The first time I attended RavenCon I was blown away. It was such a good experience all around and I knew it would become part of my regular Con experience whether I vended or not. So, when I was given a chance to speak at my next RavenCon I thought I’d truly made it into this geeky tribe where I would be safe and accepted… until I wasn’t.
I won’t go into a lot of details, but at my second RavenCon, someone who worked for the establishment where the event was held made me and my niece feel less than accepted. This wasn’t RavenCon’s fault in any way, but when news of my experience reached them, they investigated to make sure this kind of thing didn’t happen again at their event, which I thought was great. Unfortunately, at the end of the day, it was their word against mine. At that point, everyone tried to convince me that I was being sensitive, but after a lifetime of being the only black person in a place and being ignored or being last to be acknowledged, they were right. I was being sensitive- sensitive to the familiar feeling of being overlooked and dismissed. Not having someone understand that hurt.
Despite the hurt I felt, when I saw RavenCon stand up to proclaim that Black Lives Matter, I decided to put the past behind me and move forward. 2020 and COVID-19 have been hard/difficult/down-right terrible on so many. When I saw that RavenCon wanted to raise money to help compensate vendors and refund tickets I wanted to help. I’ve been a convention ticket holder and vendor and I know first hand what it’s meant to not attend Cons this year.
I gave to an initial fundraiser they held a while back and submitted a story for their charitable anthology, knowing I would make no money from it if my story was chosen. I was surprised when my story was chosen and was happy to work with the editor, Michael Pederson, to perfect the story for print.
I’m very excited for people to have a chance to read my story in the CORVID-19 anthology, and even more excited to do my part to help raise money for RavenCon. The Kickstarter campaign launches in one week on Wednesday, December 16. I do hope you will check it out and #BackTheRaven.
*Sorry I didn’t share the cover of CORVID-19, I wasn’t given clearance for that 😉 Don’t worry, I’ll post again on launch day. Hope to see you then.*
Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like it let me know and share it with others. See you next time, Toi Thomas. #thetoiboxofwords #blacklivesmatter
4 replies on “CORVID-19 is coming! @RavenCon & @kickstarter #anthology”
Hi Toi,
It’s so good seeing you put the past behind you . I know it’s hard. I’ve been in your shoes so many times since my last year of high school. I’ll never forget my first international writing conference. It was in Italy. I walked in late because I had to find the place. Here I was in a country speaking Italian and my Italian was terrible. It consisted of flour or five words at that time. But that’s another story. Anyway, I walked into the conference room and the speaker stopped talking and everyone in the room turned around to see who she was staring at. I stood in the doorway and I could see the shock on their faces. What can I say? I entered the room and sat on the third row. I’m laughing about it now but that day I made up my mind right away to stand my ground. Let me say here that that conference has urned out to be the best conference I’ve ever attended. I had planned to go back this year but then came Covid 19. I hope Covid is clear so that I can attend next year.
I’ve learned and I continue to learn to be comfortable in my own skin. To be confident in who I am as a child of God, and not to let ignorance or ignorant people, no matter what their color is, stand in my way.
All the best and I look forward to reading your story.
Shalom aleichem,
Pat Garcia
Thank you so much for sharing that story with me and for all your continued encouragement.
So lovely to read your story, Toi, and also Pat’s. It’s so good to stand tall and be comfortable in your skin. There are prejudices all around; we are to press on regardless.
Thank you, Denise. Yes, we must press on regarless.