Flipping the Meta, PT 1 - worldcon's WAKE

This post is a bit different than anything I've done before. Up until now, I've been mainly professional, keeping a solid "marketing" veil between myself and the reader. That's changing, and I am dialing the communications pipeline wide open. Read on for the "why":

Today is a new day, like every day that came before. The sun comes up, the sun goes down, and hopefully we all end the cycle a little wiser.

Last week at this time I was at WorldCon76. It was some of the most fun I've ever had. I met some great people: the Shrubbery on my right, the Mexicanx Initiative to my left, both filled with awesome passionate people. Across the aisle, there were other self-published authors, jewelry vendors, and a clothes shop.  Everyone was there, bringing their A-game and showing their best work. It was inspiring.

My friend Matt came with me. He was super helpful. We sold books to a lot of people, gave business cards to a few more, and sent everyone away with a smile. Then, we partied with our fellow nerds and made tons of new friends. 

I'd describe the convention as a victory on a level I was completely unprepared to accept. I'd gone with the intent of meeting a handful of people, learning how the convention scene worked, and adjusting my behaviors for future years. I did all that and more, to an entirely new order of magnitude. It was awesome.

Coming home from that, though, was a bit like coming down from a high. Real life returns, and with it, the daily grind. Get up, go to work, lift heavy things, write words, go to sleep, repeat. 

The closest thing I can describe it is like when I came home from a high-school retreat. I'd spent much of school specifically avoiding any "lame" events like class retreats (Catholic school), so when some of my more religious friends talked me into going my senior year, I was apprehensive. Then I went, and it was like I'd been hurled into a jet turbine shooting "human experience" through my core. In that weekend, I understood how cults get their power. I understood the power of communion. 

Then it was gone, and I was back in school.

But me, being a data-driven person, I kept a record of how I'd processed the humanity overdose, in all its glorious moments. I locked the experience into my "positive and interesting" vault, in case I needed to draw upon it for writing.

This experience was made of the same substrate, delivered in the same mechanism, and I remembered the best parts of that long-past retreat: how I documented the experience, how I leveraged it towards improving my interaction with the universe, and how I'd gained perspective.

I've spent the past week working on integrating what I'd learned at WorldCon, and I think I'm ready to engage in the next stage of my writing career, a little project I'm calling "Flipping the Meta". Over the next couple of weeks and months, you'll be hearing more from me on this blog and through my social media. I want to open up the channel between myself and my audience, and let everyone see what I'm doing and why I'm doing it. 

I hope you'll find this journey entertaining, and for my fellow creatives, perhaps even enlightening. Success or failure are equal in potential, and I welcome them both with open arms.

Enjoy the ride as we embrace of the unknown and all it brings. Feel free to comment, question or advise, because we're all winging it on the edge of known territory.

-Joseph