Thank You So Much to BayCon '24

Reposting my thank you speech from BayCon '24

I had the most amazing wonderful time at BayCon ‘24. I am currently in my hotel rrom waiting for my ride to the airport, and I thought I might share this for on and all!

All the Guests of Honor with our incredible handler/liaison/Jedi Master Jen Allyn. (L-R Community Guest of Honor Lady Phoenix, Singer/Actor Guest of Honor Bonnie Gordon, Jan Allyn, Writer Guest of Honor (me), and Artist Guest of Honor Elizabeth Leggett! Photo by David Price!

To BayCon 2024, Wonkarotica, Impure Imagination… (note—“Wonkarotica” came from the incredible mind of Cliff Winnig)

Thank you so much for inviting me to be part of this event. Thank you Rellie (and her daughters), who remembered me from our first meeting and made this writer Guest of Honor feel not only special, but welcome. To Jen, who always had the supplies I needed—she gave me ZyrTec and Nyquil when I was dealing w a little Con Crud, and who always knew where I was supposed to be going next.

I’d like to thank Crystal, who I could always count on for a chat in the halls. The teen lounge staff, who opened their space to me because the fireworks are not my favorite thing.

Thank you to the incredible Royal Manticoran Navy—the crews of the HMS Ivanhoe, the HMS Guadalcanal, and the 19^th Marine Brigade--I’ll be sewing your patches onto my backpack when I get home!

I would especially like to thank my interviewer and bartender Erik, who made me a Missile Pod before its scheduled deployment. To be honest sometimes the woman has had a long day and being a little premature with your missile launch is not such a bad thing!

Also, to Mary Mason and everyone at the Eye of Argon reading last night, sharing words that words themselves cannot describe. Fetid scarlet oval prattling though it may be.

And thank you to everyone at Con Ops—my goodness, could you make a girl feel any more welcome?!? I felt  like I could just drop in and chat any time—and speaking of that—my Guest of Honor colleagues—Elizabeth and Bonnie and Lady Phoenix. Thank you for the conversations and interactions—it was an honor to be a Guest of Honor with you. Seeing others at the top of their game inspires me to push my own art—and I felt so inspired by you.

I’ve been an outsider most of my life, and I don’t mind that—to be a writer often requires looking from the outside in. To dream of what might be different, one cannot be too attached to the way things are.

But gosh, sometimes it’s good to come home to the mother ship. I have been working on my next book for almost three years. Most of that time in isolation. And again, that is right and good and just how I work. But I look at these tags. Every one is a memory, an experience that was shared.

So many happy encounters and memories!!!

Writers and artists and scientists and teachers and dreamers and builders...for this weekend, I did not feel the need to be outside this community, because it is so wonderfully and weirdly and proudly mine, as well.

And finally, I give my greatest thanks to all who attended Baycon. Thank you to all who have read and supported my work, Thank you to those who of you who came to my panels, or found me wandering about and me chatted about my characters, or violins or where the good donuts are.

And gosh, just thank you so much to those to just waved and smiled as we passed in the halls. I don’t want to get heavy, but to a someone who is constantly reminded of how different she is, that’ s kind of…amazing all unto itself.

This was a beautiful weekend, wasn’t it?

All of this, all of this, I take forward into my writing. My first draft of the next book is done, but I have months of editing ahead. A lot of that time will again be working in solitude, when I start to feel a little lonely, I can look back of this weekend, and remember that none of us are truly alone.

I love you all.

Thank you, BayCon ‘24! Long Live BayCon ‘25!

<3 Ryka

(final note: Hey folks! If you can, please support cons like BayCon and Arisia and Wiscon and so many of the regional cons that happen in the US and the world!)