May Updates & the Convention Extravaganza Series

This May is packed to bursting. I knew it’d be a whirlwind of acitivity coming in, I just never realized how jet-lagged I’d be along the way! Top that with some Major Life Changes at the moment, current fundraising excitement, and yeah, I’ll just hide away with my netbook and blog KTHXBAI.

Much gratitude goes out to the folks at Aetherfest in San Antonio, TX for their kindness and enthusiasm. Extra kudos go out to the con chairs Pablo Vazquez and Cameron Hare for their dedicated attentiveness that they showed to all of their guests and attendees, especially when Lucretia and I struggled with some last-minute travel issues at the con.

Also, much love goes out to my friends up north at the Canadian National Steampunk Exhibition . Jaymee gave our presentation Steampunk Around the World: Steampunk Beyond Victoriana its international debut at the convention, and reported to me that it was a smashing success.

So a big “Hurrah & Salutations!” to all our new followers (and old ones!) that we’ve met at these events.

But what does our touring mean for the blog? To highlight the explosion of conventions, both steam-friendly and steampunk, we’re going to run a short series and feature some guest reports from these events.

Starting May 13th, Beyond Victoriana will run the Convention Extravaganza, a six-week special feature that will be giving special reports from assorted guest bloggers from several recent and upcoming conventions, including Nova Albion, Steampunk Industrial Revolution, Aetherfest, International Steampunk City, Steampunk World’s Fair and WisCon.

And also, in honor of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month last year, I wrote about Asians in the Americas. This year, we’re focusing on Asian Identities, Crossing Boundaries, a series that will update every Tuesday this month starting May 10th. How do Asian nationals and the Asian-identified diaspora embrace their identity in a globalizing world? How does modernity affect changes in fashion, culture, art & society? Each piece in this series will present modern and historical examples of how the cliche “East Meets West” can get turned on its head and explored inside-out. And oh yeah, still be steampunky too.

And, to end, a brief note about my panel schedule for this weekend’s International Steampunk City, for those who want to stop by and say hello:

Saturday
at the Waltham Library, 735 Main Street, Waltham, MA 02451

2 PM Book signing for The Steampunk Bible (Guest panelist)

3 PM Corsets, Goggles & Empowerment: Women & Steampunk (supporting my good friend & host speaker Katherine Moseley)

4 PM Historical Accuracy in Steampunk (Guest panelist)

Sunday

1 PM Steampunk Around the World: Steampunk Beyond Victoriana (Presenter)

Outside of these panels, you’ll most likely find me acting with saucy puppets, or getting drunk in a bar with good friends.

Hope to see you there!