Monsterotica BookCon Field Report

A romance book convention where people line up for tattoos before they line up for book signings sets a very specific tone, and Monster Erotica BookCon fully commits. We’re back from Baltimore with a field report from the Hyatt Regency Inner Harbor: how the con is structured, what the vibe feels like on the floor, and why this event has a reputation for being high energy without losing basic kindness and respect.

We’re joined by guest author CD Rachels to talk about what brought him to writing male male romance, especially the push to create queer romance as an Asian queer man who dates men. We dig into how he moved from contemporary romance into monster romance, why some series lean cozy and rom-com, and how he thinks about writing self contained happily ever afters that still connect inside a larger world. If you’ve been looking for new MM romance authors or softer monster rom-com reads that still hit emotional beats, you’ll get plenty of direction here.

Then we get into the real Monster Erotica BookCon experience: trinket trading like a mini renaissance fair, a Discord community that functions like mutual aid, monster romance trivia that turns strangers into teammates, and karaoke that somehow feels like the perfect finale. We also talk about what makes this con feel like a safe space for so many readers, including explicit consent culture like the lanyard system and the way people still ask before touching, even when the answer seems obvious.

If you love monster romance, indie romance authors, queer romance, or you’re curious about what a modern romance book con is actually like, hit play. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs a weekend away, and leave us a review with the most unhinged con activity you’d try first.

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Transcript

Disclaimers And Introductions

Mari 0:00

The views expressed in this podcast are solely those of the hosts. All creative works discussed or reviewed are the intellectual property of the creators of said stories and are being used under the fair use doctrine. One of your hosts, Mari, as always. And with me I have Kelly.

Kelly 0:41

Hey everyone, it's Kelly. We also have Ashley.

Ashley 0:44

Hi, it's Ashley. We also have Jonathan.

Jonathan 0:47

What's good, everybody? It's JP.

Mari 0:50

And with us today, we have a once again very special guest. We've got CeeDee Rachels. Introduce yourself.

CD Rachels 0:57

Hi, everyone. Good evening. It's CD Rachels, author of Male Romance. I'm very happy to be here.

What Monster Erotica BookCon Is

Mari 1:04

Yay. So today we're going to be talking about our experiences at the second Monster Erotica BookCon event that took place in Baltimore, Maryland, at the Hyatt Regency Baltimore Inner Harbor. That hotel name is a mouthful. Hyatt Regency Baltimore Inner Harbor on May 8th and May 9th of 2026. It's hosted by Unfortunate Reads. So just to be clear, it was basically the same as last year of the four main hosts here. I was the only one who went. So everyone else is just going to be asking questions about the weird things I did that weekend. But CD was there selling his books. But actually, you and I had talked, um, messaged back and forth some a little bit about you being on on the podcast um before. But it was nice to connect in person.

CD Rachels 1:50

Yes.

CeeDee Rachels On Own Voices

Mari 1:51

All right. So you write male male romance. What what got you into um what got you into doing this wonderful line of work?

CD Rachels 2:02

Oh well, I tell a lot of people, you know, in 2020, like a lot of people, I got very much into reading, and I was reading male-male romance. So I was reading a lot, a lot more than I had the previous 29 years of my life. But I noticed a distinct lack of voices that were similar to my own as an Asian male, queer person who dates men. And I was waiting for that with the authors and the characters, and it was very difficult for me to find any. I don't think I found any, truthfully. And I was thought to myself, why can't my perspective, you know, be a thing? And I was like, you know what? I'm not the whole year, two years, I was waiting around looking for books for people who look like me by people who look like me, and I couldn't find any. So you know what? I'm gonna throw my hat in the ring. So that's how I ended up here.

Mari 2:54

Nice. I I had a discussion recently with some friends of mine, it's friends that I DD with, it's a it's a a gay married couple, and we were talking about how great it is that there are a lot more male-male books out there in general, and that they're gaining more popularity and more traction, but there really aren't a lot of like own voices in general. Like it's it's a lot written by women and more fan-presenting authors, which there's nothing wrong with that, but own voices is always very nice. Um and then, of course, yeah, add the you know, added added layer of um you know being Asian and just you know, it's it's nice to have everything not be cookie cutter that's out there. So good on you for seeing a um a need in an area and and jumping in and providing it for all of us.

Jonathan 3:45

Thank you. C D how I'm looking at your your body of work in hot dog. Like you've got you're you're across a number of different uh series, series, series, plural for series, multitude of series.

Mari 3:59

And a lot of work, yes.

Jonathan 4:01

Yeah, my goodness. Which what what came first? Uh just like romance, uh male male romance, or did you go into like monster, uh, a monster body of work uh first? Was there like one that got you curious and paved the way for the other?

CD Rachels 4:18

Or as far as writing goes, it was really contemporary, was the big thing. And after doing several of those, I just slowly pivoted. I'm trying different, I'm still trying different things. A lot of authors, and I think a lot of creatives, they might not tell you, but we're throwing things at a wall and seeing what sticks. And some people as artists, they literally do that. But for me, I'm actually just I'm trying to see what types of works stick, which definitely can segue into the weekend that we just had, which was fantastic at Monsterotica.

Writing Monsters Plus Time Travel

Mari 4:53

So my first book that I read of yours was Pretty Fly for a Vampire Guy. Oh, cool. And then right after that was uh, well, I was doing for the Monsterotica book con, there was a a story graph challenge for if people wanted to try and do it. And basically the challenge was to read one at least one book by uh every author that was at the con. And so that's I read Pretty Fly for a Vampire Guy for that, and then I had my whole list of like people that I liked, and I was like, as soon as I finish this challenge, I'm gonna go back and finally be able to read more by those authors. So I I went back and I read Dryad Try Again. Oh, cool, which is the creeping you university. It's like this um, see, for people who haven't read it, so it's male, male, it's a monster university, and like humans are like the minorities, um, and it's cute little relationships uh in a like Bram Kami monster romance. Like it's not, it's not a well, I'm not gonna say it's not serious, but it is like lighthearted.

CD Rachels 5:53

It's not dark, it's definitely not dark.

Mari 5:55

Yeah, it's not dark, it makes you feel good, yeah. Yeah, and you do have a non like romance, non- non-monstery book coming out that looks very interesting to me. It's rescued by the ancient Chinese warrior prince that's coming out. Well, I'm sorry, by the time this this episode will be dropping June 4th, so it will have just come out because it's coming out May 29th, right?

CD Rachels 6:19

Yeah.

Mari 6:21

Um tell us what that book's about.

CD Rachels 6:24

So that book is a novella, so it's very bicez. So if you're thinking to yourself, you've never tried my work and you don't want to invest too much time, that's totally fair. It is a novella, it's a time travel novella, in case you couldn't tell. But my the premise of that novella is uh go back in time, retrieve the anomaly, don't make any changes, and come back and don't fall in love and hope with anyone.

Mari 6:49

Easy peasy.

