened. After gas and supper, we made it to Louisville and up to our room by 9:30pm.

The weather report suggested rain in the morning, so I rushed to the nearby shopping center to grab supplies for the planned party the next night and finished shopping just as the grocery store closed at 10pm.

We found some friendly faces and visited where the staff was hanging out. I meant to hang out more, but when I bounced back to my room to grab my TENS unit (electro-stem for tight muscles), I started to unpack and time got away from me. Sako made it back to the room and let me know everyone else was going to bed.

We both slept hard.

Friday

First day of the convention. I got a little blog work done, then Sako and I walked over to Starbucks for some breakfast, while we waited for the Registration desk to open. Apparently, I can’t read a weather report, because it was sunny and SUPER hot. I confidently led us out the wrong door and the long way around the hotel, but we finally made it there. With caffeine in hand and a breakfast biscuit in my stomach, we trudged back to the hotel through the broiling heat of July.

Somehow, we managed to hit Registration at its peak — fifteen to twenty minutes later, we made it to the front and got our badges. After a quick sweep through the vendor room and halls, I had my first panel of the weekend: “How To Get Your Newsletter Out The Door“, with Sandy Lender, John Palisano, Shannon McRoberts, Marilyn Barr, Molly Daniels, and Barbara V. Evers. I shared my tips and have plans to investigate SubStack.

After the panel, I overheard Barbara discussing how she’d had several people drop out of her Slushfest panel for Saturday. I mentioned I’d read slush for the free, quarterly, currently-on-indefinite-hiaitus online magazine: The Oddville Press, to which Barbara said I had more experience than most people, and invited me to join the panel. (Note: ‘Slush’ is the term in the publishing industry for the unsolicited manuscripts or short stories that are sent to agents and publishers through the proper channels.)

I puttered around for a few hours, including starting meatballs for that evening’s party, then rounded up some new friends and familiar faces for dinner. Unfortunately, when we made plans, all we decided on was “the Mexican place around the corner”. By the time we realized that Tommy B. Smith and his carload was at a different restaurant, Sako, Carl R. Moore, and I were seated with chips and salsa at the restaurant on the other side of the shopping center. Next time, I’ll plan better!

Sako and I swung through a few room parties, chatting and talking craft until it was time to open our own doors. We had a great crowd swing through, and my meatballs were a hit. Massive shout-out to Carrie and Scott Canatsey for bringing ROSIE! Their rescue kitten. Lots of great conversations — both about writing and everything else.

For those of you who’ve only met me online, I’m feeling a little vindicated. Dwan L. Hearn turned to me at one point and said, to completely paraphrase “Whoa! That’s not an affectation for your Youtube channel. You really do just get that hyped talking craft!” What can I say? I’m excitable!

We finally kicked everyone out closer to 3am than my alarm would have liked.

Saturday

Because of my late night and staggered panel start times, I only made the second half of the 10:15 am “Understanding Amazon’s Algorithms” with Chasity Bowlin. I took as many notes as I could, and one of the other attendees shared her notes with me! (Let’s hope I can read the photo I took of her page of notes when I go to write it up.) After a quick lunch, I hit: “Brand, Book, Bestseller” with Tenita Johnson. While more applicable for non-fiction, there were definitely some takeaways for me.

I had to leave Tenita’s presentation a few minutes early, so I wouldn’t be late for the “Slushfest” I’d talked my way onto. When I arrived, there was a full array of panelists: R. Kyle Hannah of Jumpmaster Press, Rob D. Smith of Rock and a Hard Place Magazine, Marian Allen of Per Bastet, Michael R. Swanson (I think Michael didn’t make it?) and Barbara asked if I would read the first pages. For the “Slushfest”, audience members had been asked to print out the first page of their manuscripts and hand them over with no name on their page. Then, panel members would raise their hands when they would have stopped reading if the item was in their own slushpile, with the reader stopping when all hands were raised. I was happy to read the pages, leaving the hand-raising to the professionals.

We went through almost the whole stack, as I read for most of the full ninety minutes. After each page, the panelists would explain why they raised their hands when they did, and how to fix the problem to keep them reading. A great panel, and I have a note of something to add to my own first page.

On my way out, Kyle of Jumpmaster Press asked if I’d ever thought about doing audiobooks. I said “YES”, and he said to talk to Gene. I now owe them the reading of a first chapter, and we’ll see if I have a paying gig as an audiobook narrator!

I hit the grocery store again, because we had too many leftovers to NOT host another party, but were out of meatballs. This time, I found some gluten-free turkey ones, which meant Sako could partake, since she doesn’t eat beef.

I tagged up with Sako for dinner. Since we weren’t up for any awards and we’ve tried the banquet food before, we headed to CASK: Southern Cooking for dinner. Delicious! While the awards ceremony was finishing up, I put on my dragon costume and lined up for the costume competition. If I’d won this year, I would have wanted to retire, because that would have been three years in a row (My Beauty and the Mark of the Beast and Other-Morgan (Coraline inspired) won the last two years).

I ended up placing second after the AMAZING stilted Lady Dimitrius, from Resident Evil, with Chad Elliot placing 3rd, proving steampunk doesn’t have to be brown.

After celebrating my win, I let everyone in the hallways know we were doing a second night of parties and headed back to the room. We had a great crowd! The meatballs continued to be a hit, and I introduced Imaginarium to something my friends and I call “Fairy Shots” — hollowed strawberries, filled with Amaretto, and topped with Rediwhip. Messy, but delicious. S.A Bradley and another guest shared some stories with the crowd. Very memorable! I let all guests try on my dragon tail, and introduced several people to my TENS unit.

We finally kicked people out a little after 2am and were asleep before 3am.

Sunday

I slept until noon — and I needed it! I was going to hit a few panels but got the timing wrong. But! I got lunch from the hotel vendor and made it on time to my first panel of the day “Attractive Blogging” with Carl R. Moore (our tardy moderator), Becky Steele, Colleen Green, and Alan Goldstein. I shared tips and took notes.

Right after that, I was moderating “The Benefits of NaNoWriMo“. Sako joined me, as did William S. Frisbee and Cassandra Morgan. You know I’m a huge NaNoWriMo fan! With no time to say goodbye to people, I hurried upstairs and made it online just in time for my weekly productivity live stream. I only edited about 750 words, but my current chapter is off to a much better start.

Sako brought me a dinner invitation, so we joined Scott Bradley, James Sabata, and Dwan L Hearn for Chinese food, ice cream, and several hours of stories and talking shop.

The hotel looked about empty, but we hung out in the lobby, and toasted Devin Hylton‘s birthday at midnight.

Monday

Sako and I planned to hit the road by 10:30am, but instead, we slept until then. We were on the road before noon, but after heavy rains — this time, with me taking more of the brunt — and West Virginia not believing gas stations should be at highway exits, the trip took a little longer. We made it back to Northen Virginia close to 10:30pm, where a certain kitty inspected the luggage and was happy to see me.

Well, that’s another Imaginarium in the books. I can’t wait for next year! If you were there, let’s connect! And I love talking craft. What a great convention.