I am home and recovering from a lovely Necronomicon 2025! Happily, this year was much busier than last, which got rained out by the hurricane three days prior. The scene in the halls was lively, and the panels actually had attendees! But it kept its cozy vibe, which meant I had plenty of time to do what I love best, which is talk to people.

This year I had both a writer’s alley table and art in the art show, and I volunteered for panels (and ended up on five of them!), so I was busy! Basically eight or nine hour days every day! By Saturday I was so hoarse I was putting honey in everything I was drinking. Never have I had more ample a demonstration that in my daily life I spend more time listening than talking than seeing how fast I ran out of voice when I had to talk.

My marketing thrust this year was getting people to take the quiz! I had a QR code and then I gave out colored dots that corresponded to the eight archetypes, and I had a leaderboard tracking what archetype was dominating. My biggest problems with this were 1. Some people have trouble with QR codes and the URL is a long thing to type; and 2. The quiz takes a few minutes to complete, which was a big ask. But people enjoyed receiving their dot, and the delight in their eyes when I whipped out their specific book was wonderful. I felt like a magician: “This is your book! Ta-da!”

One woman, who took the quiz and received Rosary as a result, read the back and kept saying, “Oooh! OOH! This IS interesting!” I laughed a lot. (She bought the ebook). And another guy, who bought Mindtouch, took the quiz afterwards and… Mindtouch was one of this top three results. Which was my cue to do a triumphant dance. (Which I did, like the derp that I am.) The quiz went on to sell several other books, including Claws & Starships, Heir, and To Discover and Preserve, which are not books that usually move at conventions. And more than one person realized that the leaderboard was changing, and stopped by to see what was going on.

I had twenty-seven takers in total (that I know of), and the con probably had 200ish people, so, not bad! The winner for the weekend was Cheerful Neighbor, with Interstellar Empaths and Lucid Sojourners tied as the two runners-up. Cosmic Observer was the least represented, the only archetype with zero people! I ran into one of the only three Scarred Titans again on Sunday, who looked at the leaderboard and said, “Cheerful Neighbors, huh.”

“Yeah, you’re one of only three Scarred Titans! You’re surrounded in people who want to drink cocoa and pet cats.”

He paused a moment, then said, “Honestly, doesn’t sound too bad.” XD

I am thinking that if I want to continue marketing around the quiz, I need a bigger banner for it, maybe swag, and I definitely need to carry copies of all the 20ish books in the bookrec database. Something to plan out after I do the bookrec kickstarter next year, maybe.

I did well at the art show, selling three of the 12 pieces I hung – Ocalacorn (one of my scrubby Florida unicorn pieces), He Is On the Move (of Aslan), and Think, Think (the elf engineer in the canyon, with chicken). The remaining pieces are available if anyone wants to take them home!

The con vibe continues to be relaxed, which is great. This year I noticed a distinct sense of going back in time, a little. Both to a time before megaconventions (we call them ‘popup nerd shopping malls’ here), and to a time before the culture shift started happening. It is weird to be on the blazing edge of a culture shift, and I find myself wondering how I can help people with the transition, and not knowing at all how. The scifi/fantasy cultural hegemony has been so complete that I worry that it allows for no metaphor other than ‘conquered and conqueror.’ But I don’t look around me and see enemies. I see fellow enthusiasts who happen to have different beliefs.

I’m hoping it won’t be took rocky, but I guess we’ll see.

Also, Timothy Zahn signed my drawing of a manta ray, and that was cool. And my last sale of the day was to a violinist who loved both Thief of Songs and Even the Wingless, and wrapping up the con knowing that two of my hardest-to-recommend books had a fan was wonderful.

So yes! Necro! We’ll be back next year!

In the meantime, here are the remaining art pieces! If you’d like one, let me know and I’ll invoice you.

1. Anna Maria Unicorn, matted in sandy beige ($50, plus shipping)
2. Everglades Unicorn, matted in sandy beige ($40, plus shipping)
3. Priest and Mount, matted in honey yellow ($30, plus shipping)
4. Never Give Up, matted in ice blue ($50, plus shipping)
5. Playdate, matted in sienna brown ($40, plus shipping)
6. Magnolia Mother, matted in purple ($40, plus shipping)
7. Blue Willow, matted in gold ($50, plus shipping)
8. Dragon-Beloved, matted in black ($50, plus shipping)
9. Just Because (I Love You), matted in gold ($50, plus shipping)
Photobombing Orange Cat (not for sale)

I’ll calculate shipping individually when you ping me, and get you a finalized total before invoicing so you can decide whether you want to jump on them.