The Wonders of WorldCon 2024

A write-up of panels & experiences at Glasgow 2024.

This was our first WorldCon, and it was great!

If you’re not familiar with my work, I’m primarily a romance, fantasy, and erotica author, and my first book, Heart of Stone, is a slowburn historical fantasy romance between an ADHD vampire and his very autistic secretary; my newest release, Powder and Feathers, is a darker contemporary fantasy romance set in the same universe between a mean transmasc Fallen angel who becomes utterly obsessed with an artist he sees painting in the park and decides to make him his new boyfriend.

Apart from my books, I also write a great many short stories, and also various essays and analyses of different film and television.

Originally, we were planning to book a table to sell books but the cost was a bit too prohibitive on top of the fact that Powder and Feathers isn’t going to have a paperback release for a few more months, and I’m actually really glad that for our first time, we didn’t have to wrestle with keeping the stall manned.

The convention was so robustly scheduled with so many interesting panels on at basically every slot, with something close to a thousand items on the schedule including autograph lines and readings, and it was often difficult to choose between panels to attend on top of getting enough rest and taking time to eat.

Thursday 8th August

We came up on the train the Thursday afternoon and go tot our Airbnb, which was only three streets away from the Scottish Events Campus, and it was actually a gorgeous little flat with wide windows, a lot of staples and breakfast things stocked ready, a nice big desk with a monitor so you could work with two screens, and it had a beautiful view because it was on the sixth floor!

The lift, of course, didn’t work, which we were not told in advance, so we struggled up the stairs with our big suitcase, and then whenever we left or came back to the flat, we had to trek up those six flights of stairs. I got into the habit the first few days of taking my heels off at the bottom landing and putting them again at the top to save my poor knees and thighs the extra exercise.

I hadn’t been up to Glasgow before on the train, and have really only spent time in Scotland at all on short plane layovers, so I’d been delighted on the train journey up at the change in landscape and foliage as the Yorkshire dales gave way to Scottish moors, seeing huge tracks of heather and different flowers and grasses, and then Glasgow itself is of course a beautiful city.

The SEC is a big convention hall, and the attached SEC Armadillo does not particularly resemble the animal it’s named for, but it’s a beautiful building as well.

17:30 — What’s in a Uniform? Colonial Appearances in Star Trek and Other SF

Presented by Johannes T. Evans.

To seek out new life and new civilisations, one must be properly dressed. Starfleet issues a uniform to its crew. What can we tell about characters, crews, stories, and media by the uniforms we see? What biases do we have, and what assumptions do we make when we see a uniform in sci-fi?

First up was my own presentation!

I’ve obviously talked a lot about this topic in the past — I published last month an essay which delved more deeply into uniform design in Star Trek, but this presentation is more about broader attitudes within Trek and also within other sci-fi, especially about meanings made implicit in costume design and how to start off with analysing costume and clothing design.

Especially being as this presentation was on the Thursday afternoon, I was delighted with the turnout in the room, and while it was unfortunately not available on the WorldCon replay, my partner did record a video, minus the Q&A.

It’s obviously a topic I have a great deal of interest in and passion for, and it was wonderful to have such enthusiastic engagement on the topic from those attending.

I will be the absolute first to say that this was unfortunately a little slapdash and chaotic as a presentation, and was not nearly as well laid-out as I might have wished — coming straight off several hours on a train, dozing much of the way, left me in a somewhat noticeably disordered state of mind, and that shows. At one point, I even forgot the word “stripe”!

Nonetheless, it was very well received, and it was such a delight and a privilege to present!

19:00 — Book Bans and Moral Fascism

With A.M. Vincent, Charlie Jane Anders, Derek Tyler Attico, Seth Haddon, and moderator Katherine Inskip. Available on replay for WorldCon members.

Science fiction and fantasy have long been seen as the literature of ideas and boundary-pushing. In an age when we are seeing increasing legal challenges to both new and classic fiction that pushes social norms, especially around race and queerness, what is the role of SFF in challenging that? Can SFF continue to push boundaries set by the law, and if so, how?

This was a super interesting panel, and obviously very relevant in our current day and age with rising fascist responses to a lot of new texts.

The panel touched on a few primary issues with the current culture, most especially bans in libraries and bookshops based on authors and creators from marginalised groups, most prominently trans and queer books and those that are accused of promoting “critical race theory”.

