Traveling Back to the Border

Wow.... I'm so excited, I think my inner fan girl just had a Bordergasm (credit to Ellen Kushner for that phrase!).

A long time ago, in a state far away, I began playing online text-based Role-playing games (RPGs). Through a network of fellow players, I made new friends. One of them introduced me to an anthology series. Life on the Border introduced me to a new world of possibilities.

What would happen if the land of Faerie came back to the real world one day? How would the world react? How would misplaced, misunderstood teenagers view access to those lands?

Because I was still a teen at the time (barely), and I was going through some of the requisite changes from childhood to adulthood, this book struck a chord with me. I subsequently borrowed Bordertown and Borderland, reading them in the span of a few hours apiece.

My online RPG buddies, who all had fallen in love with Bordertown, wanted to bring a taste of that world to others. One of my friends sent an email to Terri Windling, requesting permission for our variation of "fan fic". Happily, we were given permission.

Most of our group had a mainstay character that we played online. These characters were fairly well-known in our little community, and they were friendly, approachable sorts. We agreed, rather quickly, that we needed to introduce a little something wicked into the Nexus we inhabited.

A fringe group of The Bloods, those lovely and cold Elvin folk, made it through a portal into the gaming realm. They entered the bars, brokered deals, made money, looked damn hot in some red leather, and generally proved that they were up to no good.

Writing for my Blood characters vastly increased my author's skill-set. In addition to the chat-room style gaming play, we created Forum boards, where the stories played out in paragraphs (and sometimes pages) at a time. The next couple of years provided a great creative outlet.

When The Essential Bordertown was set to be published, I heard tales of a pre-launch party, occurring in L.A. Viewing the website provided information on an art show to take place with other festivities. With a bit of hope (and crossed fingers), I sent a few of my sketches off to be considered. I had drawn a few of my Blood ladies, as well as some other fantasy-based sketches. To my delight (and immense surprise), the sketches were accepted.

I had an office job at the time, and did not have available vacation time. So, in what I look back on as a bout of insanity, I set up the shortest cross-country trip possible (ahh, to be young again).

I scheduled a flight from Manchester to LAX, arriving on Saturday afternoon. The return flight left LAX between 5 and 6 am on Sunday morning, getting me back to the East Coast by late afternoon. I think I was gone about 32 hours or so.

Because the party was not starting until Saturday night, and I was on a budget, I took transportation straight to the party location, to see if there was anything I could do to pass the time. I was able to help the lovely folk set up for the party. As an added bonus, they let me stash my bag while I was helping them.

There was live music, there was dancing, and there were costumes! My sketches looked (to me anyway) a little small and pitiful on their green wall in the Mock Avenue Art Gallery. Still, they tied into some of the themes for the night, and it was fun, and new, and exciting!

I was able to get a copy of Bone Dancer signed by the lovely Emma Bull. I also was able to pick up a fresh copy of Elsewhere for Will Shetterly to sign. The two of them were very nice people. After the party was over, and things had calmed, they took the time to have an informal Q and A with some of their fans. Even though I was excited by this, I was nodding on my feet from sheer exhaustion.

One of the lovely folk who worked so hard to set up the event offered me a ride to the airport, so I could save my taxi money (Yes yes, I know. Dangerous strange men. He was a truly nice man, and I generally do avoid rides from strangers.).

Walking through the security checkpoint at LAX was fun. I think the rivets in my jeans made the metal detector angry. Honestly, I think the whole airport was a bit angry. I was treated to a security scan pretty much on par with our post-9/11 TSA standards, and this was several years beforehand.

Bordertown has been an important part of my adult life. It helped shape me as a writer. It provided the most insane weekend trip EVER. Also, it gave me hours of reading pleasure, and countless daydreams of what a world would be like, with just a little Faerie in it.

Over the past couple of weeks, I had shared some of these stories about Bordertown with my friends. I laughed, I sighed, and I waxed nostalgic.

Then I heard some very wonderful news. Bordertown lives!

A new anthology was released on May 24th, titled Welcome to the Border.

For those of you who would like some background and useful information, please visit the Bordertown website: http://bordertownseries.com/

If you decide to travel to Bordertown, please make sure to stop into The Dancing Ferret. The first beer is on the house!