Filed from the field desk of the Silverlight Bureau of Perpendicularity Regulation and Inter-Realmatic Transport
Some days at a con are electric. Others are... alchemical. Subtler, slower, built of glances and reflections rather than flashbulbs and fanfare. Today was the latter. For me, at least. Ironically, it was also the busiest day of the event.
We got to the Dragonsteel booth early this morning. Exhibitors had a brief shopping window before the main floor opened. Our shelves were thinner after Friday’s rush, so the team was restocking with quiet focus. At the front counter, B’Barbra sorted pamphlets with pride. A fresh wave of Bureau T-shirt buyers had clearly lifted her spirits.
While the merch may be fictionally bureaucratic, the effort behind it was very real. The products you're getting from us are the result of months and months of work from everyone at the company, basically.
At one point, we asked a kind con-goer if he’d take a group photo of us. And as we awkwardly clustered in front of the booth, tripping over each others feet as we tried to find our places, I found myself thinking about the complex puzzle of what we actually do at events like this.
It’s hard to describe what working the Dragonsteel booth like this really feels like. Not because it isn’t exciting—it is—but because trying to distill it into words feels like trying to un-bottle lightning. Like, you have to try and contain something bigger than yourself. But in the quiet between rushes, I caught glimpses of it. Having this shared love of storytelling is like this instant ice breaker. We're all friends right away.
I kept thinking about a newsletter from the New York Times that I read this morning over breakfast with the team. It was about a crossword puzzle convention. The writer described a ballroom full of people who had all done the same thing—solved a grid—and how that small, niche act created instant connection. Elevators full of strangers who suddenly had something to talk about. People who had been puzzling alone in their kitchens now finding community in real time.
It felt... familiar.
Outside the booth, I had the immense privilege of attending Tomi Adeyemi’s spotlight panel, and then sitting down with her afterward. She is, without exaggeration, radiant. Our conversation touched on channeling creativity, connection, and the quiet revolution of storytelling.
Later, I interviewed John Scalzi. We dove into the function of tropes in fiction, and how Scalzi doesn’t just want to subvert them for laughs. He sees them as tools—shovels—to dig deeper into the human condition. Science fiction and fantasy, he said, give us just enough distance to see ourselves clearly. Like stepping back from a painting. Suddenly, the image resolves.
(Both interviews are coming soon. I’m so excited to share them.)
Tomorrow is our last day at C2E2. And while our feet may be tired and our voices a little hoarse, our hearts? Still very much in it.
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