The panellists definitely came to the conclusion that broader education is a remedy to reactive responses to the unknown or the new in fiction and non-fiction texts alike, and obviously that the root of many people’s bigotry and desire to suppress different forms of knowledge is often based in fear and anxiety.

Seth Haddon came equipped with numerous stats and facts, and one point that he made was certain racist and xenophobic tropes that crop up repeatedly in these arguments, such as in regular implications that Japan, for example, is a more highly sexed culture and that sexuality is inherently less trustworthy or more violent in Japan than in the rest of the world, much of this attitude built out of xenophobia rather than an attempt to comprehend and understand cultures of sexuality and cultural attitudes toward sex in Japan in comparison and contrast to different attitudes in the West.

Throughout the panel, the concept of self-policing and fear of reprisal (or “cancellation”) was mentioned, and A.M. Vincent brought up the rather obvious elephant in the room, that being the censorship of several participants in the 2023 Hugos Awards; not to mention the fact that many publishers have needed to be repeatedly pressured to bring in more diverse and varied contributors, and that frequently they seem to take an attitude of one of “each” marginalised identity being enough to be getting on with.

Derek Tyler Attico made the astonishing (and yet agonisingly unsurprising) point that he is one of only three Black men to write as part of the Star Trek novelisation canon, out of some 850+ Star Trek novels and short story collections.

At one point, the question was raised as to people’s feelings on when older books are updated to reflect more modern sensibilities — A.M. Vincent spoke on the importance of preserving original texts as they are and making them available, because of the important context behind how many books are written in the ways that they are, that these are crucial indicators of attitudes at the time, but also, can reflect on current attitudes. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it, and rather the same might be said of bigoted tropes in fictional media.

It’s all very well taking out racial slurs or more obvious racist tropes in a book, but one danger that comes with carefully editing a book to remove more blatant examples is that the eye might then be drawn away from subtler racist attitudes embedded in the text.

“Oh, this book has been updated to reflect modern sensibilities!” — How many of the attitudes and messages in the book, however, reflect the attitudes present by the author and editors when the text was written? Words might have been edited, but have implications of superiority, or certain less obvious racialised tropes?

Charlie Jane Anders said she was in favour of this, and later asked how many people were familiar with Ian Fleming’s original James Bond novels and how much racism are baked into them.

ANDERS: A lot of Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels are SHOCKINGLY racist, shockingly misogynistic. They’re […] kind of unreadable now. And I don’t think they need to be read by that many people. I think that the movies are fine. Like… Okay, some of the movies are also shockingly racist —

And this is the trap, that works can only be updated so much, that even in updating a text for modern sensibilities, you still might be leaving certain bigotries by the wayside.

One thing that I don’t think was really covered in this panel was the fact that capitalist desire for “content” is driving a lot of work today, and that there is a desperate desire to replicate the popularity of past media and/or to evoke nostalgia in the viewer, because it is a guaranteed way to make money.

I would posit that whilst Barthes’ Death of the author is a very valuable essay and remains so today, it is fundamentally about any reader’s relationship with a text being separate to that of the author, that the author sacrifices control of (and to an extent, authorship of) their art as soon as it is engaged with by others. The essay relies on the idea that works have singular, or at the least, specific and named, authors with established viewpoints — the authors and creators of the nostalgia machine are often not named, many of whom being semi-invisible producers and executives. Works are made and designed by committee, which are then shuffled through several other committees to assess them for profitability, before they are ever edited and considered as pieces of entertainment — and even then, the word entertainment is more applicable than labels such as “art”, with the idea of “art” itself seen as pretentious.

When works of media are designed by committee, they cannot have a singular viewpoint, and especially when they centre more on mindless sale of products or brand loyalty rather than on their own thematic value, it is difficult to assess them and discuss them on this point.

Friday 9th August

10:00 — History of Costumes Throughout Science Fiction

With Fiona Moore, Gavia Baker-Whitelaw, Kevin Roche, and Natania Barron, with moderator TJ Burnside Clapp. Available for WorldCon members in replay.

Science fiction costuming has become significantly more sophisticated over time. The panel discuss examples of early costumes, what has led to the complex costumes we expect to see today, how early science fiction costuming impacted on the storytelling, and where we would like to see SF costuming go in the future.

This was an interesting topic, especially hearing the differences in perspective from the more academic side of analysing and considering in detail the costumes presented on screen in TV and film versus the craft that goes into recreating them for cosplay.