CD Rachels 6:50

The title of the book is Rescued by the Ancient Chinese Warrior Prince. So, and I'm a male male romance author. So in that very bite side, in that short, very short book, that novella, you will see the adventure and see what occurs.

Jonathan 7:06

Yeah.

Mari 7:07

It looks it looks good. I'm looking forward to reading

Getting In As An Author

Mari 7:10

it. Um so what has been your have as far as your experience of just to know what kind of lens you come to Montserratica book con through, have you been to a lot of other cons, a lot of other book conventions? What's your your background in terms of doing that kind of stuff?

CD Rachels 7:25

Yeah, so my background, I've done several book conventions. Um, they've all been most of them have been romance-based. Some of them have been queer books, some of them have been queer romance, some of them have been romance in general. So I've have a few under my belt, like four or five big ones, all in the United States so far. So this is not far from my first con.

Mari 7:48

Okay, cool. So, what did you think about? Well, first of all, how did you how did you hear about the Mazorotica book on and and the application process as a like on the author side? How did you um decide to try for it?

Jonathan 8:01

There's an application process, for them, not for us.

Mari 8:05

We just have to hope that we can get our minutes and pay.

Jonathan 8:09

You think like if you published work in that space, they'd be like, you're in.

CD Rachels 8:14

Yeah, but we're all fighting for a table. Right. Not not not physically fighting, hopefully we're not physically fighting, but we're all we're all vying for a table. And as for how I found out, I don't remember how I found out. All I know is I wanted to be in it last year and I couldn't get it. That was very sad. Uh, but of course, you know, timing-wise, this this year I was like, I was just like, I kept badgering, it ends up being Cassie. I ended up badgering, hey, when are the applications open? When are the applications open? Jumped in, got in, followed all the rules, bing bam, boom.

Mari 8:48

Yeah, but that's the other thing, too. Now that you mentioned following the rules, because it's not just um Jonathan, it's not just having written like monster romance, monster erotica. You also have to have be, um, I believe, like from what it sounds like on my end as a as a non non-author, non-artist person, um, is you have to be like non-AI. So, like no AI on your in your cover work, no AI in obviously in writing the book. So because they're very hard stance on like uh no AI.

CD Rachels 9:15

Yeah. You have to say when I say rules, I mean you have to hit certain like deposits. Okay. Like, but I think but that's true with every book con.

Mari 9:23

Okay.

CD Rachels 9:23

Yeah.

The Schedule And The No Chill Vibe

Mari 9:25

So for me, it's last year was the first Monster Ronica book con. It was also my first one, obviously, because it was the first one. Um but last year I went by myself, which was still a great experience. It was my first time going to any kind of a convention book con kind of thing by myself, and it was a good experience. This year I took uh a friend with me, Sarah, who does hits and a kissin' podcasts, a monster romance podcast. Shout out, Sarah. What's good? And that was a good time, but it was definitely uh a little bit bigger and a little bit better, a little just a little bit more than last year. So I would say I know you wanted to go last year and everything, but like this year was a good year to go because it was just all just amped up even more. There was seemed like there were more authors, more vendors, more to do, more going on at all times, more people there. Everyone was kind of like had a better idea of what it was about and were excited to be there. So it was definitely more. The only way I can describe it. So it was a little bit more than last year. Now I know on my end as an attendee, because we just had like the general admission. So for us, it was like registration on Thursday while you guys were doing all the hard work setting up. We just did our registration. And then Friday was the first day. Friday and Saturday were the two days of the convention. So the way that it's broken down is you have a chunk in the morning of like signing time, which is where you get to talk to the authors, get books signed, pick up pre-orders, and do your shopping. And then there's a chunk in the middle of the day that closes down for like lunch and panels and things, and then there's an afternoon signing session as well that you get to do that. That happens on Friday and on Saturday. How did that schedule work out for you as a as an as an author?

CD Rachels 11:13

Yeah, I we really like it. All of us really liked it because we all agree that a lot of signings, they don't really give us breaks, built-in breaks oftentimes. We'll be lucky if we get a built-in break.

Mari 11:26

Right.

CD Rachels 11:27

And they were very adamant about during this break, we're closing this area. So no one's in or out, or no one's getting into the the purchase area. So you can all go out and get lunch and relax, even if you're alone. And yeah, the schedule worked out great. I mean the the theme of the con is a high energy. Very I think the theme of the con is no chill. That's what someone said, and I was like, I agree. It's it's not it's like high energy, but without being rude. No chill without being rude. Right. Definitely moments of overwhelming, but not necessarily in a negative way or in any way that the con was responsible for. Unhinged in breaking it up, we I was able to like take little mini naps between. I mean, I need those. I think we all needed those.

Mari 12:19

I I I should have. I should have. Instead, um, poor Sarah that that came with me that we we ended up rooming together. I get loopier and just more kind of sleepover energy the more tired I get. So I just got increasingly more and more like that towards the end of the weekend. So it was, yeah, it was it was it was a lot. That probably should have taken a little bit more downtime, but it's fine. That's what um not being at Monsterotica con is for the rest of the time. I will agree that the whole like forced chunk in the middle of the day to like where you have to take some kind of break, whether it's you know, lunch or a nap or whatever, is nice. It was nice last year when I was by myself because it allowed groups of people to get together. Like last year the Discord is very active while the con is going on, so people are like, hey, I'm in the lobby, I'm gonna go to the ramen place, anybody want to join me? And you'd have two and three strangers who like nobody knew each other and except we knew we were all there for that con. You know what I mean? And that was enough to get you uh having someone to have you know a conversation with at lunch. Yeah, so that was Friday. Oh that was Friday, Friday morning. This since this is my second year and I very much loved it, and also Sarah talked me into it. Um I got a tattoo this year. This was on the Friday morning tattoo session. So that was how my Friday morning started. And then Friday afternoon after everything was the the trivia, like the monster trivia, um which was a good time. Um, I know you were there for karaoke, I saw you for karaoke. Were you there for the trivia portion?

CD Rachels 14:06

I was not there for trivia, I chose to do game night, which was very chill, and I'm glad I got to meet people that I wasn't just sitting there alone during game night. Like people actually did gravitate toward me, and I was very happy about that.

Mari 14:22

Nice.

CD Rachels 14:22

Did you do karaoke? Oh, yeah. I did.

Jonathan 14:26

What was your song of choice? Uh, do you remember Mari?

Mari 14:28

I did, I I 100% asked. I didn't recognize the song. I was like, damn, he's got a good voice. Don't know the song, but it's a great book.

CD Rachels 14:36

It's called Friends on the Other Side from The Princess and the Frog. Yeah.

Mari 14:42

Yeah, somebody mentioned it. But I have to I haven't seen that movie. That's on my list to see. That's one of the Disney movies I've not seen.

CD Rachels 14:48

Yeah.

Ashley 14:49

But it was great. You did well. What an interesting choice. Are you a Disney fan?

