There is a grand irony to publishing my 221B Con blog reports for the past ten years and then distributing the resulting book stops me from doing a decent report on all the goings-on at this years con. What happened yesterday?
Well, I spent a considerable amount of time in the dealer's room. Selling books, handing out free books, and . . . eventually . . . spending a little cash at the tables of the other vendors. So, really, the one thing I can truly report on is being a dealer in the dealer's room at 221B Con. So let's get into that.
There are six rows of vendors at the con, five vendors max per row, with a few doubling up. Outside of the rows at the ends of the dealer's room are the long racks of the seamstress who sells period piece clothing, and on the other side, author Liese Sherwood Fabre, whose table was sometimes manned by Steve Mason.
I'm in what's either the fifth row or the second row, depending upon which door you come in. There's a constant hum of conversation in the room, mainly shoppers on Friday and Saturday morning, but as we get to Sunday morning, it's mostly dealers chatting. My view is pretty great from my table, as Fox Estacado has her prints displayed across the aisle, and Fox has been my favorite artist at con (and one of the steady mainstays as many artists who specialized in BBC Sherlock drifted away over the years). Most of the t-shirts I wear at con are Fox's art. Next to Fox is a woodcrafter booth with cutting boards featuring a variety of fan topics, including Sherlock Holmes, Doctor Who, and a kraken that you could claim was from "Sherlock Holmes and Dinosaurs."
The lower numbers of fandom artist dealers seems to have been replaced by jewelry artists, and my neighbors are Junkyard Energy and Double K Designs, both of whom have some lovely stuff which I picked up for folks in my life. Kyndall Potts is one door down, dealing fan art and fiction, and I picked up a great Watson quote-and-art print from her.
So many things I'm not mentioning . . . the Füd Truck was really good this year. I went through chicken tacos with beans and rice, a brisket sandwich with tots, and a grilled chicken Caesar salad and enjoyed them all. I did make parts and pieces of a few random panels, thanks to my table co-worker, Beth Gallego. Ten Years of 221B Con, John Wick universe, ASMR, and the always-enjoyable Three Patch Podcast team, who came up with a BBC Sherlock shipping Jeopardy game that was delightful. Missed a lot of substantial Sherlock Holmes stuff, to be sure, stuck at the old vendor table. But I did constantly get to quiz passersby on what they were enjoying, which helped fill the void a little bit.
Honestly, this one has been one big blur. Staying up until 2:21 on Saturday night did not help at all, and did I need to eat a jalapeno pickled quail egg after a shot of single malt scotch after figuring out what muscles I have that can't do a box step for very long at all? No. What does all that have to do with Sherlock Holmes? Actually, a lot. Sherlock Holmes will lead you down many a road, alley, or passage in life if you let him, going places you never thought you'd go or meeting people you never thought you'd meet.
The highlight of this con has been, and was certain to be, getting to hang out with Paul Thomas Miller, the living proof that England is an actual place that really exists outside of the Holmes Canon, and that boarding a plane for "Heathrow" isn't just flying into a fog bank off the East Coast never to be seen again.
Ah well. Time to post this one and let the recovery and wrap up continue!
No comments:
Post a Comment