There were a lot of fun and interesting anecdotes about cosplay and costume analysis here.

14:30 — Religion and Godhood in Science Fiction

With Arkady Martine, Bethany Jacobs, Bradford Lyau, Ian R. MacLeod, and moderator Susan Weiner.

From Walter M. Miller’s A Canticle to Leibowitz to Bogi Takács’ Three Partitions, the work of Ada Palmer’s Terra Ignota and Frank Herbert’s Dune and in the work of our guests of honour, Nnedi Okorafor and Ken MacLeod, religion has been an invigorating part of science fiction. This panel will discuss science fiction’s contested relationship with religion and godhood and the ways the literature of the future incorporates the faiths of the present and past.

This panel was a great exploration of the topic, especially exploring what the nature of religion is.

Many science fiction media turn away from religion and present it as inherently opposed to progress or to modernity, and frequently depict religion as villainous or religious orders as the villains in many SF narratives.

The point was made by multiple of the panellists repeatedly throughout the panel that even in an atheist society, elements of religion and shared perspective do crop up again and again, that even if there is no shared belief in a god or a higher power, certainly there are shared ideas, stories, and aspects of ritual or routine that are functionally the same as those within religious orders.

It was a super fascinating panel, and I especially loved the analysis and considerations by Susan Weiner and Bradford Lyau.

19:00 — The Future of the Oldest Profession: Portrayals of Sex Work in SFF

With Avery Delany, Johannes T. Evans, Lauren Beukes, Sarah Langan, and moderator Liz Bourke.

Stereotypes and myths abound around sex work, from the “hookers with a heart of gold” to universally trafficked underage addicts. Fiction, including genre fiction, has often fallen back on those stereotypes but has also been willing to subvert them, treating sex workers as the real, diverse people they are. Our panel considers the ways SFF writers have used sex work in their fiction, what that says about speculative fiction, and the best portrayals of sex work they recommend in SFF.

This was such a fun panel to be on, and obviously a subject I care a lot about — it was an especial delight to be on the panel alongside Avery Delany, and I absolutely loved hearing their perspectives and their views on much of the same questions, especially because as trans people we have intersecting experiences in terms of lived experience, but still very different ones.

I think one of the things that was really nice about this panel, for all it was of course a small snapshot of the subject, was how enthusiastic and engaged with the subject the audience were, and the fact that we were able to treat it not only as a negative one, but also talk about the mundane, silly, and outright funny sides of sex work.

Obviously the trope of sex work inherently creating a tragedy of someone’s life is outdated, but it was nice that we were able to talk about trauma and negative aspects whilst also covering the more light-hearted side.

I’d definitely like to write more extensively about sex work from a perspective of use of the body in future — I talked a little myself about sex work as service work, and the way that other forms of intimate service have traditionally been exploitative along gendered lines in similar or the same ways, such as with nurse maids, nannies, and au pairs, and while that’s a theme I’ve covered in my own fiction to certain extents, I’d love to write an essay on the same.

Lauren Beukes and Sarah Langan were great to be on the panel alongside, especially because Sarah has come armed with so many statistics and texts to recommend, and Liz Bourke was such a great moderator, so on the ball, so quick and efficient about keeping the panel on topic and keeping us moving.

In future, I think it would be great if we could have panels like this have more panellists with lived experience of sex work in one form or another, and especially to feature more diverse people with sex work experience — obviously we were two white disabled transmasc people, and whilst our experiences of sex work are different, there are a lot broader scopes of the industry and general experience that we didn’t cover ourselves.

With that said, it’s obviously quite a vulnerable admission in a public setting like WorldCon because of people’s negative ideas of sex work and of sex workers and our particular vulnerability to exploitation even when no longer active in the industry, and I’ve no doubt there are some people who do have lived experience of sex work in one form or other but might wish to be on a panel like this without speaking on that explicitly.

I’ve no doubt there’s demand for more discussion on the topic — the room we were in had over a hundred people in the audience, with several standing audience members unfortunately asked to leave to make us compliant with the SEC fire regulations, and I know that a few dozen more in the queue outside were turned away.

It’s a real shame that this panel wasn’t available on replay, but I’d really love to see it covered again at other conventions, and I’ve no doubt we’ll see more and more considerations as time goes on.