CD Rachels 14:54

Um, yeah, I'd say so. A lot of people I've I found that a lot of people are at this con. That's another thing a lot of us have in common. Maybe it's just the age demographic or like where we are in the United States, but uh a lot of a lot of Disney fans and a lot of Pokemon fans. So I have plenty to talk to, a lot of topics to talk to about every single person here, and it other than just monster romance. But yeah, like the fans of Pokemon, Disney, and Monster Romance are like three circles on top of each other. It feels yeah, we're very close in the Venn diagram. There were a lot of like Disney shirts and like yeah, yeah, a lot of Disney Coast, a lot of Disney close plays. I don't know if you saw.

Mari 15:31

Yeah.

Ashley 15:32

Yeah. I mean, many would argue that Disney's where the monster loving begins for.

CD Rachels 15:39

That's very true.

Mari 15:41

Yeah.

CD Rachels 15:41

That's very true.

Mari 15:42

For a lot of people, yeah. Yeah, so there was the game night, there was trivia. That was the first night, which was a lot of fun. Um, because you end up like it's not just individual trivia, it's like the table kind of together. So once again, you get to interact with people that you maybe didn't know beforehand. Um and on our table, we did uh we had our little basically a little podcast table and some friends. So it was me and Sarah and the two women from Yes, Please with Monsters Podcast and um our friend Laura that I had met last year, and one more woman who I recognize, and she sang, and I cannot remember her name. I'm so sorry. But um all of course it's Monster Romance Trivia. So everyone had fun names for their teams. Um, our fun name was was our our theme of the weekend was it'll fit.

CD Rachels 16:37

Oh wow.

Mari 16:39

And we were not last, and that is all that I wanted. We were like middle of the pack, and I'm like, that's fine. That's fine. It was a good time. The thing that I liked about the trivia, uh, if you get to do it, uh if anyone's looking to it, is like at the end. Mind you, let me let me describe this for you guys. So there's like an open lobby area on like the second floor that's where the karaoke was, and it's where trivia was. And they had these TV, big TV station close to the tables. And the end of the trivia, after they had all the questions on there, at the end of the trivia, it was like they put up images from the different books, and it would say the title of the book, and it would say the name of the artist, and then you had to write down the author. And so all I could think of the staff at this hotel that was walking by, seeing these random covers pop up on this on the TV screen at the end was just a bunch of those back to back. And I'm like, they're having a good time.

CD Rachels 17:44

Yeah, shout out to the staff of the Hyatt who were professional the entire time. Like, I kept thinking that they were gonna give us the stink off from seeing all of the adult toys or whatnot, but I mean, if they did, I didn't notice. Every time I saw them, they were just there to clean up things and move things around, just very maybe it's just a professionality, so that's great.

Trinkets, Bar Staff, And Con Culture

Mari 18:06

So uh Sarah and I had dinner and lunch and drinks at the the hotel bar and restaurant, the Mr. 300, and then the little bar area several times. And by by the end of our trip, uh, we've exchanged addresses with the bar staff, and they've all got little um mini dildos and little toys and stickers, and they had they were like, What you got for us today?

CD Rachels 18:29

Wow, every time.

Mari 18:31

Yeah, so they were they were on board. If they're not one of us, they're they're they will be by the end of this weekend.

Ashley 18:38

You know, many people don't believe in the in the act of bribery, but I'm I'm not one of them. I think giving treats and trinkets is such a great, like, you know, and they look forward to that stuff, right? Everybody wants a little treat.

Mari 18:52

Yeah. And that is a huge part of Monster Rotica BookCon as well, more so than any other book convention that I've been to. Now, I haven't been to a ton of them, but more so than any I've been to. The only thing I can rival that the trinker trinket trading thing is like is a little bit like a rent fair and a lot like Dragon Con, where you had a whole like discussion group on Discord where it was like things people were 3D printing, crocheting, making like there's some really talented people. And they would they brought all this stuff. You had little like glow-in-the-dark 3D things, you had you know bookmarks and stickers, and everyone had something to give away. And whether or not you're not gonna be able to do that.

CD Rachels 19:33

Did you remember? Sorry, did you remember what I did?

Mari 19:38

I do not, I'm sorry.

CD Rachels 19:40

That's fair. That's fair. You probably got a lot of stuff. I got a lot of stuff as well. I handcrafted clay creatures.

Jonathan 19:47

Oh my god, are you telling me? Okay, so hold on now. Hold on now. You just activated it. Stand the fuck back. You just turned me on. If I told you that I'm handcrafting clay creatures right now, as we speak, it's an old new hobby. So I'm gonna need I'm gonna need some some pro tips here. I got this kit and it's like uh it's lightweight clay. So do you use do you use air dry or do you use like I don't know what the other kind is, polymer clay? What do you what do you use?

CD Rachels 20:16

But it refers an oven. I'm just using my house oven. I just use my house oven. Like I don't know how else to describe, but it is the one that it's it actually needs to set. But they know they understand, like the directions understand that everyone not everyone has like an actual clay oven, so they just say, here, no, in your regular oven, just do it like this is the time that I'm like, all right, cool. And I just bought it at Michael's, I bought one little mini kit of a very small kit of tools, and and I only started like less than two months ago for this con. Because everyone's talking about all the trades as you mentioned. I was like, I'm gonna handcraft clay clay creatures, it's gonna be like a little self-promo, it's gonna be fun. And I didn't know how fun it was going to be. I didn't realize how how cool it was.

Ashley 21:00

That's how they get you.

CD Rachels 21:01

That's how it gets you, yeah.

Jonathan 21:02

What kind of monster? What kind of creatures? Did you do monsters?

CD Rachels 21:04

Did you do like I make? Let's see. This okay. Legally speaking, for this podcast, I made I made like generic monsters that have no affiliation to any franchises. Of course. Understood, understood. I'm not part of this franchise, so that would be bad if I did. But they were generic, like little little dragons and little worm people, little rodents and stuff.

Jonathan 21:32

Nice. I love that. I love that. And you are you are you gonna keep doing like I know like sometimes when when I I like to craft and something like that. So like sometimes when I get going for the um for the for the cons, I I burn out afterwards. Like I'll just do so many of one thing that I'm just like good on that for another five years. Um, like, are you gonna keep going with it?

CD Rachels 21:56

Right now, probably, but only if like there's a con coming up. Or if there's like a major holiday. Um because I just don't have any space in my house or people to give them to. Like I need a reason. For me, I need a reason.

Mari 22:09

Motivation. Yeah. Do you have any events coming up? Any cons or anything you're gonna be? Anything else you're going to this year?

CD Rachels 22:16

So when people hear this is gonna be June 6th, I'm going to Romantic Con in Connecticut in July. And then next year I'm gonna be at a Hudson Hudson River Valley Con or Hudson River Book Con in March. That's in Tyritown, New York. That's a one-day thing.

Mari 22:35

Very cool. Nice.

