Bakacon, Sunday 4-25-99
The night before, I'd asked the woman who was running
the fan fiction contest (Kaydia Randall/Amelia) what the rules
were. She seemed pretty desperate for entries, and her only
real rule was that it not be more than 15 pages long, since the
judges needed time to read it. She didn't care if they'd been
published online, or if I submitted more than one, or what. So
I was up until 2:30 am posting my con report and printing out
several of my stories. I submitted "Soul Of A Samurai", and
four one-pagers: "Best Man", "Equal Opportunities",
"Something Old, Something New", and "Key x 3 Eyes". The
last two are true spamfics... stories with a punch line, but I
didn't really know what the judges might like, so I tried for a
little variety. Key x 3 Eyes had the advantage of being a non-
Ranma story.
I slept in late, and by the time I awoke, my roommate was
in the shower. This meant that I didn't leave until after noon. I
had to stop to get gas and some breakfast, but finally I picked
Sky up and then headed back South to the convention.
The first thing we did when we arrived was to register for
next year's con. It's cheaper for us, and it helps the con out
immensely when people pre-register. Then I asked about the
woman running the fan fiction contest, and they had her paged.
She showed up a few minutes later, and I handed her my
stories.
About that point we ran into William again, and then Phil
and his aunt. William had shown me his comic the night
before, so today I'd brought my old "Mick & Dana" comic,
which I haven't worked on in about two years. We stood near
registration while William read through it. He liked it okay, I
think, but our styles are very different from each other. I'd
really like to start doing it again and put it up on the web, but
who has the time?
We wandered through the dealer's room, but didn't buy
anything. I waited while Sky took down his art show panel --
basically collected the few "business card" flyers that were left,
and the holder. By then, closing ceremonies were an hour
away, and we were told by someone that they were going to
start early. They were in the same room as the Assault &
Flattery panel, which was in progress, so we went there.
This was a panel where the con staff got feedback from
the fans. Norwescon's is called Thorns & Roses, but it's the
same thing. One of the things that they admitted up front was
that their con schedule booklet had been a disaster (true) and
that they basically lacked the volunteers to help put it together.
Sky had been saying Friday that he was thinking of
volunteering to do it for them the next year, so I asked him if
he was serious, because I'd help too. The con's meetings are
held in Tacoma, and Sky and I are going to try to make the
next one, the weekend before Project A-Kon, and see if they'll
let us do the job right. ^_^
They also admitted that some of their problems in getting
guests and dealers to come to this convention stemmed from
them being the same weekend as Anime Central. Since that
was a bigger con, several dealers bailed on Bakacon.
Also, they are changing the name -- there's not an agent in
Japan who would send their clients to a convention called
"Bakacon". So this was the second and last Bakacon. They're
holding a contest for the new name, so if you have any ideas,
visit their site, you could earn a free pass to the next
convention, among other things. ^_^
Other than that, the con seemed to be a success, and
they think they made it into the black this year. They had
about 550 attendees all told.
They're also going to be running a full track of anime
programming and a 24-hour large-screen video room at
Westercon 52, to be held this year on July 4th weekend in
Spokane, WA. It won't conflict with Anime Expo this year,
either, so if you're in the area drop on in!
Eventually that panel wound down, and they began the
closing ceremonies panel. They only had one of their three
guests present -- Tristan MacAvery, who turned out to be a fun
guy who really enjoyed the con, wanted to come back, and
even volunteered to help out in any way he could over the next
year.
Although I've attended a lot of conventions, I've never
been to a closing ceremonies before, and I have to admit, if not
for the fan fiction contest, I probably wouldn't have been to this
one. As it turned out, it was basically a chance for the people
who sacrificed their whole weekend to put on the con to get
some recognition. Even then, there were a lot of people who
worked for the con all weekend and didn't get mentioned by
name, although there was an eloquent "thanks to the rest of
you" from the con chair. In particular, I know William was
taking photos all weekend for the con, and Kaydia, the woman
running the fan fiction panel, was obviously busy for at least
part of the con, and neither got mentioned. I'm sure there were
others in the same boat.
They announced the winners of the video game contests,
and handed out prizes. Then came the fan fiction contest. I
have to admit, part of my nature is to never get too excited, lest
I make a fool of myself or something, so I sat in the corner next
to Sky and tried to be cool, and rationalized that, even if I
thought my stories were good, it didn't mean I would
necessarily win anything. But of course, anyone who's ever
entered a contest wants to win. ^_^
They had a tie for first place -- and one of the two was my
"Key x 3 Eyes". Not the story I would have expected to wow
the judges, but that's why I submitted several different stories.
I would guess that it made them laugh. ^_^ I got some
congratulation from my friends and the people in the room,
(one guy in front of me, one of the judges apparently, said that
he really liked it), and I got a Pokemon toy as a prize. (Many
of the prizes were donated by Anime Kingdom, an online
anime store. They're nice people and they deserve your
business!).
I was even more surprised to find that I'd won third prize
as well, for "Soul Of A Samurai". As it turned out, they had
only six submissions before I handed them five more -- so my
work was nearly half the field. For third place, I received a
Sailor Moon video. Neat! ^_^
I realized afterwards that I should have written down the
names of the other winners. All I can remember is that the
story that tied for first place was called "Why Am I Here?", and
was written by someone with a name like Susan, or something.
As for the second-place winner, I forgot his name and the name
of his story completely. Gomen! ^_^
They had a special booby prize for the guest, Tristan.
Apparently he'd scrawled an EVA story at 5:30 am on some
yellow paper, and it was sloppy and in tiny handwriting and
difficult to read. They called it the worst entry in terms of
presentation, but apparently they liked the story, too. They're
promising to place winning entries online, or in next year's con
book, or both, so eventually the rest of us might get to see what
the voice actor for Gendo writes when he's in the mood to
create an EVA fanfic. ^_^ If Sky and I get involved, we'll
definitely push for some of these stories to see publication in
the con book -- what better way to spur interest in the contest?
And then, it was over. Tom, Sky and I talked to William
for a few minutes, then drove up to the University District. We
hit my comic store, Arcadia, and I picked up my comics, and
the latest Manga Max and Animerica, and I rented two videos.
Then we ate at Kiku's, the greatest Japanese fast-food
restaurant in town. Finally we went up to Sky's place in
Everett. Jeff came over, and watched the latest "Magical
Project S". Now, what better way is there to end a con, I ask,
than to watch Sammy throw her coquettish bomber attack at a
few goofy love-love monsters?
FINI
Miko!
On the field, Kasumi and Akane were sitting up. Their father hovered
over them, tears rolling down his cheeks and dripping from his chin.
"Kasumi!" He exclaimed. "My poor Kasumi! Tell them you'll forfeit!
Please!"
"Dad?" Akane asked. She glanced over at Kasumi, and froze.
The person next to her wasn't Kasumi. It was a young girl with short,
dark hair in a page cut. She wore a light yellow dress, and she was
looking very confused.
Akane glanced down at herself. She was wearing a red silk Chinese-style
top, and black pants. Her chest was flat and muscular. She reached
behind her head, and found the pigtail that she knew was there.
She glanced back at the girl next to her... at herself... at Kasumi, in
her body.
With Akane's voice, Kasumi said, "Oh, my!"
(Ranma 1/2: Monkey Head Butting)
Nausicaa@sprynet.com Belldandy@angelic.com
Anime RPG at http://come.to/akane/
Fan Fiction at http://listen.to/bell/