Saturday 10th August

10:00 — Costuming Aliens Over Time

With Adrian Emery, Arwen (TwoPeople’sOpinion), David D. Levine, Gavia Baker-Whitelaw, and moderator Flis Brown.

The costumes for alien characters have evolved significantly over the last six decades. From the pointy-eared Vulcans of The Original Series Star Trek to the fabric-faced Cybermen from 1966 Doctor Who, this panel will discuss an overview of alien costume development over the last 60 years of television and how the changes impact the stories told.

This was such a fun panel, and it had even more fun anecdotes than the other one — while none of them were quite as viscerally upsetting as some of the anecdotes Kevin Roche and TJ Clapp had shared in the other costume panel, involving peanut butter and all manner of other upsetting costume materials, that was perhaps a relief.

David D. Levine’s awareness of a lot of budgetary constraints and behind-the-scenes reasoning in his academic and historical awareness of different sci-fi production, especially sci-fi cinema, were interesting to hear, and ditto Adrian Emery’s additions as to classic Who and cosplay design — Gavia Baker-Whitelaw is already a favourite critic of mine who I’ve followed for a long while, so of course I’m biased toward her, but it was great hearing her contributions on this panel in contrast and comparison to the other costuming panel she was on.

There was a little more discussion in this panel about materials and their limitations, but also like, what looks and feels alien, and I’ve come away from both costuming panels with a lot more thought as to how costuming expectations have changed so considerably over time as visual tropes and genre expectations have evolved and developed.

11:30 — The Many Legs of SF: Creepy Crawlies in Space

With Nnedi Okorafor, Adrian Tchaikovsky, Justina Robson, and moderator Jonathan Thornton. Available on replay for WorldCon members.

Join our panel of authors and entomophiles as they discuss the appeal of the insect world and their favourite examples of bugs in science fiction. From insect specters and wasp artists in Nnedi Okorafor’s Akata Witch and the highly advanced spider civilization of Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Children of Time to the swarms of invading insects in Steph Swainston’s The Year of Our War and the hive-minded insectoids of Justina Robson’s Natural History, creepy crawlies have long held a fascination for writers of speculative fiction.

This was such a fun panel, obviously a topic close to my heart — I’ve honestly never seen Adrian Tchaikovsky smile so much, and it was really nice seeing the level of just… absolute unabashed joy the panel took in the subject and talking about it, barring Nnedi Okorafor’s understandable mild phobia of spiders.

Firstly, Jonathan Thornton was a tremendous moderator, I really loved a lot of the questions he had laid out and his obvious and visible passion for the subject, academic and personal, and I loved how much the panel had evidently thought and considered about the reasons and the ways in which they love and relate to different insect and arachnid forms, alien and otherwise, as well as other vermin-like or dismissed as “gross” animals like certain cephalopods.

Hearing about Nnedi Okorafor’s love and passion for cicadas, katydids, and other small insects was so lovely and so real, especially because I often feel that sound is an under considered aspect of how insects exist around us — in sci-fi film and TV, it really feels like insects’ natural noises and songs are often dismissed or not really considered within the soundscape.

A lot of chitters and buzzes are included, either to indicate wing movement or as part of speech, but less so the noise that insects make just by moving or being, you know? I have a lot of affection for Arachnophobia (1990), terrible flick as it is, because of how well-considered its soundscape is, not just because it inexplicably (and gloriously) gives John Goodman his own leitmotif, but also because one of the biggest points of genuine horror in the film, his awareness of how many spiders must be around them, is when the protagonist realises he hasn’t heard crickets sing for quite some time.

Justina Robinson’s occasional insect hallucinations were rather relatable — I didn’t realise they were such a common hallucination, but of course, it makes sense — and some of the panellists’ jealousy about it (“You’re so lucky! Where’s my sleep spiders!?”) was hilarious.

Of all the panels I recommend watching back through, I definitely recommend this one, it gave me a lot to think about — one facet of

20:30 — We Did The Monster Smash

With Andrija “Andy” Popovic, Nadia El-Fassi, and Zoe Burgess-Foreman, moderated by Johannes T. Evans. Available on replay for WorldCon members.

Sex isn’t only for humans. Whether it is hook-ups with a hamadryad or a relationship with a reptilian, monsters have long had a sexual charge for some people, as expressed in romance fiction, art, and more. Our panel will discuss the attraction of the inhuman, the logistics of monstrous hook-ups, and their favourite examples of doing the monster smash on the page.