Jonathan 22:37

Nice. We gotta get we gotta get you down in this uh Florida market too. Yeah. We've got uh what do we got? We have Villains and Vixens and authors are gonna be at Villains and Vixens in Oh gosh, what is that?

Mari 22:52

July?

Ashley 22:53

In July, yeah. Orlando.

Mari 22:54

Yeah, in July and Orlando.

Ashley 22:55

Vixens is usually uh, I think the last couple of years it was in Texas and they had a a problem with the hotel or the event space. And so this year it's coming to Florida, Orlando, Florida, which is pretty close to Jonathan and I, and not too far from Mari and Kelly. Yeah. But next year I heard it's supposed to be back in Texas. Okay.

Mari 23:15

If you do feel like coming to Orlando area, there's like several cons that do come through here. So absolutely. Okay, so anything else about the con you want to say before I wrap up this little portion?

Vendor Discord And Community Support

CD Rachels 23:31

So you were talking about the Discord, which is very active, still active, and I love it. I adore it. I didn't realize that you weren't a vendor. There's a little Discord for authors and vendors. Everyone's so supportive. Everyone's so cool. Because you weren't part of it. Like they would constantly ping, hey, I need tape. Bing, hey, I got tape. What room are you at? Or ping, I need Tylenol, ping, hey, I have Tylenol. Everyone was so supportive. It was like, oh my gosh. It is kind of, it was weird. Like, it was weird how true that is. People say that sometimes, but everyone was like so generous with their time, energy, and knowledge and wisdom. And that's that's not even to say it went, but first before we even met.

Ashley 24:16

Yeah, yeah.

CD Rachels 24:17

Like then in person, we're all pinging each other, being like, okay, what about this? And hey, can someone check out this thing for me? Everyone was so helpful.

Mari 24:25

Yeah. Last year, like I said, I came by myself, didn't know anybody. And of course, the problem that I had never run into before because I had never flown anywhere for a book convention before, I'd only driven, is hey, books are really heavy. So as I was packing up, I was like, oh my God, am I gonna be over overweight on my luggage? I knew that fit, but like, would it be overweight? And I just pinged on Discord last year and I was like, does anyone have a luggage scale? Because the hotel didn't when I asked them. So anyone have random person, yeah. Let me meet you on this floor. Let me use her like luggage scale, and then I just gave it back to her. Never met it before in my life.

CD Rachels 24:59

That wow, everyone's so generous.

Mari 25:01

Yeah, for no reason. Didn't have to do that. And then also, um, like I have a CFAP machine, and of course, you go to like CDS or whatever. And so I use the giant bottle of distilled water. So I was like, Does anybody need this distilled? Does anybody know anybody who's you know local driving or whatever who uses a CPAP machine or needs distilled water for something? And I left it, I think, with like it was either Mallory Dunlin or her her PA or somebody. I was like, somebody there use it, you know, just yeah. For complete strangers. Well, well, it's really a very like a lot of camaraderie. And I know nobody else here has been. I assume, I'm sorry, I'm assuming CeeDee Rachel's. I'm assuming you've never been to Dragon Con in Atlanta.

CD Rachels 25:40

I have not, I've not.

Mari 25:41

So to me, and and Sarah who goes to Dragon Con said the same thing. Like, this monster erotica book con had the vibe of Dragon Con, which is this like very family, like family in that we're all you know, found family, weird, like accepted. No strangers, we're to help each other kind of situation.

Jonathan 26:05

Nice. I love that. I love that community is uh is being built um at all times.

Mari 26:11

Absolutely. Okay, so unless we have anything else, I'm gonna wrap this up to the next segment.

CD Rachels 26:20

Excuse me. Yeah.

Subscriptions, Links, And Where To Find CeeDee

Mari 26:21

Okay. So what's gonna what you guys are gonna hear after this is um throughout the con, uh Sarah and I we were roommates, but we also ended up like recording things. Okay, day one, we're doing waking up at crazy early in the morning to get tattoos or whatever. So I've got little ri recording throughout the day, throughout the event of our of our con. And so we're gonna stick that. Well, I say we. Kelly's gonna do all the work and stick that in here after this. Yes, thank you, Kelly. So you guys are gonna get to hear the progression of the weekend. But also, if you want more, this is gonna be another weird recording because this happened on Sunday. Nope. This happened on Saturday night at like midnight or so. Sarah and I recorded a segment for Hissin' and Kissin' that's just me and her talking about the event and the con. Um, and it's gonna be or or it is it was a bonus episode that dropped on May 14th on their feed. So if you're not subscribed to them, you should be. If you're not subscribed to us, you should be. And then you'll get all these weird little bonus tidbits that drop.

Jonathan 27:33

And if you don't have CD's books, you should.

Mari 27:36

Do what now?

Jonathan 27:37

If you don't have CD's books, you should.

Mari 27:39

You absolutely should. They're a good time. All right. Thanks for listening to Of Swords and Soulmates. Before we go, make sure to check out the show notes, rate, review, and subscribe to us on your podcast app of choice. It helps others to find us. Follow us on Instagram and TikTok at Of Swords and Soulmates. Check us out on our website of Swordsandsoulmates. If you'd like to offer suggestions for future episode topics, feel free to reach out to us on the DMs of any of those options. If you want to read along with us as we prep for a new episode and get chapter-by-chapter interaction, join our Fable app book club by searching for the Of Swords and Soulmates Book Club. And last but not least, we hope that you'll join us in two weeks for our next episode when we will be reading Bromantasy by Marie Roche. Bye.

Jonathan 28:22

Did we um and maybe in it's covered in a segment that um we didn't uh cover, but did we get uh where to get in touch with CD?

Mari 28:32

Oh my god, no, because I didn't put it in the notes, so I didn't think about it. CeeDee, how can people find you?

CD Rachels 28:39

I'm on Instagram at C D Rachels. My website is cdrachelsauthor.com where you can download a free novella. And email me, cd rachelsauthor at gmail.com. I don't mind getting emailed.

Jonathan 28:57

Nice, nice. Uh before we cut you loose, uh, I could I kind of would like to like what's your of the monster books that I see here, like so uh kissing the shark, uh Sea Monster Single Dad, do those does the maritime monster series is that read as a standalone, or is that the do I is that necessarily does it have to be sequential? Because the reason I say this is because the title Sea Monster Single Dad kind of stands out to me.

CD Rachels 29:28

Um every single one of my books is self-contained with book and happily out there after, but they do exist in certain series. So if you technically if you read them out of sequence, you'll get spoiled of the other couple for whatever, but you know, I don't think that's enough to detract you from reading them backwards. I'm a firm believer. For me, anyway, is that each book is a self-contained romance. So if you don't mind getting spoiled to find out who the couple was from book, whatever, book one of a series, go ahead, read book two, read book three, go nuts. YOLO Nice.

Jonathan 30:04

How uh the I've I I haven't seen, and Mari, I I don't know if you've seen uh this in the past, you're a little bit more monster versed than I am. But uh a turtle, a turtle is this like uh like a turtle switcheroo? Like what um a shifter.

