A Quokka Dreeds its Weird

Sirens was wonderful - just what I needed after an exceptionally miserable month. I met up with old friends and acquaintances, made new friends, dressed up, dressed down, watched snow fall, had great discussions, listened to great discussions, told stories, listened to stories, and plotted a presentation for next year!

This is still my favorite con, and next year, I was thrilled to hear, it will be held in a different and, for many including myself, more accessible location, in Washington at very low altitude. (Also, I hope to never again fly into Denver airport. It was the worst turbulence I ever experienced, and I spent the last half hour of the flight locked in the bathroom throwing up, with the stewardesses screaming at me to get out. "I'll give you a bag!" one yelled. When I emerged, she shouted, "The captain is very angry at you!" I muttered, "Sucks to be him," as I returned to my seat, stepping over some more obedient person's pool of vomit in the aisle. Yecch.)

I have to run off to grad school in a few minutes (unsurprisingly but unfortunately, what I did not do was study), so this update will contain only a few photos as a teaser.

( Photos below cut )

I will be attending Sirens again this year, and am thinking of panels to propose. This year's theme is monsters, and as the con is about women in fantasy, that would be female monsters.

Last year, there was only one panel with an explicit LGBTQ focus, and practically the entire con attempted to pile into it, forcing it to shut some out for lack of space and leaving the poor people doing the panels scheduled opposite to speak to nearly-empty rooms. It seems clear that there is enormous interest in the topic, and the con could easily support several more panels on the theme. If you're considering attending Sirens (by far my favorite con I've attended in the last five years or so), please consider proposing something along those lines. (The overall con theme is "women in fantasy," so monsters are not essential.)

However, the obvious panel would be LGBTQ monsters, particularly female and female-identified ones. I am thinking of proposing this, taking a wide view of "monster" - some monsters are literal, some more ambiguous, and sometimes the identity or orientation itself is condemned as monstrous.

Can you suggest fiction or even folklore featuring such "monsters?" So far I've thought of the lesbian vampires in The Gilda Diaries, Micah in Liar, and Mystique in The X-Men. I'm OK with spoilers in comments, so long as they're marked on the subject headers. (So beware spoilers in comments!)