Hey, it's the last weekend of this year's auction, which provides funds for people of color to attend SF&F conventions. There are some great fannish things for sale, including signed copies of books and ARCs by folks like N.K. Jemison, Martha Wells, Seanan McGuire, Lois McMaster Bujold, Ann Leckie, Neil Stephenson, and Patrick Rothfuss, custom jewelry, crtiques of your writing, and so forth.
The Con or Bust auction closes Sunday, February 24, at 11:59 p.m. (U.S.) Eastern Time.
The auction's goal is to help "people of color/non-white people attend SFF conventions ... under the umbrella of the Carl Brandon Society, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization whose mission is to increase racial and ethnic diversity in the production of and audience for speculative fiction.... its goal is simply to help fans of color go to SFF cons and be their own awesome selves."
IIRC, this effort grew out of the observation that because fen of color often felt uncomfortable at cons (which tended to be more homogeneously white than is the actual readership of speculative fiction), they were reluctant to spend scarce funds to attend cons, and thus they were missing out on the chance to network and to take part in the awesome discussions and cross-pollinations of ideas that are among the most important aspects of SF&F cons. (Read more about the program.)
Anyway, awesome stuff! If you have a fannish friend or relative with an upcoming birthday, this list of lovely swag can solve your gift-buying dilemma! First editions, signed editions, gaming miscellany, great new comics, steampunk stuff, beautiful handcrafted jewelry and knit goods, cookies, and more! (I myself have bid on too many lovelies ... I'm sincerely hoping to get outbid on at least some of it ... .)
"Con or Bust helps fans of color/non-white fans attend SFF cons. It will be taking requests for assistance attending cons in April, May, and June from February 15-25, 2013. For now, this post is where to find out more about requesting assistance."
- Read more in general about Con or Bust here
Cho here: The Con or Bust auction is a win-win situation all around. If you're a bidder/buyer, you can walk away with some deeply cool stuff, like autographed books or vintage fannish posters (I got an original U.K. teaser poster for "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" one year ...). If you're a fan of color (and that includes aspiring authors/artists etc.), you can apply to get financial support to attend a convention, with all the associated opportunities to network, talk to publishers, and do all the usual con-type stuff (GOH speeches, coffeeklatches, author panels, special film showings, art shows, the dealers' room, fannish live performances, etc.).
Dine (Navajo Nation) filmmaker Brian Young is trying to get his animated film off the ground. See more (and back the project) at Kickstarter.
These are the last few days for the ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif){kind=small}
con_or_bust auction, "which helps fans of color/non-white fans attend SFF conventions." It closes Sunday, February 26, 2012 at 11:59 p.m. EST.
Read ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oyceter's account of her Con or Bust experience here and ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif){kind=small}
fantasyecho's here.
An index of what's offered for sale is available too. You could get cool stuff ranging from trinkets like these origami cicada magnets (a set of 3 to the top 10 bidders) or signed copies of books, like this one of Jo Walton's Among Others (nominated for the 2011 Nebula Award!) or a lovely hand-knitted hat to delicious home-made chocolate truffles in your choice of flavors!
Go forth and bid!
When the time conversion is factored in, people in my time zone (U.S. Eastern) have (as of now) 1 day, 8 hours, 55 minutes to bid.
The closing time is 5:59:00 PM on March 31 in Manila. Which is apparently (according to a time conversion site I found) 5:59:00 AM on March 31 US ET. (Yes, I checked another time conversion site: from US ET, Manila is -12 hours.)
And remember ... I have put up icons or icons plus banners.
And opalmatrix has put up fanfiction.
And there is lovely Saiyuki fanfiction being offered by a number of people.
(Runs off to add up how much she has currently committed to pay.)
After consultation with my wise friends:
I have put up icons or icons plus banners.
opalmatrix has put up fanfiction.
This is what I've seen thus far. Some people have more than one offer, which is why they're listed multiple times.
Last update or check: 3/30/2011 at US ET ... One offer that was missed first time through (Mac Firefox pays attention to case ... ); it's the first one below
( Cut for list/links )List was produced by going to every single page and copying links.
Question: Should I cross-post this to Saiyuki comm? OK, I will cross-post.
Signed first editions of books (including Martha Wells' latest, red!), cookies and stuff (including gluten-free and vegan), boxes o' books, nifty jewelry, ARCs, Tuckerization (that is, having a character in a book named after you, or with another name that you choose), art, and more!
Please check out the auction at con_or_bust: "Con or Bust was, of course, started to help fans of color attend a specific con, WisCon 33 in 2009. But now that it's in its third year, we have thought hard about the best way to expand the conventions that Con or Bust helps people attend. And we have decided against selecting particular cons, because that necessarily restricts those who can receive assistance to those who are interested in those specific cons, are able to attend at those times of year, and live within feasible travel distances ... ."
(I have an offer up ... nobody wants it thus far ... you could always re-sell them on eBay.)
My gift auction item for rachelmanija's Help the Project auction can be yours if you beat the current $50 bid!
The auction ends tonight! Check out the other great things available if a box of organic sweeties and other politically correct gifts isn't your thing!
rachelmanija has been involved with the Virginia Avenue Project for many years. They're a free afterschool academic and theatre program in Los Angeles. 100% of participating children graduate from high school. 95% go on to college. 98% are the first person in their family to go. Over the years, Rachel has talked about watching the kids go on to exciting and varied lives; one even has a job at the White House.
Unless the Project raises $15,000 by mid-March, they'll lose their centerpiece program to budget cuts. In this program, the One-on-Ones, professional actors and writers write a short play to act in with a kid, rehearse it with them in a lovely camp in the country, and then perform it back in Los Angeles. This program has been running for twenty years.
helptheproject is an auction to benefit the Virginia Avenue Project and help them keep the One-on-Ones. Current offerings include knitted animal-ear hats, baked goods, a custom-designed cookbook full of hand-tested recipes, autographed books, original fiction and poetry from professional authors, and regionally themed packages from several areas. Bidding runs until midnight of March 1st. Please consider bidding and offering items for auction -- and keep an eye on the offers, as more cool stuff keeps being put up there.
telophase has finished the picture I won from her in the Sweet Charity auction a while back. It is the most gorgeous thing! Check it out here, and also see her notes about how it came about - what I prompted, and what happened after that - because I think it was an interesting process.
And I have won the story that emungere offered on the livelongnmarry auction, which closed in the wee hours of the morning! I need to come up with something really good in the way of an idea ... probably I will do a few ideas, as I did for the picture, and hope that one really hits home.
(A digression - or perhaps not - on the subject of creativity on demand: In my gaming heyday, when I ran tournaments at cons and stuff, someone once asked me what type of roleplaying scenario I liked best as a player myself: Tolkien-ish? Oriental fantasy? SF? Urban noire fantasy? Spy? My answer was: "If the gamesmaster is good, then whatever the gamesmaster enjoys running the most."
XD
branchandroot