#thief!con2018

Thief!Con2018

Hi Queen’s Thief Tumblr! After a few hiccups, several well-meaning asks, and a bit of scrambling, I’m re-announcing and re-branding Thief!Con 2018. I apologize for any and all confusion I’ve caused. Here goes:

I am hosting an informal, mini, Queen’s Thief fan meetup and all fans are invited! Is this a real convention? No. But the name Thief!Con was catchy so I’m sticking to it! Here’s a rundown of the main details:

Agenda: Geek out with other super fans of the series! Play a silly game of QT themed Cards Against Humanity! Hang out with @meganwhalenturner who has also kindly agreed to sign books if you bring them!  Date: Saturday, September 8th, 2018 Time: ~11:00 a.m. - ~5:00 p.m. Location: The Cleveland Public Library, Louis Stokes Wing [exact conference with RSVP], 525 Superior Ave. Cleveland, OH 44114 Tag To Follow: #Thief!Con2018

Since the news broke of the impending publication of Return of the Thief (221 days until March 19th as of the day of this announcement), I’ve been scheming to host another Queen’s Thief meetup. Last time, it was 7 people camped out in a Starbucks. This time, I’m inviting you to camp out with me at a library! 

This is going to be a HIGHLY INFORMAL get together of fans. There’s no tickets, nothing being sold, and no formal agenda. I was trying to make everything look really sleek and professional with the first announcement but that ended up just being confusing so I want to make the lack of convention-ness clear this time around! Apologies again for any confusion!

If you would like to come to Thief!Con 2018, PLEASE SEND AN RSVP EMAIL TO: [email protected] . This is an email I have set up just for Thief!Con stuff. In your email, please also include your t-shirt size. If you are RSVP’ing, that means you’re assuming the cost of traveling to Cleveland so it’s the least I can do to welcome you to my city by giving you a t-shirt for your trouble. Just to be clear again because I failed on this last time, these are not being sold! 

Thank you for bearing with me as I hash out details. I appreciate all the questions and feedback that I received that helped me see the need for a new invite and a lot more clarity I’m happy to keep answering any questions any of you might have whether by messages or by email! 

Wrapping this up by tagging some interested parties again: @meganwhalenturner @bookishbabe10 @ewokshootsfirst @pastel-cartoon-loser @smalliinsaneone @indigo-night-wisp @attoliasirenides @actualshonenprotagonist @florianschild @ofgodsandthieves  @artfrostedleaf @eddis-not-eeddis

Had such a great time yesterday! I’ll certainly never forget hanging out with all of you and of course meeting the lovely @meganwhalenturner

Also a huge thank you to Queens for organizing this whole thing! @queensandkingsofattolia

And of course a shoutout to my awesome new friends: @indigo-night-wisp @attoliasirenides @actualshonenprotagonist @pastel-cartoon-loser @worldsentwined @bookishbabe10 @florianschild

Megan Whalen Turner's The Queen's Thief is an infinite metaphor for everything I know to be true about love and life and loyalty. About forgiveness. About never giving up on our love for others in the face of massive fear and those other's attempts to take it all from you. But only because of their own fear. And their own loyalties. About seeing the highest good in everyone no matter how they appear on the surface. About seeing the one who dances beneath the orange trees in everyone we meet. I read the Queen's Thief like Christians read their bible. Every line breathes truth and the growing merge of humanity and divinity in one person and how he brings everyone into his orbit. With what this series has meant to me... It was such a gift to make the trip out to meet the author herself and be up close to her wisdom and integrity and her unique, one of a kind, next-level circle of fans. I wouldn't lift a finger for a lot of popular works out there that I have a decent amount of appreciation for. This is really something else. *************************************************************** @meganwhalenturner thank you for coming to hang out with us and for doing all the fangirl stuff for us like book signings and photos. Really going the extra mile, gifting each of us a new copy of a book to add to our collections, signing not just one but all the book copies we brought with us! I personally read your books from a deeply spiritual place. Eugenides has shown me what is possible around a human learning to embody divinity on Earth. No amount of harm to the flesh can undermine the foundation of unconditional love. I feel like the aspects of his character that are miraculous in nature are metaphorical for a lot of the miracles that I have witnessed in my own life.

These are the best of the few photos I have from Thief!Con 2018 proceedings! 

It was so hard to try and keep a straight face with both @meganwhalenturner and @actualshonenprotagonist smiling! And @bookishbabe10 behind the camera kept making me laugh! These are legit my favorite pictures ever though! 

Huge thanks are due to @meganwhalenturner for being so generous with her time and participating in all our crazy shenanigans! Best day ever!

Thanks and hugs and earrings galore are due to @bookishbabe10 for helping me with planning, and then also taking care of travelers and then somehow managing to also feed everybody? A literal saint! 

Shout-outs must go to @ewokshootsfirst and @smalliinsaneone for being virtual participants, but more importantly for keeping me sane over the past several weeks as I freaked out about details and bounced around ideas! Couldn’t have pulled this off without your support! 

Time for me to thank all the attendees who made this a success! @actualshonenprotagonist‘s cosplay is the most stunning thing and even more beautiful in person if you can believe that and was very patient with me and all my fan-girling! @indigo-night-wisp attended 20Theives TWO YEARS AGO and then made the long trek up to Cleveland to brave my insanity yet again and I can’t even put into words how much I love her! @pastel-cartoon-loser it was like seeing family, and if I linger on this sentence any longer I’m going to start crying on my keyboard because finally getting to meet you in person was better than anything I could have imagined! @attoliasirenides my sister, my dear new sister, it feels like every conversation we had needed to be at least 3 hours longer, AT LEAST! @mygoldenwolf drove for SIXTEEN HOURS and was one of the brightest smiles in the room and such a joy to talk to and I’m still not over it! @worldsentwined braved weather and construction and traffic to make it to us and was so sweet and such a fountain of bookish knowledge, I was literally in awe! @florianschild I was shook to be in the presence of an OG who helped build this community, and add that to the fact you were so kind and lovely to everyone, I literally don’t have words, I’m speechless! 

Thank you all!

I’m sure I’ll think of many other people in the coming days that I need to thank, so bear with me as I shout about all my favorite people! For now though I’ve got to bounce because there is school and life calling my name and I can’t ignore it any longer. 

Be blessed in your endeavors! 

A few pictures I took while waiting for the first guests to arrive at Thief!Con 2018!  . . .

I took a bunch of photos from the event and deleted the blurry ones. And now I’m gonna post all of them because who am I to say which ones are “best”? I think there’s something good and precious in all of them. In the slightly deeper tilt of a head. In the blink of an eye. In the relaxing of tensing of a smile. In the in-character un-smile.

It was riveting meeting each of you. I’m thinking of those who were there in spirit too. Till we meet again...