CD Rachels 30:26

It's on top of the turtle.

Mari 30:27

Yeah.

Jonathan 30:28

What uh is that is that a shifter? Is that like uh or is that is that dude constantly a turtle?

CD Rachels 30:34

So it's basically like a turtle. In the book, he has a he has an ability to like in his book, he's the whole thing is he physically can't shift back for more than a little bit, and his friends use clamors so that he can walk around, but most of the time he's holed up in his room being all grumpy turtle playing video games. Yeah, because because he can't shift back in human form, so because of that, he's socially isolated himself.

Jonathan 31:04

So he's kind of he kind of he's kind of he's he he feels trapped and he can't just be himself.

CD Rachels 31:12

Yeah, yeah.

Jonathan 31:17

I like that. I like that. Very cool. They were um yeah, they were a big part of my childhood. Um and then uh so pretty fly for a vampire guy. I like a good like I'm not gonna lie. I love a good pun. Yeah, with good puns and the whole creeping your universe is the universe for yes. Nice. So what what's your if you so if you had to recommend that uh that series to to a reader, what kind of reader are we? We're looking for people who are looking for cozy, fun, kind of like rom-com, monster rom-com stuff.

CD Rachels 32:05

Not not dark. Emotional beats. I guess that's the best way to describe it. Like some are some are more rom-commy than others. Like, that's the best way to describe it. It's definitely not dark. Dark trigger warnings and moments of sharp edges and occasional moments of violence, but never anything particularly dark. And my last question Do you have a favorite character to write? I don't think anyone's ever asked me that. I don't know if you're looking at my books, but in kissing the shark, I don't know if you can see the cover. There's the shark man, and then there's a human. The human is kind of a self-insert. So I mean, I guess he's my favorite because it's some, yeah, some characters are self-insert, and therefore they're my favorite because they're me, and I love myself.

Mari 33:11

As we all should.

Jonathan 33:13

Love CD? Yes, we all should love CD. Nice, awesome. I really dig that. Cool. Are you are you into like uh are you into like what like water sports, things like that?

CD Rachels 33:23

Is that what kind of led you to just so no, but it was like while doing research, I kind of became big into marine, um the word I'm looking for, marine conservation. Like half halfway through the book, I was like, I'm really into marine conservation at this point.

Jonathan 33:42

Nice. Very cool. I appreciate that. CeeDee, thank you for taking the time to uh to explain that to me. Uh it uh it means a lot to me. Thank you. Thank you for talking to me.

Mari 33:53

Absolutely. Thank you for being here. All right, all right, stay tuned over. Bye.

Jonathan 33:59

Thanks, CeeDee.

Baltimore Travel And First Impressions

Mari 34:01

And so now the next thing we're gonna have you guys listen to is a bit of an on-site reporting that Sarah from Hissin and Kissin podcast and I did. We attended Master Rodicacon together, we were roomies, we started off very professional, very demure. And as the event went on, you'll see us uh get slightly more and more unhinged as we were just having the best time possible. So listen to the little bit of cobbled together audio from uh the event and get a good vibe for how we were feeling in the moment. If you don't already, I would highly recommend you all listen to Sarah's and Jess's uh podcast, Hissin and Kissen at podcasts. Like they're on Instagram, they're on TikTok, they have Discord. Um you can look them up that way or follow us long enough. We'll we'll link to them. I do that all the time. Enjoy. Okay, so we are here in Baltimore.

Sarah 34:54

How was your travel day, Sarah? Long but good. I think it was, you know, knock on wood. Hopefully, hopefully it'll be just as good on the way back.

Mari 35:03

How was yours? It wasn't bad. Um, I think we both got in like late, like eight, ten-ish. And then we did dinner down the road, which was good. Yeah, with Twila. That was that was fun. Baltimore crush. What was that drink? Yeah, a crush. Yeah. But then that's like a drink you're supposed to have in Baltimore. It's vodka and orange and different orangey stuff. Like hard to go wrong.

Sarah 35:27

Yeah. You're not gonna go wrong with vodka and orange juice.

Mari 35:30

Yeah, yeah. So it was a good time. Um and then today is Thursday, is check-in day. We went to a the American Visionary Museum, which is wild.

Sarah 35:41

Can I curse on your podcast? Yes. It's fucking weird. Super really weird, but like I loved how weird it was. Like it was exactly like there was art there that you had to put on 3D glasses for. There was like weird sculptural art. There was a two giant poodles named Fifi, which is what I wanted to see. A giant alligator car, crocodile car. Um, little like uh wind-up vignettes, I guess, is maybe it was just weird. Yeah, and a and a shrine to farting. Yes, a shrine.

Mari 36:14

How can we forget?

Sarah 36:15

I think it's a weird and wonderful way to start a Thursday. Um yeah, and we had some betting in uh avocado toast this morning, too.

Mari 36:22

It was so good.

Sarah 36:23

Yeah. Like we just got in and did the time to finish breakfast. They're like, we closed in five minutes and we were like, so can we? And they were like, yeah, yeah, we're you absolutely like we're not gonna be assholes.

Mari 36:35

Yeah, yeah. So good time. Yeah. Um so we are about to head down to registration to get our like official vineyards and stuff, and then our merch, you're gonna get your yeah, I got a hoodie.

Sarah 36:45

I'm excited to wear it.

Mari 36:46

I got the t-shirt and I got the anthology.

Sarah 36:51

I actually don't I don't remember what I really. So they're gonna be like, is the order right? I'm gonna be like, sure. As long as I get my hoodie, I don't everything else is cool. I don't I really don't remember what I ordered. I'm gonna have to check that out. Same. Yeah.

Mari 37:09

See you guys after registration. Bye. All right. So we just got back from picking up doing our registration stuff, um, which went as smoothly as last year. Literally no line. Walk up, get your stuff. And then we sat down and looked at everything that was in the uh the bags. Yes. Um a lot of stickers, a lot of my stuff got here safely. Yes, yes, some cute hissing and kissing keychains and stickers, and um, there's a little emergency bag thing in there that was cute. Yeah. Um we both have the the general admission, the GA. So the there are different things in different level bags or passes or whatever.

Sarah 37:51

Well, we had a chance to talk to some other attendees and a few authors. It's it's a very uh laid back, nice vibe. Yeah, yeah. I agree.

Mari 38:00

We got first ribbons of the event. Someone walked up to us and gave us uh Mothman.

Sarah 38:05

Mothman ate my ass at Monster Like Coca, and all I got was his ribbon, which is perfect.

Mari 38:10

Yep, yeah. And yeah, I think we've got everything ready, and then tomorrow we are hoping our plan is to get up early and get in line and do the tattoo situation. Yeah. It's good tats. It's gonna be tattoo, yeah. We're excited. Yep. All right. See you guys tomorrow. Bye.

Day One Tattoos And The Chaos Begins

Sarah 38:37

My my other friend.

Mari 38:39

All right, so it is officially day one.