Unfortunately, our original moderator, Anna Raftery, wasn’t able to make it to the panel to be with us, so I took over moderating. It was my first time moderating a panel, and I’d been somewhere between disappointed and relieved at not having been assigned any moderation slots for the convention, so I didn’t mind stepping up — it was actually great fun and a good bit of variety compared to speaking on panels, and I’m excited to moderate more panels in the future.

This was such a fun panel, and I think we had a really good variety of perspectives — someone more from the cosy romance side, more from the horny erotic side, and more from the horny but horror-thriller side, it was a really good spread of monstrous preferences and ideas about monstrous romance and erotica.

I was actually worried that we’d be in too small a room as happened with the sex work panel, but I think the fact that it was on at the same time as the costume masquerade saved us — I think one or two later arrivals got turned away, but it wasn’t anything like the big lines that got turned away from the sex work panel or some of the others at the con, such as the mushrooms one; and there were of course other monster panels on the schedule, such as Don’t Go Into the Forest: Monsters and Feminism, that had been on earlier that day.

It was a fun panel with a lot of humour, and I’m of course unspeakably excited for Zoe Burgess-Foreman’s TeratoCon, a monster romance convention they’re chairing and is going to kick off from April next year, in Bristol!

Sunday 11th August

11:30 — Gods and Faith in Fantasy

With Cheryl Morgan, Wole Talabi, Doctor Meg MacDonald, and moderated by Ehud Maimon.

Faith and the divine have played a huge role in fantasy, from Terry Pratchett’s Small Gods to N. K. Jemisin’s Inheritance Trilogy and Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Gods of Jade and Shadow. This panel will discuss the presentations and representations of the divine in fantasy, the ways writers put faith on the page, and the role of gods in story.

I loved this panel!

Such a great, juicy subject, and so endlessly interesting — as with the two different panels on costuming, the intersections but clear differences between the subject matter and discussion in this panel versus the one on religion were great to keep track of and think on.

What makes a god, and what makes faith? What is the essence of belief, and where does one being become elevated to godhood — and how have our engagements with gods and pantheons thereof evolved and changed to reflect the sensibilities of our time and other aspects of our cultures and belief systems? What makes the difference and distinction between a hero and a divinity?

It’s always a great pleasure to hear Cheryl Morgan speak on basically any topic, it feels like she’s just got endless knowledge and varied perspectives to draw on as an editor and publisher when it comes to any topic at all, but I wasn’t previously familiar with Doctor MacDonald’s work nor Wole Talabi’s, and they were great speakers.

It was really nice to see and feel everyone’s congratulations and warmth for Meg MacDonald completing her PhD, especially because I don’t at all envy her the incredible scope of her work on the topic and how wide it seemed to span; and Wole Talabi was easily the most effortlessly charismatic man I heard speak at WorldCon.

After he introduced his most recent book, Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon:

DOCTOR MACDONALD: What he didn’t mention is that last night, he won the Ilube Prize for best novel!

TALABI: Technically, the book won the award. I was just also there.

What was really nice about this panel was the concentrated focus on cultural respect and awareness from all the panellists, and how everyone talked about balancing that respect and awareness with the craft of writing these topics with complexity, and especially thinking about what these topics represent.

Monday 12th August

10:00 — Anatomy of a Shoe

Presented by SunnyJim.

Bespoke Shoemaker SunnyJim Morgan takes you on a tour of what’s on your feet. Ever wondered what makes an Oxford different from a Derby? How high heels are made? Are elves involved? We’ll cover that, as well as some of the history of shoes and shoemaking, the parts of a shoe, some of the different methods of construction, materials used, and a few of the places you can learn more.

This was such a fascinating presentation and I loved it, it was a real insight into a craft and a broader world that I don’t know much about — whenever you hear basically any craftsperson talk about their craft, especially when it includes a significant element of historical recreation, you’re pretty much always in for a good time and a great insight into some deeply strange and bizarre people who adore and love what they do more than anything, and that’s exactly the little window SunnyJim gave us into the world of shoemaking and shoemakers.

13:00 — E-bike Schemes or Superloops? The Future of Public Transportation

With Jean Bürlesk, Patrick Nielsen Hayden, Robin CM Duncan, and moderator Virginia Preston.

What’s the future for public transport and for those who work in public transport? How can and should it adapt to the need to reduce emissions? What changes will we see in working and living patterns, and what will the effects be? What technical advances will we see both in small and large-scale transport? How do the politics of public transport vary in different countries and between different areas, for example urban and rural communities?

