When Choosing Joy is Punk or... 💖⚙️📚
BTS of TeslaCon highlights, pics, and links to my panels
Hello!
This week’s newsletter is a little later than usual because I’ve just returned from TeslaCon. If you're waiting to hear back from me post-convention, I'm slowly starting to make my way through messages. Give me a few days and I’ll be back into routine!
Before I share slides from my panels and a few pics from the convention, I want to take a moment to recognize everyone who is scared and hurting. I see you. Be kind to yourself and others in the days to come. 💖⚙️📚
I think now more than ever we need storytelling and community. This was immediately apparent when I arrived at TeslaCon last Wednesday and continued all weekend long. It was healing for my weary soul to be surrounded by creativity and others like me who decided that it was punk to choose joy in uncertain times.
I cannot emphasize enough how much of a difference it made to see friends old and new during the convention. I was on the receiving end of SO MANY hugs. We talked about books, philosophy, alternate history, myths, videogames, movies, costuming, and just about everything else. Before leaving, I made sure to tell my friends I love them. (Sometimes, “I love you” sounds more like “Please take some time for yourself;” “Get some rest;” “Drink some water;” “Safe travels.”)
A few more highlights from TeslaCon:
⚙️ Introducing my books to new readers (and getting to tell my current readers about my new book)
⚙️ Getting to talk about some of my favorite alternate history books and shows at my panel
⚙️ Watching the skit and the Night of 1,000 Gingers fashion show
⚙️ Dancing at the balls (there were dinosaurs and HUGE kraken in attendance!)
⚙️ Celebrating the Chicago Steampunk Expo's first suite party at TeslaCon
⚙️ Trying absinthe and Turkish coffee for the first time (not at the same time, though! 😂)
⚙️ Going to the birthday toast on the 10th floor
⚙️ Meeting Captain Jack
I can’t wait to return next year! I’m already thinking about panel ideas for next year’s fairy tale theme. In the meantime, here are the links from my panels that had slides. You can click on either the names of the panels in the list below or the images to access the slides:
⚙️ What if? Alternate History and the Media
🔱 Plato and the Story of Atlantis
🌊 Gadgets and Gizmos of the High Seas
📚 Strange Steampunk and Reinvented Fairy Tales
I also was on the Steampunk & Storytelling panel with authors D. Lieber, Andrea Jones, and Geoffrey Mandragora. It was a wonderful experience getting to talk writing craft and inspiration with them!
For more pictures of TeslaCon, check out the Facebook group here. I’ll have more pictures to share after I’ve rested up!
Before I left for TeslaCon, I wrote two posts about finding community both online and in-person. I still stand by everything I said about the importance of finding your people. If you need to revisit those, you can read them here:
If you’re a creative type and looking for inspiration, Never Say You Can’t Survive by Charlie Jane Anders is wonderful. I originally read these essays when they were published as a series of blog posts during the height of the pandemic. Reading them helped me find the inspiration and motivation to publish the first short stories collected in Monsters and Machines.
Until next time, please make sure you’re getting enough rest, drink some water, and stretch.
Happy reading!