Guest Post: RainbowCon – Embracing All QUILTBAG Fiction

Thank you to everyone here at True Colorz for having me here today! Have you ever been to a convention where there was just a hint of QUILTBAG content? Just enough to make you itch for more? Unfortunately, when it comes to most conventions out there, the content surrounding QUILTBAG fiction themes is so limited that it's nearly impossible to find an event that satisfies. That's exactly how we organizers at RainbowCon felt, which is why we mentally took notes at each event we attended. Those notes recently came together, and the result was our brand new QUILTBAG-centric conference, RainbowCon.

RainbowCon is a four-day conference held in Tampa, Florida geared toward readers, writers, artists, and small publishers. Throughout the four days of the conference, attendees can enjoy panels, workshops, activities, and even a field trip into the heart of Ybor's club district! RainbowCon is also a deliberately small conference, limiting the number of general attendees to 175, with authors, special guests, publishers, and volunteers making up the remaining 125 slots in its 300 attendance cap.

2014 may be our first year, but we have plenty in store for those attending. The panel descriptions, special guests, and venue are already up on our easy-to-use website, and we're so excited to announce that registration is now open! For pricing and all that jazz, you can just go to the registration page. We have different prices for general registration and author registration, so there are plenty of choices, depending on how involved you'd like to be!

We hope you enjoy the content to be found in RainbowCon, as it's all those pieces of content we had filed away in our heads over the years, everything from serious topics like Misogyny in Fiction to fun panels like Bisexual Mythbusters to gameshow-style events like The Gay Experience. You'll even find a smattering of content specifically geared toward writing and reading QUILTBAG Young Adult fiction!

Our schedule features both a reader track as well as a writer track, catering to those on both sides of the proverbial pen. Workshops are available for aspiring and established writers alike. We also offer roundtable discussions of sub-genres of QUILTBAG literature and activities, so there are plenty of opportunities to participate and socialize. RainbowCon is all about the personal approach, and it's our goal to ensure each attendee has a fantastic time!

So, the time is here. There's a new conference in town, and we hope that people all throughout the QUILTBAG genre will find their way to RainbowCon. We're passionate about it being an all-inclusive event, and we hope the readers and authors who become involved are just as excited as we are to share our love of QUILTBAG fiction!

If you have any questions about RainbowCon, don't be afraid to contact one of us organizers! For general inquiries or questions about content, you can e-mail my business partner, S.L. Armstrong (slarmstrong AT rainbowconference DOT org). Or, for questions about our special events, you can e-mail me at kpiet AT rainbowconference DOT org. We'd love to get in contact with you! For general happy dancing and excitement sharing, you can head over to our Facebook page or even just mention us on Twitter (@RainbowCon2014).