top of page
Posted: June 5, 2024
fandom festival
On Saturday June 1st, the first annual Fandom Festival occurred in Lakeland, Florida! It was a wonderful small size comic con with many kind and passionate folks involved. The convention was held at a Hilton Garden Inn and consisted of roughly 100-400 people. There were numerous well crafted cosplays of characters like Groot, Batman, and Jinx.
Due to the event being indoors, I was able to do the full cloud display at the table. The main cloud layer needed a couple repairs before the event but was easily patched up and in working order for Fandom Festival.
There were a few different highlights of the day that I'd like to share! Three young people stopped by the table in the morning and one read the poster for Weather Bound. They nudged their friend and said "it's you". Their friend then talked about how they too love to watch tornado videos and would like to storm chase one day. They ended up getting the first three Weather Bound books right on the spot to my astonishment! I thank these young folks very dearly and do hope they will enjoy the story!
Another fun moment during the day was when I was graciously invited to do a quick little interview with some folks at another table! The guys are on YouTube as Geeky Realms, and were doing interviews with many people at the con about what brought them there and what they do. It was a fun experience to get to answer some questions about the books I write and kind of helped me learn a little confidence in talking about my work. Todd was an excellent interviewer and made it fun and comfortable!
My table neighbors were also wonderful people. To my right was a charity table, Heroes 4 Causes. They do superhero comics about real kids who are battling chronic illnesses. To my left was Ildi (@salte_art) and her husband, Alex. They were lovely people and were very generous to lend a hand during setup. Ildi goes to Ringling, an art college here in Florida which I've heard much about online! I wish her the best during her senior year.
Overall a very pleasant experience, good people, and financially the best I've performed at a con so far. Thank you Fandom Festival 2024!
-Shanon M.M.
Posted: May 9, 2024
Sunshine Book co.
independent bookstore day
Saturday, April 27th, 2024, was Independent Bookstore Day! A quaint bookstore in my local area, Sunshine Book Co. in Clermont Florida, generously offered to host for about 10 or so local authors to set up a table. The store is a family business run by the kind Merrick family.
The authors for the day ended up being a wonderful mix of genres and age ranges with everything from children's picture books to YA novels to historical and even a blend of horror/comedy! I was honored to be a part of the event and was glad to get to meet other authors in my area.
Ironically, there were some challenges with the weather! Gusty winds proved to be a problem, not only for the art prints I was trying to display, but also for the tent we were all sat under. Twice (and nearly a third time), the entire tent was lifted from its base and rolled over! Thankfully no people were hit by it and no books were damaged. It did cause some laughs as whenever a gust of wind would come in, we would all grab onto the nearest post to keep the tent on the ground. Aside from the wind it was quite warm too and I ended up with a few spots of a mean sunburn.
Success wise, I consider it a fair event. The table price was VERY low, only $15, as opposed to comic cons' $300s. One copy of Weather Bound was sold at the event. I also gained a lot of good tips from the other authors and hopefully will be able to follow up with some of them at a later time!
-Shanon M.M.
Posted: March 21, 2024
Central Florida Comic Con
On January 20th and 21st of 2024, Weather Bound Comics made its first appearance at a convention. Central Florida Comic Con was held at the RP Funding Center in Lakeland, Florida.
The table hosted a 9ft tall display of thunderclouds with flashing LED lights and a screen of tinsel rain coming from under the clouds. The display itself was a lot of fun to build and craft. It was certainly a challenge to figure out how to get these large clouds to "float", but my Dad and I were able to make it work.
As for how the convention went...well it was certainly a bumpy start to say the least. It was a great experience and I did enjoy it, however, I hardly covered even a fraction of the costs to be there, and didn't see a single new message, follow, comment, message, or even website visit from the whole weekend.
Yes, I understand that it sounds cheap to be complaining about no follows on social media, and there is something to that. Of course it isn't all about social media, but that doesn't change the fact that it can be very disheartening to put yourself out there and feel completely looked over.
This is no pity party though, it was still a fun weekend and at the very least, it was a start and a learning experience. I would also like to express my gratitude to those who did stop by the table and exchange some words, and especially to the handful of people who purchased any book or artwork. I truly hope you will enjoy it!
-Shanon M.M.
j
bottom of page