Octocon Day 3

Hello and welcome to the last day of my Octocon experience, I hope you are enjoying hearing all about it.

After a fantastic night at The Monster Ball I was a little slower to start on Sunday but I was quickly woken up by the first panel the Sunday Service with John and James! John Vaughan and James Brophy presented us with the Vaulties (a follow on from The Vault Of Horrors) in which they discussed more bad movies of the year.. honestly I’m going to have to write a separate post on Movies You Must Watch Because John Vaughan Says They’re Bad 😂

I really enjoyed this panel it was a great start to the day and had the whole room (which was packed) once again in stitches laughing.

After this we checked out and I headed off to a writers workshop with Ruth Frances Long, Finding the Fantastic in your Fiction.

Now this was a workshop I could have easily spent a few more hours at, Ruth is such a mine of information and she gave fantastic, simple advice on things like the importance of folklore and how to use it, creating atmosphere, world building and taught us a new word Dindshenchas which translates as Lore Of Places and is pretty much how Irish people tell a story, going around in circles telling lots of other stories before getting to the point.. at least I hope I have got that right 😆

Ruth also shared some great resources for research, had us do some writing exercises and had some books for us to check out. I’ve always been fascinated by Irish fairy tales and folklore but there is so much I didn’t know about. I may pick up a few of these books!

It was time for lunch and a quick catch up in the lobby before the next panel 200 Years And Counting: Women Creators, this was a chance to hear our amazing female guests talk about their experiences in writing and share what influenced them to create. We heard from Pat Cadigan, Colleen Doran, Diane Duane, Ruth Frances Long and it was moderated by Janet O’Sullivan.

I was in need of a break at this point in the day so I met up with my Aunty Gwen and we went for a walk to get some fresh air. When we got back we hung out at the Dublin 2019 table while we waited for the final panel to begin. Michael Carroll’s Secret Panel, I had no idea what to expect going in but everyone who had been to his secret panels before was very excited.

Michael is, as my Aunty Gwen puts it PUNTASTIC, oh my goodness I laughed so much.. I’m still not entirely sure what the whole thing was about but he’s very funny with added visuals for bonus affect lol, also I loved this quote because I do think it’s important to explore different genres.

Sadly we came to the end of the weekend, Carol and David filled us in on upcoming conventions and events and then we had the closing ceremony hosted by the Chair Janet and her guests of honour. Then it was time to go home. Honestly I was very sad it was all over, even though it was a busy weekend it seemed to go by too quickly.

Next year there won’t be a weekend but a 1 day event instead, this is because something huge is coming to Ireland! So I’ve mentioned Dublin 2019 a few times and that means the 75th WorldCon will be held in Ireland for the first time!! It’s a 5 day event with people all over the world coming and thanks to Aunty Gwen (Have I mentioned she’s the BEST) I’m going to be going 😍 If you want more info check out the website Here I’ve met a number of people involved and they’re all volunteers as it’s a fan made event for the fans by the fans so they’re all genuinely interested in just creating an amazing experience for like-minded people.

I think I have found my people..

Octocon you were amazing! Thank you for having me and I hope to see everyone again soon 🐙