And I really wasn’t sure I’d ever get another one…
In 2024, after many years of applying, I was super excited to receive an invitation to be an Attending Professional at DragonCon. If you’ve never been, just imagine a small town springs up, Brigadoon-like, in the center of downtown Atlanta, and for five glorious days you can walk around admiring gorgeous cosplays, dive into deep, nerdy conversations with your fellow fans (who you can spot by their outfits and nerdy T-shirts), and if you, like me, enjoy the written word, you can hang out with your fellow authors at the Westin bar and talk shop until late, late, late … well, eventually early, early, early in the morning. Speaking of panels – in the years of attending I’ve been to panels on everything from the cast of Firefly, to what to do to prepare for the apocalypse, to dances and musical performances, to singalongs and cosplay contests, to how to draw a four-panel comic, to author readings, to indie short films having their debut, to pretty much anything you can think of, and those are only the panels that I went to. In every time slot on every day there are at least two or three panels that I would love to attend (including the time slots when I’m scheduled to be on a panel!)
This year, I almost forgot to apply again. Here’s the thing about DragonCon — if you don’t apply, no matter WHO you are, then you are not going to be invited as a guest. (I am not sure if this applies to the invited guests of honor? If you know, drop the answer in the comments). This is Con FOR the fans, BY the fans, and if you have fans, and you want to see them, you (or your agent) must apply. The chaos that is currently my life had overtaken the mental note that I had made to go and apply when the applications opened, but let’s be honest, once perimenopause stripped the coping/masking mechanisms from my mental SQUIRREL waves, mental notes get me nowhere. It was only when I saw a bunch of my writer friends posting about being invited to be attending pros that I remembered hey, I’d really like to go and be part of the Con, let me apply!
And I got in!! Whoohoo! I’m so excited. But Rachel, I hear you say, haven’t you already gotten in two times in a row? Why, yes, I have. BUT, a) I don’t take anything for granted and b) that’s kind of why I thought I might have to sit out a year just in case they wanted to rotate someone else in, which I would completely understand. So that is why I am grateful, and I will ALWAYS be excited for DragonCon. (Even if I didn’t get in, this is our yearly family vacation that we love.)
But this is all taking me a long time to talk about my first official* panel at DragonCon and so here is the tale…
Follow the link to my Substack Post to learn how I possibly scarred a child for life…
Rachel A. Brune 
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