My Weekend at Faeriecon

I haven’t worked on anything NaNoWriMo in three days.

You see, there’s this little thing called Faeriecon that took place this past Friday, Saturday and Sunday. And that’s exactly where I was instead of working on my story.

Despite my absolute love of faeries, I only found out about this venue last year. So this year, instead of checking it out as a consumer, I went right ahead and signed up to sell my Faerietales books. I thought, what the heck! They’re about faeries, my books are about faeries… why not?

So I put together a fantastic poster, designed a new flyer to give out to any writer wannabes, and printed 100 copies of Not So Human, along with seven copies each of To Err Is Faerie and Up in the Air. Obviously, I was hoping to sell all of them, but I understood the very real possibility that I might lose several hundred dollars out of the venture.

Which I did.

Turns out, Faeriecon is more for people looking to dress up like faeries than to read about them. There were two other authors on the floor I was on, and they didn’t appear to be any more popular than I was. Though it wasn’t an entire wash, as I might have gotten some editorial clients out of it. I gave away the majority of my flyers, so here’s hoping for some bites!

Plus, some of my vending neighbors around me were highly entertaining. There was Bobby across the way, who was selling jewelry. He had vampire fangs, a kilt and a long list of entertaining stories to tell. And Lauren and Kristin right beside me were just as hysterical.

Lauren, a djinn, had painted herself the most vivid shade of blue, complete with large, twisted horns sticking out of her head. She looked utterly awesome, and while I was rather envious of her aqua pigment choice, there is no way I would want to duplicate the look, as it took her at least an hour and a half to get all done up every morning.

That’s patience I just don’t have.

Her best friend and business partner was a faerie with the curliest red hair ever. If Disney Princess Merida had pointy ears and wings, she would look exactly like Kristin. I swear. Once again… jealous.

But overall, lesson learned. Faeriecon is for faeries, not for authors.

Tomorrow, it’ll be right back to NaNoWriMo for me. Which, incidentally, isn’t worrying me despite my three-day sabbatical.

I reached 25,000 last Wednesday. So I think I’m good.