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The theme for this year's Furnal Equinox is 'Starbound Sabbatical'. At first there weren't going to be conbook submissions, but then in mid-January they decided to open up submissions (and didn't mention it on the website, only on Facebook where some other people noticed it and let me know), and so I wrote something based on the theme and submitted it... and heard nothing back until after I started poking asking if they'd even received it. Finally yesterday, after a couple of weeks of waiting from my last poke, I heard back that yes, my story had been received, and no, it had not been accepted because they had received more submissions than they had expected given the short time submissions were open.
(Needless to say, I'm not entirely happy with their level of communication. At least it's an improvement over last year where apparently their email ticket handling system simply dropped any email that was supposed to be sent to me to the floor with no notification of a problem on either end and nothing in my spam folders.)
So, since I know a whole week in advance that I'm not getting into the conbook this year, I'm going to post the story here instead.
The cyborg alien researchers were the creation of
NewtypeX, and the original meeting this is based on happened in an RP session several years ago.
(Needless to say, I'm not entirely happy with their level of communication. At least it's an improvement over last year where apparently their email ticket handling system simply dropped any email that was supposed to be sent to me to the floor with no notification of a problem on either end and nothing in my spam folders.)
So, since I know a whole week in advance that I'm not getting into the conbook this year, I'm going to post the story here instead.
The cyborg alien researchers were the creation of
NewtypeX, and the original meeting this is based on happened in an RP session several years ago.
Category Story / Comics
Species Skunk
Size 50 x 50px
File Size 6.6 kB
Thanks! And hardly the first time, of course. My 'party' themed story for MFF 2019 didn't get into that year's conbook (I had to ask someone on site what happened, and was told space issues; there were only two stories in the conbook, both by the GoH), nor did the 'Unifursal Studios' themed story for Fur-Eh earlier the same year (I wasn't actually able to attend that year, and when I asked if the story had made it in I got a rather apologetic 'Oh ****' response and an offer to post it on the convention Twitter account which I don't actually know if they did because I never had an account there), and the earlier 'superhero' theme at FE 2016 missed as well. Stories seem to sometimes be an afterthought in the fandom in general, but especially in conbooks where it's not the primary purpose, the space constraints are significant, and the printing costs are high.
At least this time I actually did get an answer before the con, even if only a week before and after multiple requests.
At least this time I actually did get an answer before the con, even if only a week before and after multiple requests.
a few cons ago at Megaplex, we (our TP group) did an entire book for the con. I put it together, got it printed, the works, and not only did they not sell it at the suggested price, they went lower, and I didn't so much as get a thank you for trying. That left me rather upset.
Personal opinion - they've gone for the bucks. The last con so disappointed me. Seems all the things I really enjoyed were simply gone.
Vix
Personal opinion - they've gone for the bucks. The last con so disappointed me. Seems all the things I really enjoyed were simply gone.
Vix
Some cons are better about that sort of thing than others, of course. Canfurence up here is pretty good and friendly; Furnal Equinox tries but has grown to the point where it can't be run casually anymore and they've set up a formal ticket-tracking system which has had growing pains. On the flip side there's at least one Canadian con out West which has pretty much had the new generation of con-runners go 'why should we listen to the old fogeys?' and making the mistakes of twenty years ago all over again.
Doesn't help that a number of conventions are no longer doing conbooks at all, and when they are they're often crap at advertising about them. Or that a lot of modern con-runners seen to forget that not everybody spends their lives scrolling X/Bluesky/Facebook and some of us would like to see news show up on the actual website. When I first got online, Usenet was still a big thing and the World Wide Web hasn't been invented yet. I remember the early promise of democratization of the Internet, and I don't trust central aggregators and curators like Facebook any further than I could throw them.
When I retire and actually have more free time, I may do more convention volunteering to see if any of this can be turned around a but.
Doesn't help that a number of conventions are no longer doing conbooks at all, and when they are they're often crap at advertising about them. Or that a lot of modern con-runners seen to forget that not everybody spends their lives scrolling X/Bluesky/Facebook and some of us would like to see news show up on the actual website. When I first got online, Usenet was still a big thing and the World Wide Web hasn't been invented yet. I remember the early promise of democratization of the Internet, and I don't trust central aggregators and curators like Facebook any further than I could throw them.
When I retire and actually have more free time, I may do more convention volunteering to see if any of this can be turned around a but.
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