“Girls Rule! Female Authors on Writing Female Charcters” panel. MultiverseCon 2019, Atlanta, GA “Down with cliches; down with stereotypes! A discussion on how tropes kill plots and what it takes to create female characters that are unapologetically strong and realistic. Who is your favorite female protagonist? What made you root for her?” Paige L. Christie, Venessa Giunta, Kyoko M, L.L. McKinney, Linda Mercury, Delia Remington
So…this post is a little late in coming, mostly because I’ve been buried under piles of work, work, work, and insurance forms. (I promise not to go into details about insurance forms.) What I really want to tell all (three) of you about is the fantastic event that I had the privilege of attending as a guest this past October: the First Annual MultiverseCon in Atlanta, Georgia.
From moment one, this was a different sort of convention. Nothing, and I mean nothing, was done in ‘token’ fashion. This con set out to be inclusive, and it showed it top to toes. From the Con Committee, to the program directors, to the panels options and events taking place all day (and most of the night), this con was built to be for everyone.
Was it a perfect event? No — because no such thing exists. But it was a supremely-well-organized, well-signed, well thought-out, hard-question-asking, unafraid-of-tough-choices convention that really put its actions where its policies and promises were. It was run like a con that’s been around a decade rather than like a first-year event. The experience and planning skills of everyone involved in making it happen showed in so many details. I was proud to be part of it and hope to keep attending for many years to come and to watch this thing grow.
My favorite panel of the weekend — and believe me it was hard to pick one — was the Girls Rule! panel, pictured above. It was a powerhouse table of smart, non-bullshit women with big hearts, big stories, and no lack of opinions. People — I tell you that room was VIBRATING. I’ve never been part of anything like it, and I was both proud and humbled to be there at that table.
So, if you’re sketching out your con schedule for next year, do yourself a favor and add this one to the list. Atlanta is really nice in October, and this con is going to be a humdinger!