This panel didn’t necessarily broaden my horizons in terms of my perspectives or opinions on public transport — I think that virtually everyone in the room was in favour of more public transport, and was interested and invested in the future thereof — but it did give me a few more questions and ideas to think about when it comes to logistics and broader aspects of urban planning.

Robin CM Duncan brought such a lot of expertise to the panel with his several decades’ worth of work in transport infrastructure, and it was great hearing Jean Bürlesk’s and Patrick Nielsen Hayden’s different perspectives as well, talking about different lived experiences in regards to public transport, and then broader philosophical and cultural change — I didn’t realise that Luxembourg had entirely free public transport, and nor (perhaps more understandably) had I heard of Tucson Arizona’s free bus pass programme.

I do want to say that I think Virginia Preston did some unparalleled moderation work in this panel — I don’t know if it was just the topic that got people frustrated or if it was the fact that it was the last day, or what else, but a lot of people in the audience were acting like absolute pricks, shouting over panellists and Preston herself, shouting over each other.

At one point she said, “People can’t hear you without a microphone,” and one particular offender in the audience barked back, “Yes they can!”, and only grumpily went quiet when she was like. People use hearing loops.

She was unendingly professional and kept the panel moving so well, especially when it came to the number of audience questions and comments at the end of the panel, and she remained so calm, collected, organised, and on-the-ball even when people were frankly being super disrespectful of both herself and the rest of the panellists’ time and effort.

Final Thoughts

It was an absolutely tremendous convention, all told, and I’m so delighted we went along! I’m not anticipating to be at WorldCon in 2025 or 2026 because I just don’t make enough money to head off to the states, but I’m super excited about the Dublin 2029 bid, and I really hope they get it!

I’m not expecting to be able to go to any further conventions this year, possibly BristolCon in October depending on what my finances look like in September, but I definitely want to make sure to go back to EasterCon in 2025, as well as to TeratoCon and BristolCon, and I’d really like to make it to FantasyCon for the first time.

I really loved meeting and chatting with so many different people — Gavia Baker-Whitelaw organised an impromptu Interview with the Vampire fans meet-up, and that was a really nice chat and experience, I’m super excited to see more IWTV panels and discussions in the next little while, at other cons and events.

I also went to a trans writers meet-up, and I’d really like to make space to meet more queer and trans creators and make more connections — and of course, it was absolutely delightful to attend the I Want That Twink OBLITERATED anthology launch by Bona Books, especially given that before they made it to their actual launch event on the Sunday, they’d sold out of all their books and a good deal of their other merchandise in the dealers’ hall!

I think that overall, the SEC was a really beautiful venue, and it was super accessible — it’s unfortunate that some of the security were assholes here and there, but mostly they were friendly and alright; a few events did feel like they’d been put in slightly too-small rooms, but honestly, I feel that for the most part, programming did the absolute best they could do with the strange disparity in room sizes throughout the two centre buildings, and I appreciate that you can ultimately never quite predict how popular each event is going to be, or when one event will be super popular compared to others in the same timeslot.

It really felt in general that people were super aware of disability and accessibility measures throughout the convention — I myself hadn’t fully considered hearing loops when I went to my presentation and we had some initial difficulties with the mic and I offered to work on projecting my voice, and I know that my Star Trek presentation had a person interpreting in a sign language. I didn’t catch their name or which SL they were interpreting in, but I just wanted to mention that and say how fucking impressive that is, given that I’m quite a fast and somewhat disordered speaker at the best of times, with a few unusual regional and dialectal inflections from different influences.

In general, I really appreciated that lifts were very quickly labelled as soon as they had a problem, that accessible seating was prioritised, and that there was so much seating throughout the convention centre. I had a sunflower sticker put on my name badge to indicate I might need additional access needs, but I think a useful thing for conventions in future might be to signpost a separate queue or put up a sign asking those unable to stand in queues to come directly to the front. I do think that almost all the queues I saw and were in moved very fast and efficiently, but at least one event in the SEC Armadillo I chose to avoid going in as early as I would otherwise have preferred to because of the queue outside.

The moderator guidelines did include ensuring to avoid gendered language when indicating questions in panels, and in one panel where I was masked and in a black velvet suit I was referred to as a woman — the moderator looked horrified and she did immediately apologise when I said I was a man before asking my question, and I appreciate that for some people, they are trying their best to break the habits of a lifetime, but it’s definitely something that’s worth further highlighting in the moderator guidelines.

