Come on Down to Rainbow Con!

Hey, everyone, and welcome to Amethyst Daydreams, which has been temporarily taken over by the peeps at RainbowCon! As the post title suggests, we're here to tell you a little about RainbowCon and where you can find more information. Ready, set, GO!
 
The Rainbow Conference (aka RainbowCon) is a four-day GLBTQ multimedia conference taking place in Tampa, Florida July 16th through 19th, 2015. Our motto is to celebrate artistic diversity, and we welcome anyone who enjoys GLBTQ content in media from books to movies and beyond. Our first con was in April 2014, and after such a resounding success, we can't wait to get the party started at 2015's event, which is coming up in just another month!
 

Art Courtesy of Guests of Honor Adam DeKraker & Alex Woolfson

 
RainbowCon started up in 2013 when three writers/readers of GLBTQ fiction saw an opportunity to fill the void of conventions focusing on GLBTQ content. I can't tell you how many times my co-author (S.L. Armstrong), her husband (Roger), and I have attended conventions and thought, "Aw, man! This is great 'n' all, but there's only one panel about non-het stuff!" It's incredibly common for mainstream conventions to only have one or two panels about slash fiction or perhaps gay fiction, if they have any content like that at all. What's even more depressing is how that content is usually automatically deemed "ADULTS ONLY" and shoved into a late-night slot like the proverbial ugly redheaded stepchild. But, as far as we're concerned, that ugly redheaded stepchild deserves some love, too!
 
Thankfully, there are exceptions to the rules like Yaoi-Con (part of Anime North up in Toronto, Canada) and smaller events like OutlantaCon, which take pride in being "those people... over there... in that room" (read: outcasts), and we salute them! Their all-inclusive approach to honoring GLBTQ themes in anime/manga and comics/games, respectively, is exactly the kind of thing that inspired us to step up and create our own con.
 
RainbowCon began as a GLBTQ convention centering specifically around fiction, both for readers and writers, but as we move into our second year, we've expanded our programming to be more inclusive. We're happy to announce that we're embracing all the arts. While there's still a strong core of panels and workshops available for fans of GLBTQ fiction, we've also added content for GLBTQ topics and characters in television, movies, web-comics, theatre, and fandom. There's something for everyone at RainbowCon, and we want everyone who attends to have an amazing time!
 
Our Guests of Honor this upcoming year are Alex Woolfson and Adam DeKraker, the writer and illustrator for The Young Protectors web-comic, which you can find online HERE (teaser below). Adam made that custom logo up above for us, and we couldn't be more thrilled to have both of them coming down to Tampa! We also have over 50 authors of GLBTQ fiction signed up to attend, so there are lots of opportunities to find others in our fiction community there! We'll have four days of amazing content, from panels to workshops to a masquerade ball and a field trip to our official charity, the Tampa Bay Big Cat Rescue.
 

 
Interested in RainbowCon? Check out our guests, attending authors, and panel content on our website and 'like' our Facebook Page or follow us on Twitter (@RainbowCon_2015) to stay up to date with out event over the coming months. Just remember, RainbowCon is for anyone and everyone, and we'd love for you to 'Walk on the Wild Side' with us in Tampa next month! There's no registration cap, so come on down!

JOIN US AT www.rainbowconference.org!