By Elizabeth Donald
The Imaginarium leaders say this year saw more works nominated for the awards than they have ever seen, and I was honored to be among them. My screenplay, “The Train,” was a finalist for the Imadjinn Awards in the category of unproduced screenplays, and Underlord Steven Shrewsbury was a finalist for Reckoning Day in the category of best fantasy novel. Neither of us won, but we had a good time nonetheless!
Imaginarium isn’t really a convention with a lot of cosplay, but we do get the occasional costumes, as seen above. Mostly it’s a writers workshop and film festival, with one of the most writing-intensive panel listings on the circuit.
The convention was a delightful and exhausting time, with good conversation and bad coffee throughout the weekend. I did three workshops and two panels, plus a last-minute reading on Sunday:
“The Art of Legal Prostitution: Selling your work at cons and book fairs.”
“Death, Taxes and Freelancing”
“Nevermore: Edgar Allan Poe and The Raven.”
That third was more of an academic lecture taking the MFA out for a spin, and I was surprised that the con picked it from my list of workshops to present. I was even more surprised when the small room was pretty much full, as a lecture in the life and work of a 19th century poet is not your standard con fare. But it was a lot of fun, and well-received, as were the two business workshops.
I was really dreading the panel on AI and ethics, assuming I would be surrounded by techies who think it’s the second coming, and speaking as a writer, an English professor and a journalist, I have seen little to recommend it. It turned out to be a really interesting discussion, respectful and thoughtful even among those who use AI. I presume I was on that panel because of my position on the Society of Professional Journalists ethics committee, which is funny considering that many members of the committee have a more flexible attitude toward AI than I do.
The other panel was on literary fiction, so once again I took out the MFA and my few literary credits. Any discussion of genre has to start from defining that genre, and that can be problematic because in essence you are defining what it is not, and how it differs from other genres. The official definition of literary fiction is that it focuses more on characterization, language, and subtext/meaning than entertainment. This is frequently interpreted as “literary means boring.“ But you have to start from somewhere, and my fellow panelists and I had some really interesting discussions. I think we could have easily nerded out for another hour or two if it hadn’t been Sunday afternoon.
As Underlord Jim Gillentine had forgotten to fill out his paperwork to be a guest author, he was booth babe all weekend. As you can see, he chose a subtle and dignified appearance to represent the Literary Underworld.
We ran the Traveling Bar both nights, and as usual made as much or more serving drinks and selling books in the room as we do in the dealer’s room. Conversation was pleasant and the vibe was chill, as it often is at Imaginarium.
We debuted our line of merchandise on the table, which did require giving up a little real estate from the books, but was a big hit. We started selling stickers before the dealers room even opened. Once upon a time, we could cover our cost for the booth just by selling Pocky. This got problematic when the hotels said we couldn’t sell food. But if the stickers can cover some expenses, that’s more profit for the authors.
In all, Louisville was a delight and I wholeheartedly recommend the Troll Pub downtown for the post-con dinner. It’s quite nifty.
Now we are back home, the email inbox is staggering and I have about sixty tasks to catch up on all week. I hope you all had a great weekend, and I’ll see you on the circuit next time!