221B Con 2018: Saturday night lives.

There was a nap that had to be taken before Saturday night 221B Con could commence. And as, always happens for my rare bit of day-sleeping, I awoke hungry. Fortunately, I had planned a dinner meeting with my fellow Moriarty panelist Jen, and we struck out for a nearby Bojangles to dine on fast food fried chicken and get final details straight for our session.

We made it back with about ten minutes to spare, and our panel on "Moriarty's Network" had a pretty decent attendance for 7:00 P.M. on a Saturday night. We walked through all the pre-Reichenbach cases, looking for evidence of Moriarty's hand in each, and we'd definitely hit on a pattern beforehand of Moriarty's specialty being locating targets in England for overseas villains to work their evil upon, as he plainly did in The Valley of Fear. A lot of Canonical cases have similar plots, so why might they just be Moriarty plots?

But as we went along and the audience helped out, David McAllister being a particular stand-out in that area, it seemed there was a desire to connect Moriarty with everything. And we soon discovered it was just a matter of how far you were willing to take matters. Think Moriarty couldn't have been involved in the simple domestic fraud of "A Case of Identity?" Well, what if this older maths prof had asked out a young typist and gotten spurned? And said older prof was so spiteful over it that he commanded a younger hireling to marry the typist's mother and keep the typist from ever having a man in her life ever again by whatever means necessary?

Moriarty is just so evil. He seems to want to get into everything.

That panel done, I headed back to the room to drop things off before catching the next panel, but got called into the bar as I passed, for some congratulations on the panel and general Sherlockian inspirations for future panels. The bar is always a flytrap at 221B Con, so I missed the next hour of programming, but got myself free for the podcasting panel at 9:00.

Now up front, let me say this: I love my podcasting friends. They are wonderful and talented people and I have long been in awe of what they do. Which is kind of why I didn't really tell them that I was now doing a podcast, which, it seems is a mistake. (Note to self: forgot to talk to Beth about her podcast days. Do that tomorrow.) Much of my podcast insecurities got to be used as an example during the podcast panel, which was a little bit anxiety-causing in the moment, but great in the long term. Podcasters, at least on the 221B Con panel, are very, very encouraging . . . which is one big reason I ventured into that field with "Sherlock Holmes is Real."

I particularly remembered Tony Henderson from the "Geek Vs" podcast going on about how anyone with the urge should try it out last year, and he was glad to hear that his evangelizing had some results. Hope Mullinax from "Jaig Eyes and Jedi" gave good advice on dedication coming from doing what you loved. Finn from Three Patch had some great technical advice. And Amy from the Baker Street Babes counseled that you should really tell your friends you're doing a podcast, Brad. (As well as making a lot of other good points on guests and growing with your podcast.) (Also, didn't catch the name of the "Return to the Hellmouth" podcast panelist, but good words there to. Sorry, I'm exhausted, brain going again.)

Anyway, after absorbing all I could from my podcasting betters, I headed back to the hotel bar to relax and let Steve Mason tell me his lifelong dream Sherlock novel at length so I could then destroy it for him. (I am a monster, and things like podcast insecurities are all that keep me in check.) I'm really hoping he is invigorated by the opposition and redoubles his efforts to give it to the world.

Should I be writing any of these things for the internet? I don't know, it's now 1:00 AM and I should just pass out. My judgment is shot.  But, hey, having a great time here at ol' 221B Con. One of these days I'm going to do more than just poke my head in the karaoke party, and then you should be very afraid as the late-night judgment failure takes hold.

Onward!