Sarah 38:42

We are awake and dressed. Not I am dressed and not awake.

Mari 38:48

I beg to get for awake. We are out of the room. We are dressed. We are beginning of caffeination.

Sarah 38:55

Yes. We had yummy breakfast. I ate probably half of the smoked salmon they had at the buffet. But if I'm paying $38, I'm gonna eat as much smoked salmon as I want, okay?

Mari 39:06

All the salmon, all the fruit, the dragon fruit. It was good. Very um theme.

Sarah 39:11

So we are now waiting in line for tattoo. Oh, and Mari eats the skin of Kiwis. Let us know in the comments if you think that's also psychotic. I know you can, doesn't mean you should. I need I said what I said.

Mari 39:34

So we are making pins and trading things and waiting for tattoos, which it's not a horrible.

Sarah 39:45

I want to make both about me. So it's not like the naked cat. They have hair. That's true. Fuzzy, light hair. That's true. You're eating nakedness like God. But they might just regret having me recorded. My privileges are gonna be taken away. No, no, no. It should be a good day.

Mari 40:08

Yes, it'll be a it will be a good day. So today's the first virtual day that we actually be able to get in and do stuff. So after tattoos, we're gonna get in and do like uh stuff.

Sarah 40:18

Talk to the authors and shopping and merch and pick up our pre-orders and my hoodie and our are now. Oh, our AC broke, but they fixed it last night. So our room is finally cold. Yes. Yes. We've had so many adventures so far. Yeah, we have. So many strange men in our room for that sounds bad. Um consengially to help.

Mari 40:38

Let's see what else we need to do. There's some panels today. There's gonna be some panels today we're looking forward to.

Sarah 40:45

And Lari has my schedule. I defer to her. I'm so unorganized for the stroke.

Mari 40:52

Um then tonight's gonna be trivia, which will be fun. Like I suck at it, but it'll be fun. It'll be a fun time. Yeah.

Sarah 41:01

So yeah.

Mari 41:03

So so far, so good. First Montserrat.

Sarah 41:07

So far, so good. It hasn't really started yet, but it's been fine so far. I mean, good so far. That's just fine.

Mari 41:11

All right, so we will check in maybe while we're doing tattoos, if not, then like after. Yeah. At some point, we'll check back in. Bye. Bye.

Shopping, Signings, And Day One Recap

Mari 41:21

Okay.

Sarah 41:22

Yay! Okay, so we survived day official day one. We're laughing because my puppet is also here. Big, big question.

Mari 41:36

Does your puppet have a name yet?

Sarah 41:38

We don't.

Mari 41:39

Oh. But you're cute. He keeps calling me a little dickie.

Sarah 41:49

I'm not an asshole. Right, right. Yeah. Again, your big guest listeners are probably like, who are you with? What's going on? What is guys? We had a long day. I tell you what. So loopy. Last time you heard from us, we were gonna get tattoos. Spoiler, we got tattoos. We did. Sarah got a little plushy. It was a surprise flash that wasn't previewed as a little stuffed Loch Ness monster. I'm sorry, like sneaky away from the microphone. You can hear me. Um it's a little plush Lochness monster because my cat is a Loch Ness monster. And it was wonderful. And then I immediately sweated the second skin off. So apologies to Monster Rod kick off. Um has her yeah, but the tattoo others were great. They were lovely. They did a really good job. I don't know how yours was up. Mine had a very light hand. She was lovely.

Mari 42:43

Mine was good. She was a little heavier. I don't know. I don't know if she was heavier-handed than I'm used to, or if it's just an area that's more sensitive. Yeah, you got a tindy spot. Yeah. Yeah. Mine's like on the inside of my bicep arm, and I got a stamp that's like a little UFO, a little guy getting abducted by UFO in a stamp. It says 51 and it's right next to my Dana Scully.

Sarah 43:01

Got a whole UFO theme going. Yeah, whole abduction scene. Mine's right next to my little Mothman tattoo. So it's perfectly cute.

Mari 43:08

So we did that. Um, and we did looked around the room. You got some, we got some pre-orders, some stuff signed. And then the day completely got away from us, and it was time for either panels or lunch. Yeah. And we're like, oh crap, the first panel started 15 minutes ago, so I guess we're doing lunch. We did lunch.

Sarah 43:26

And then lunch took a while because everybody went to lunch at the same time. And that same place. Yeah, yeah. But we just restaurant had some pretty good sushi. And then we came back and we were ready to be serious. Yes. And I got all but one of my pickups. And you got all my pickups. All your pickups. And I got a new book by a new author that I haven't read before in Omega Verse. Uh yeah. It was so great to see all of our authors. Our friends I could give hugs and uh see everybody in person and see friends I haven't seen in a really long time or ever in person, which is great.

Mari 44:08

Yeah, it was a good time. It was very I was taken compared to last year. Now you you weren't here last year, but I said compared to last year, it was a little louder, it was a little bigger, a little bit more, but still very well run.

Sarah 44:18

Yeah, well, everybody's very respectful, yeah. Like everybody lines up very nicely, and the vibes are really great.

Mari 44:27

Yeah, the the systems are working well, like the wait list thing that they have works well, notification of people are working well. So, no complaints there. So we are decompressing and we're gonna go chill and I just crawled around the floor for a little bit trying to get my bop to my back to pop.

Sarah 44:44

It did not work. So we're gonna go have martinis and see if that works.

Mari 44:48

And then and then do trivia.

Sarah 44:50

And then do trivia just as a mothman and a bat. Of course. So

Monster Romance As A Safe Space

Sarah 44:55

see ya. Hey! Like it's not doing too well. So we're in between trivia rounds, and we had some deep, deep hotel and fewer thoughts. Yes. So we always talk about how monster romance is a safe space for people, and I think that is increasingly evident at looking at how many people here at this conference have Medusa tattoos. And, you know, I can't speak for every person that has one, but typically Medusa tattoos are usually a sign of some sort of sexual assault or sexual trauma. And it's so interesting to see these people that have these kind of traumas. I mean, even myself included, but they find that monster romance, this monstrous thing, is still their safe space. And it's a place to work through maybe some stuff that they have going on. And I agree. And I think that's really wonderful to see that so many people that have these shared things that nobody's talking about. Nobody's going like, oh, you have a Medusa tattoo. But like it's that silent thing of like maybe we've all kind of gone through something and now we're all enjoying a shared experience that helps us feel connected. And I think that's really great. I agree.

Mari 46:02

And it's kind of like like when we did your panel thing at Drang Con, what I said was like I feel like part of month the lore, the lore of monster romance too, is like where even a monster deserves love or is capable of being loved. Yeah. It's like no matter what you've been through, no matter what you think of yourself, no matter what if you think of yourself as monsters, monsters deserve love too.

