MerCon - Author Panel

Friday was the day of the mermaid convention. We went to the convention center immediately in the morning and visited the different vendors. We bought some jewelry, a limited edition preview of a mermaid comic book that will be released in 2012 and priced out mermaid tails with different retailers. My friend Heather is planning to buy a tail. After that we left to spend some time writing by the pool. It was semi-productive, although we were distracted by a mermaid who entered the pool. I can't remember her name, but she claims to be one of the first registered mermaids. She swam around the pool telling people that she's a mermaid and an activist and that she was there for MerCon. We never actually saw her at the convention, though. All eyes in the pool area were on her! After our time at the pool, we went back to the convention where we tuned in for part of the mermaid beauty pageant. Following the pageant was the author panel, which was the part of the convention that I was most interested in! Present (from left to right) were Tera Lynn Childs (author of "Forgive My Fins"), Timothy Schaffert (author of "The Mermaid in the Tree" in "My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me"), Matthea Harvey (poet) and Carolyn Turgeon (author of "Mermaid"). When Turgeon pulled out her camera and started taking pictures during the reading, Heather nudged me and said, "That will be you one day!" I got a copy of each author's book signed after the reading. After the panel we hung out before getting ready for a pool party that evening. I didn't take any pictures at the party because I didn't want to take my DSLR but there was a mermaid show with some professional mermaid performances, including a fire-eating mermaid! It was an exciting show!