It turns out that cons are exhausting. I’m going to come right out and say though that Geek Girl Con was the perfect gateway drug. I’m already addicted. As I sit here decompressing and processing everything that happened, I’m a bit overwhelmed by the magnitude of the experience. I know there are bigger cons I could have attended, but the part of me that is absolutely terrified of people just wasn’t ready for any of them yet. I needed this to prove to myself that I could go to something this big and have a good time.

Anyhow, I went to a lot of panels, and bought a lot of swag, and took a lot of pictures and videos. So many, in fact, that I’m going to make a few posts this week about different aspects of the con so that this one post doesn’t get all out of control!

First, quick highlights to be covered: Awesome panels, the Geek Girl Concert, painting figurines, buying books, meeting idols, watching cosplayers, good food, Whedonesque Burlesque, pins like crazy, playing Clue, discovering new comics and authors, busking!

Okay, now…

Part One: The Panels!

I was not sure what to expect from panels. I’d never been to one, and, for some reason, I was kind of positive I would hate them. Turns out I’m crazy. Here are some highlights of my favorites.

My very first panel was the YA fiction panel. I was sucked in by the mere fact that there was an entire hour dedicated to YA fiction, but then I saw the names Nancy Holder and Scott Westerfeld and I was overjoyed! I’ve been a fan of Nancy for a while now. She’s so amazing! How could one not be a fan? Scott Westerfeld, however, I was more curious about. I knew his name, but mostly from parents and teachers who don’t like his Uglies books. I’d read a bit, in order to form my own opinions, but now I can honestly say I’m a gigantic fan. The man is absolutely brilliant.

The moderator of the panel kept the discussion going, and by the end I was ready to go buy books and get them signed. I wish I had been taking notes, I really do. There were so many things said that I wish I could quote. I’ll know next time to do a better job. One of the things I clearly remember? There is going to be a graphic novel of A Wrinkle In Time next year! It was put together by Hope Larson at the request of the Madeleine L’Engle estate. Hope is a huge fan and it sounds like she was hugely respectful of the original work. I can’t wait to read it! This L’Engle fan girl totally went mad with excitement when she announced the release date.

Another panel of note: one on crossplay that was about how to cosplay as the opposite sex. It may seem a bit odd to you, but it was absolutely educational and amazing and I feel like now I know how to be a girl better than I did before going. Go figure.

Andrea was cool and went to a couple of writing type panels with me. The first was good: Superheroines in Poetry. Jeannine Gailey writes awesome poetry about girls in mythology and comics. She also writes poetry about characters from anime series and those that created them. If you are an anime or comic book fan as well as a poetry fan, I insist you go check out her work. The second writing type panel was super lame and I don’t even want to talk about it. It should have been good, but it wasn’t and it would be stupid to recognize its existence more than I already have.

One of the last panels I went to probably shouldn’t be talked about on my family friendly little blog here, but it was pretty darn sexy and by far one of my favorites and so very educational. Brandi and Andrea know how awesome it was, and I think, for me, that’s enough.

The Geeks Parenting Geeks panel was pretty good. I felt like it could have been a bit more strictly moderated, but what do I know? Anyhow, I enjoyed it. A group of Star Wars cosplayers came in to pay homage to a sweet little geeky girl named Katie that was on the panel. Katie has dealt with a lot of bullying because of her interest in Star Wars; she was there with her mom and the two of them were great to listen to. I won’t lie though, as good as the panel was, we ditched out early to go listen to some busking outside… but that’s another story and another blog.