And honestly, I really would have appreciated more on the After Dark programming list — I think there were only 4 After Dark panels, of which I was on 2, and in general I would like to see more programming and more awareness around different adult creators, whether that comes to the more SFF erotica aside, or just much more violent or more adult-themed horror and sexual themes.

It really felt like a lot of people were super receptive toward both myself and other adult and erotic creators, and I’d love to see that reflected in programming in future, as much as I am aware that it adds additional obstacles due to the need for age verification, although even just having the panels be online might get around some of the need for that.

But yeah, all in all, great convention, a lot of fun, and so excited to do it again in future!

Some works of mine you might like and/or that fit in with my programme at WorldCon:

• My Letterboxd list of movie recommendations for WorldCon 2024
• Cold Comfort — Set in 1920s New Jersey. Nasty and violent. Alvis Hunter, boss of a significant crime operation, steals a captive out from under a rival — Naham, a rabbi’s son who immediately attempts to kill himself. In the aftermath, Alvis tries to keep him alive; Naham tries to find something worth living for.
• Fallen Dust — An erotic fantasy novella for the Shousetsu Bang Bang. Issue 103 for the Shousetsu Bang Bang: Off The Beaten Path! 14k, cis M/trans M. A young trans man fleeing an abusive home finds sanctuary at a strange temple buried in a mysterious valley. Featuring some Eldritch tentacles and mild horror, oviposition, breeding, some DP, and just the end of the world! CW for some threats of sexual coercion and pregnancy + transphobia and threatened detransitioning.
• Dirk and the Weaver — 12k, rated M, MB. A shopkeeper slowly comes to fall for a weaver when he comes to town. Slow romance and fantasy short between a shopkeeper in an isolated Scottish village, and a weaver that comes up from somewhere way down south.
• I Want To Fuck The Monster — Monsterfuckery from a trans and disabled perspective.
• Coaxed — 4.6k, rated E, giant M spider/trans M half-elf. Amaethon is a half-elf who combines sex work with adventuring to create wonderful monsterfuckery — I think I might do more with him because this was great fun. This erotica is deeply weird, and I’m delighted to introduce it: featuring oviposition and inflation, cervical penetration, huge size difference, huge belly bulging, body horror (including threats of bursting/popping), banter between a predator and prey, overstimulation, venom/drugs, suspension bondage.
• Problem Eggs — 8.6k, rated E. After sex with his merman boyfriend goes wrong, a man has to go to the hospital with a belly full of eggs. A story at the Caer Afon Magical Hospital, with Aoife Harkin, at their GUM Clinic. After sex with his merman boyfriend goes wrong, Shore finds he can’t pass the eggs as usual; meanwhile, Aoife accustoms to her new hospital after transferring over.
• The Lord of the Wood’s Spring Bride — 10k, rated M. MB. A trans dressmaker is embroiled in the strange schemes of a local deity, and he lets himself be carried away with the tide. Featuring Pothos Hearn.
• Angel’s Wings — 4.6k, rated M. MB. A vampiric sex worker spends the evening with an unusual client. Feat. Beauregard Horvasse and Germain Wagner-Jeanneret.
• Gellert’s New Job — 21k, rated M. MB. Gellert Osgodby has worked as a business manager for the King family for nearly a decade when an error in judgement brings his employment to an abrupt end. Lucien Pike, a rival kingpin, employs his services instead.
• Ambitious Men — Rated M. MB. 11.6k. Archie had idolised Casper Hugo almost his entire life. Deeply fucked up fantasy-horror, wherein a man finds that his dream of taking over his hero’s restaurant is not to proceed as smoothly as he hoped.
• Close Reading: A Deep Dive Into The Process — An in-depth guide into applying analysis to a piece of text and extrapolating meaning.
• Raped and Ruined: Themes of Sexual Assault and Reproductive Coercion in Alien (1979) — Exploring the underlying anxieties around sexual assault, loss of bodily autonomy, and forced impregnation in Alien (1979).
• Dirty talk: a deep dive into smut and the art of fantasy by Kish Lal — An article by Kish Lal for DripFeed, where she interviewed several people about dirty talk, including myself, looking at different fantasies, the psychology of dirty talk, and different ways to approach it.