Sarah 46:23

Absolutely. Yeah. So it's just it's something we were we're talking about, just sitting here and looking at everybody and seeing like this is such a safe space for women, a safe, safe space for people on the spectrum, a safe space for, you know, non-binary queer people. Like it's very much a safe space, and nobody is blinking an eye at anything. Right. That sometimes maybe would happen at something that was more traditional or maybe more romanticy focused or comic-con focused or something. But here everybody enjoys a thing that brings us all in common, and it's a communal safe space. And I think that's so lovely. I agree. And I can't say enough nice things about the people that are working at this hotel that have made us feel so safe, especially like politically, and like letting us know that like this is a safe space for us to be here. I think that's wonderful. Like that's Cassie has done something really wonderful with this con in creating a giant safe space for people to be creative and be themselves and meet other people like themselves. And I think that should be applauded, honestly. Yeah, absolutely. All right, we're gonna go back to losing at trivia, but we just want to have some some collective uh thoughts. Yeah, we're not we're not doing great. Are we doing bad? Yes. Are we doing good? No. Are we having fun? Yes, and that's what's important, right? Exactly.

Mari 47:57

So last we recorded it was trivia? It was in the middle of trivia. Oh yeah, because we talked about yeah. So it is now the next morning, so we have wonderful morning voice. Yeah.

Sarah 48:09

And here's what we realized Mari's is was very prepared for trivia, and like nobody else was. What other person on our team was?

Mari 48:20

Well, she's really good at like playing trivia as a game strategy game, not as much the content. And that's Lauren, Elsie Sprinkles, who I hung out with last year, hung out with her again. She's she's she's really fun. But like a lot of times we didn't know it and she didn't know it, but she's like, if I was creating this game and I was making these answers, it was like watching some scene where you see all the equations pop up in the movies. She like Rainmanned the shit out of all of her. Like, she would get it right. Yeah, not having read the book, not knowing shit about it, she would get around. We're like, okay, nobody knows.

Sarah 48:54

Lauren, what is it? Yeah, and that was that was wonderful. Um, I think the only feedback for that game was you have to give us longer than 30 seconds at the end. At the end to write down the author's name because we can't type that fast. And we can't think of how to spell the names that fast. And some of them have like two authors, you're like, oh my god, type fast, type fast, type fast. Yes, exactly. But not all of the authors were listed on some of them. Right. Yes, but that's for being pedantic. It was it was really fun, it was a good time.

Mari 49:26

Yeah, it was fun. We got middle of the pack, which I'm so excited about because usually I lose at trivia, and I was like, I just don't want us to be last. And we were like solid middle of the pack, so I'm happy with that.

Sarah 49:36

That's true. And uh GM Ferry was sitting at the table directly across from us, and she had three trivia questions. So whenever they popped up, we would just make sure we looked at her to see, like, make sure there was like a trick question. Yeah, yeah.

Mari 49:49

And then like the table, the catty corner, the other two ways, it was like Lizzie Strong and then Mallory Dunlan. And so, like, when their questions came up, I looked at them and I'm like, these authors have to have the best fucking poker faces for this. Exactly. It was it was wonderful. So after trivia, we went up for like food at the bar and like hang out with the the bar staff and whatnot, which once again were amazing.

Sarah 50:14

Yes, yes. I made sure to give them some uh little penis fritters from creature feature toys. I was like, bracelets. Oh, yeah, and bracelets. I was like, have you guys gotten any little dicks yet? And they were like, What? I was like, hold on, I'll go to my room, I'll be right back. Um so that was good. And then we ended up sitting with a bunch of authors and just having like a really lovely chat and drink and fun, which was great. We loved it. It was it was nice.

Mari 50:39

Yeah, it was good. Like we were sitting there and like people kept coming up basically to do the same thing we did, get like quick like dinner type situation before heading up to the room for the night, even like to go or whatever. And some of them were like, we all started talking, and I'm just gonna sit down. Yeah, yeah, it's it's fun. Yeah, it's it's a good time. Then we came back up, video chatted with Jess. We then tried to tell her what everything was like, and she was like, wait, what happened?

Sarah 51:08

You're talking about what? And then Mari read my book.

Mari 51:13

I did, and I enjoyed it. I finished it, I liked it. It was good. I started, I finished, and then I made notes because I looked over Sarah, was calmed out to the world. I was like, I may not remember anything about this in a few hours.

Sarah 51:28

So let me make notes to myself.

Mari 51:39

Wait, is this still a nightmare?

Sarah 51:42

There were very good constructive notes though. So send all of your arcs to Mari for feedback.

Day Two Goals And Panels

Mari 51:48

Okay, so today we're is day two officially. Today's gonna be more of like walking around and um doing the author signing, talking to the authors and whatnot, which we all got our all our pre-orders picked up yesterday. No, you still have some pre-orders picked up opals. Okay, yeah, oh yeah, that's a weightless one. Okay. Um, so we need to do that. I know last year Saturday was a lot more chill. There weren't as many people trying and fighting for stuff, so we might it might not be as bad. Yeah. Um mind you, none of it has been bad. It's been great. It's just a matter of like uh what line you want to try and stand in and uh digitally and all that stuff. So we did the pre-orders except for yours. I got all my books signed except for two, so I just still need to do that because they did an anthology at this thing, which I they must have done last year, and I completely missed it. Um so it's a bunch of authors that are here did all this anthology, so I'm trying to get all of them to sign mine.

Ashley 52:42

Yeah.

Mari 52:42

Um, and the artists. And then there's some panels we want to go to today. We're gonna try.

Sarah 52:48

Try. That's the hope. My goal is to get pictures with everybody, all my friends here. And I had another goal and I forgot it. Oh, to get more stickers and figure out where you got that cute bag.

Mari 52:58

Okay. Yes, yeah. We uh have some shopping to do basically. Um and then tonight, Gruz von Krampus. Woohoo! So we're gonna do Krampus for uh for karaoke night. Uh yeah, that's our plan. Oh, we hung up with my friend Megan. She will be back. I'm excited about that. And Luisa from Griefcat, who is on this podcast, is that they're gonna be there tonight. So I'm gonna hang out with her today, which I need to text her. Yeah, yeah, that's our plan. Woohoo! We're gonna go get actual coffee. Coffee and breakfast, and then we're gonna monster it up. Woohoo! Bye-bye. All right. So when last we checked in with our Intrepid Explorers, it was Saturday Sunday morning. We were this morning.

Sarah 53:47

This was Saturday morning. I'm like, girl, it's not even Sunday yet. Guys, we're doing amazing. Holy shit, you guys. It was Saturday morning. We were Brian and Bushytail. Were we? Were we? Well, we didn't get up at the crack of dawn for a tattoo. That's right, you're right. But we didn't get up at 7:30. And the reason this is how I gave Mari my book last night and I went to sleep and I woke up, and Mari's like, I read your entire book, I have notes, which is a crazy way to wake up, by the way. And I was like, Okay. Yeah, all right, let's talk about it. Did you not ask me to give you? I just didn't think you were gonna read the entire book last night. That's crazy. Because it's in crazy chapters. Like one of them just says dry hump after date. Like they're not in any particular order necessarily. Um sometimes. Yeah. So that was that was a crazy start to the day. Yeah. We yeah, are you feeling vulnerable? Just have Mari rip the band-aid the fuck off. I was nice. You were so actually you were so nice. We could have been I would have been fine with that too. That was uh just uh jarring to wake up to.

