There's a Helen and a Hellen on the list. Steve, you've been referring to Hellen as Helen. I don't go to Redemption as it's a bit far from California.

Baycon, otoh, was lovely. Wish I'd been in better shape, but the dances were terrific, my costumes were recognized more often than I expected, and I got to meet Julia Jones, who kindly allowed me to borrow a few slash zines so I could see what all the fuss was about. (Let the brainwashing commence!) Actually, all the stories I had the opportunity to read or skim were a cut above the average of fanfic I've encountered, when it comes to pure use of language. I found The Birds and The Bees terribly funny, as it sent up 3 things I'm familiar with (Aristophanes, Cole Porter, and B7). I also saw enough to realize that what I'm *not* interested in with slash isn't any different from what I'm not interested in in het-- reading about sex, for me, is rather like reading about sports... to appreciate the story, I may need to know who scored, but I don't have much interest in the details of how it was done. Aside from the parody, it looked like most of the stories were 'character-junkie' type; they got more into exploring feelings and relationships than accomplishing outside tasks. Methinks I'm less character junkie than I thought, because I as I read I thought "Good story, but not really Blake's 7-- we need some Fed lackeys to invade now, or a call from the flight deck about a wierd floating thingie". Mind, ithe writing was good; I just also saw the point about fanon diverging from canon.

Enough burbling, Helen