Last week I played nerd chaperone.

I took my teen and two friends to TineeCon, an anime con. I scrambled eggs for breakfast while they got their Demon Slayer cosplays ready, then I got into *my* cosplay and off we went. (Who was I cosplaying as? Let’s just say it would be easier if my favorite Critical Role character didn’t have white hair. I hate wigs.)

Nerd culture is such ridiculous fun. It’s where you fit in if you don’t fit in anywhere else, and you can always find other people to infodump about your favorite TV shows, movies, and comics with. And it’s a real antidote to the everything-is-AI zeitgeist. People create their own cosplay outfits, sometimes from scratch, making armor out of cardboard or swords out of papier-mache, bedazzling coats, modifiying wigs. Fans write their own fanfic and draw their own artwork for their various fandoms and post it online. This is actually a good way to practice writing or art: The characters and setting are already created, so it’s effectively playing in someone else’s sandbox. And the vendors at any given con, RenFaire, or other nerdy event, who create their own pins, stickers, stuffies, jewelry, and 3D-printed everything, have “No AI” signs at their tables. Or something more R-rated.

Also, if you happen to be socially awkward and/or neurodivergent, at an event like this you won’t be the only one. I started hanging around cons when I was in high school—Star Trek mostly—and it meant a lot to have a place to belong.

TineeCon was great. It was the second year for this event, and apparently they’d already switched to a bigger venue from last year. I talked to a few people who came in from out of state to attend. There were fandom meetups, panels, voice actor appearances (that we never actually got to, oops), lots of vendors. Lots of fandoms represented from cosplayers. I’m behind on my anime so I didn’t recognize everyone, but I did see multiple characters from “The Owl House,” “The Amazing Digital Circus,” and “KPop Demon Hunters,” some Greek gods and goddesses wandering around thanks to the “Epic: The Musical” meetup, characters from three out of four Critical Role campaigns, a really impressive Marvin the Martian, and for some reason the Buc-ee’s beaver. One delightful panelist talked about “Epic: The Musical” and “The Odyssey” and taught us to sing a line in ancient Greek. The only downside? The food trucks were outside, in 80-degree heat, and there I was in my long blue coat. I got my food and fled to the air conditioning. I need a warm-weather cosplay.

The attendees skewed young, which made me feel like an ancient nerdly elder, but it was hard to be grumpy in such a welcoming crowd. Besides, how could I not appreciate the mother-child bonding time? Even if we were spending it in line for the dealers’ room.

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The “Odyssey” movie is out and I expect to see it in the next week. I’m excited, especially after finally getting to read the rest of the “Odysseus” anthology I’m in—my story about poor Phemius the bard is in fantastic company. Definitely curious to see how Phemius shows up in the movie. But also? I love seeing this much buzz about a book adaptation. Maybe more people will read the book.

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Speaking of books, and I wish I were saying something positive: I’d been worried, the past few years, that Jewish stories and stories by Jewish authors were becoming a harder sell, and this author’s research suggests that’s true. It’s frustrating and demoralizing. For my part, not a single story of mine with Jewish characters or content has sold in the past couple years. That’s not just short stories—that’s also the middle grade novel that won two work-in-progress awards. And I don’t know, honestly, if the Jewish content is the real reason or part of the reason, or not the reason at all. I’ll never know. I keep writing and I keep trying, but this increasingly feels like swimming against the tide.

Freezing Jews out of the publishing industry, or any other industry, isn’t activism. It’s just hurting Jews.

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At any rate. I’m making good progress on my banned-magical-books and persecuted-mages fantasy story that is definitely not inspired by current events or recent history. I’m hoping to have a decent draft together by the end of this year, and then I’ll start fine-tuning. And if any more short story ideas happen to present themselves along the way, I’ll write those too.

Watch out for wildfire smoke, have a pleasant week.