Mari 55:10

So we did our little shopping stuff in the morning. Yeah.

Sarah 55:13

Um then we did we we did some shopping in the morning again.

Mari 55:20

And talked to more authors. Yeah. Um and then we did uh the panels. So it was our first day doing a panel. Yeah, hey, with my cocktail.

Sarah 55:29

Sorry, guys. It's time for it's time for mommy's cocktail. Um so we went to different panels. We did, yeah. Yeah. I went to um We're all weird here? Are we a bunch of are we a bunch of weirdos or something like that? Uh and uh spoiler, yes. Everyone is a weirdo in a delightful way. And what did you go to?

Mari 55:50

I went to, oh god, I forgot what it's called, like how to be a beast in the audio. Yeah, it's about like recording audio erotica, right? Yeah, like narrator and and being an audio narrative narrator. Um uh, and I I don't remember who it was by, but I'll I'll post it in notes or something. It was really good. There was very few people there. There's probably as many established audiobook narrators there as there were people like to do the panel. So it was very like round circle conversational. She had um real good like little PowerPoint presentation and then asked questions and interactive. She had some good like websites and things, and I think really good advice. And a lot of it applies to like any audio recording stuff you do, whether it's like podcasts or voice acting or audiobook narrator or audio roadtica, whatever. Yeah, yeah. So it was good. We met up and did the latter half. We did some of the latter half shopping signing. I think we we didn't stay the whole time for that. We were basically done because we wanted to get ready for like dinner and and karaoke night.

Sarah 56:57

Yeah, so uh I have to say like my one complaint about the the con in itself is that you only get about you get like an hour and a half in the morning to shop, and then two hours in the afternoon. So overall you get like seven hours. And I feel like it it could have been just a little bit more. But I I also understand like it's a business and VIP gets you, like I understand, like I'm it's not really a complaint, but like I felt like I would have liked more time. Yeah. But also, that's okay.

Karaoke Night And Final Takeaways

Mari 57:36

Because in that time, you're not just shopping, that's also the time that you're like being able to talk to the author, or standing in line to get things signed and things like that. Which I mean, the waitlist app that they use worked well, but it's still all within that same time span.

Sarah 57:49

Right. And if you get in line for something at say like 12, it closes at 12:30, and you're still in line and it's almost 12:30 and you're not anywhere close. It's like you think to yourself, oh, I could have done something else, but like obviously you they're they're doing like it's a good system, it's a great system. But I just feel like I wanted more time. Yeah, even like another day would have been great. But again, like uh I think it motivates me to try to get a VIP ticket because I think shopping Thursday night um and getting in that couple hours early would have made a big difference. I agree. So, like it's worth the cost, like to me to to get in a little bit earlier. So that's definitely something that like I learned this year, and I will try for it next year.

Mari 58:31

Yeah, yeah. Same. Definitely a little the whole thing's just a little bit more, a little bit bigger than last year, and it's good to where it's worth it to have that time to not be as anxious.

Sarah 58:39

And also, there's like meals included, so like that's great too.

Mari 58:42

Yeah, somebody pointed that out to us. I was like, Yeah, that's actually not a bad idea. Because you do sp end up spending time finding a meal, sitting down, you know, and money and all that. So then we did uh we basically got packed. Yeah. Packed. Oh, we packed the first time. The first time we packed. Uh everything had to be redistribute redistributed amongst the luggage for like everything to not only fit but be underweight for each particular luggage.

Sarah 59:10

We're doing our best, guys, is the is the thing. And also my bags will completely fall over tomorrow, at least at least one time. But that's okay. And then we got dressed and went down to karaoke. Um, we did our Krampus. Krampuses. Yeah, Krampus. Krampus I Krampuses, Krampussies. Okay. We uh we got naughty and uh I was proud of our costumes. I thought that we looked really good. Yeah, it was. And we got to mingle with people. I got to meet Opal Rain organically, which was really lovely, and she was a lovely human being. And um her husband can really sing, good for him. And I got to like take pictures with everybody that I was hoping to take pictures with the whole time and just didn't because I was flitting around like a little butterfly. Yeah.

Mari 59:57

Yeah, it's just so much you want to do. You want to do pictures, you want to talk to people, you want to get your stuff signed, you want to pick up your pre-orders. So, yeah, the karaoke night is is a nice like way to kind of do one last touch stone with everybody. Yeah, so people can really sing for that. Yeah, yeah.

Sarah 1:00:11

There's some good talent here for sure. Uh overall, this is a great con. Like, this is a great con. It's really well done. It's small, but it doesn't feel small. Like, it is a small con, like compared to like Dragon Con, which is like 75,000 people, right? But this feels big, even though it's small, which is great. Yeah, yeah.

Mari 1:00:35

Feels very inclusive, very welcoming.

Sarah 1:00:38

Yeah, there's there's every type of person here. There's she, he, they, neurodivergent of all different types, you know. We saw a lot of trans people, like there's not just like I feel like some cons, like a comic con, you're just like, oh, look at all those white chickens, you know. But like you have tokenism, you have the one, you know, author of con. Yeah, but this was diverse and really wonderfully celebrated. And I think yeah, I think I think what um Cassie has done here is really wonderful, and I hope that this continues because it's it's really great.

Mari 1:01:22

I agree. Yeah, I think um it's pervasive in every aspect of the con. Like the fact that they do the lanyard system, which I talked about last year, but it's basically green lanyard means your open hugs, yellow means ask, red means do not touch. And then I had green lanyard the entire we both had green lanyards the entire time, and still every time that I like did a picture with anyone, like the author or anybody, they were always like, Can I touch you? Can I okay if I put my arm around you? Like for pictures, like even with the green lanyard, there was always like, you know, it's just okay if I do this. It was very just like this is what you do before you touch a person.

Sarah 1:01:54

Yeah, yeah. It was it's it was really well done, and the volunteers were all wonderful. Like everybody was really wonderful, um, delightfully unhinged, very inclusive. 10 out of 10 would do again. Yeah. Hope I can do again.

Mari 1:02:08

Yeah. Agreed. Yeah. Agreed. All right. Anything else before we sign off? Other than we we want to know who did this to us, uh, who who who made us take early, early, early flights uh tomorrow. Our cars, our cars picking us up at 4 a.m. Because we're stupid. Yeah, yeah, we did it. Oh girl, you're so stupid. We did it to us. Yeah, we did it.

Sarah 1:02:31

But I'm supposed to be, uh I hope I'm home by one. Yeah. And with my baby cats on Mother's Day giving them little hugs.

Mari 1:02:39

Yeah. All right, so that winds it up. All right, bye, guys. Bye, stay horny.