*smiles and waves*

[applemouse]

 hiiiiiiii!!!!!!  My name is Sarah Johnson, and the two Redwall aliases that most would associate me with are Rudder Rockstream and Silkwind Nightstar.

Soooo, yeah.  Back in 2000, I came up with the idea for RedCon '05.  Yep.  It was me.  I thought of it.  It was my freakin' BRAINCHILD!   I was gonna make it all happen and work and be all cool and such.  Then I just lost interest in the redwall fandom, mostly because my entire 'generation' did.  Everyone who I used to hang out with and RP with were also leaving, getting on with their real lives, or finding different venues to roleplay.

It was sad, but it was also good.  I was moving forward, onto a new stage in my life.

I've been entirely out of the loop now for the last . . . year and a half or so.  getting out of the loop was a gradual removal process that started around 2000 and continued until . . . mid 2001, possibly all the way to 2002.  So basically, I know nothing about what's going on in the ROC today.

Yesterday I found out that my dear dear ROC friend from back in the day, Josh, died in a car accident.  I am completely crushed by this.  And... we kinda lost touch in the last year or so, which pains me to no end.  If I'd known he was going to die, I would have made a bigger effort to keep in touch with him.

I'm painfully heartbroken about this.  Basically, I've resolved not to lose touch with people anymore, just to have them die.  Keeping in touch with the Redwall people is hard, though. We're scattered all over the place.  There's nothing binding me and the rest of the 'old generation' together anymore.

I don't have the ambition or planning or time or most importantly the money to organize a Redwall convention, as was my original idea back in the day.  What I'd like to see happen instead, though, is to have a ROC party at Anthrocon.  Anthrocon is a huge convention for anthro animals or 'furry', of which the redwall fandom is a subfandom.  It would totally rock if redwall fans could buy a block of rooms together at the hotel, so that they were all living in the same place during the convention. And there could be an ROC party where everyone from ROC got to meet up with each other and such.

This is a lot more workable than actually trying to make our own convention just for redwall.  Because--  what are there? Like, 20, 30 people who might come?  Maybe even less when it comes right down to it? Anthrocon is a huge event.  It's the biggest anthro convention in the world!  And it's run and organized by a huge dedicated staff.  Anthrocon's staff is literally bigger than the entire attendance of a Redwall convention would be.

So.... I suggest that if you want to meet other Redwall fans, let's organize something for Anthrocon.  I'll be going for the first time this summer, and I'm totally stoked.  I'd love to meet any of you this year.  After this summer, I'd be happy to lend a hoof in organizing next year's Redwall party and helping people buy rooms together, for 2005, right on schedule!  :)

PLEASE CONTACT ME!!! My AIM thingy is applemouse22 and my e-mail address is applemouse at uky dot edu.  (i hate spambots)

I'm probably going to write an article about this idea and such for Terrouge's November issue too.

(crossposted to the redwall forum)

[Aden]

 Yup, we acknowledge it was your idea. We're still in the beginning stages of planning it for Chicago. If you have any comments or suggestions, just post them here. You probably don't want to work on it anymore, but if you do, just contact us. The RedCon we want to have is for all Redwall fans, online and offline. This way we'll hopefully get many more people to attend, rather than just the ones from the ROC. I'm not a big Redwall fan either right now, but we'll definitely have some to help with the planning.

[The Lady Shael]

 *waves* It's great to meet the idea-maker for RedCon! ^_^ Anthrocon sounds like a neat idea...not sure I'll be able to go though, since it's this year. And I'd feel more at ease at RedCon than Anthrocon, since I "know" the ROC people and Redwall fans...I'd feel small and insignificant at Anthrocon.  :ph34r:  

[Randag]

 

This is a lot more workable than actually trying to make our own convention just for redwall. Because-- what are there? Like, 20, 30 people who might come? Maybe even less when it comes right down to it?

*stares*

Yeah, that really annoyed me. What do you think we are trying to organise here, just a get-together of one or two ROC sites? Our RedCon is planned for 2006 (the 20th Anniversary of Redwall), and you don't think more than 30 people will show up. Our aim, as Aden already said, is to gather Redwall fans from all over the ROC and non-ROC fans. Each website community will have their own stalls and activities. Trust me, there will be at least 10 times the amount of people attending RedCon than you suggested.

It would totally rock if redwall fans could buy a block of rooms together at the hotel

So, I'm assuming by a "block of rooms" to mean about 10 or so. At most that's only 40 members of the ROC going to the Anthrocon. No offense but that's not a lot. I guess you really haven't kept in touch with your old Redwall friends. If you tried you could easily rally up to 60 ROC members from Terrouge alone.  

[Dixie Ros?]

 *Waves* One right here!!

[ScaredyCat]

 *Waves also*

[Scarwake]

 Calm down, Randag....I don't think she meant to offend anyone...But I'm sure that like Randag and Aden said there would be more than just those 30 people you suggested...And its happening in 2006, deary. Not 2005...Which is why its called RedCon'06 and staff meeting is being held this coming summer of 2004 in Chicago.  Oh, and that reminds me Aden or Randag, Aminrael, who was gonna be my guest would like to join the staff of RedCon.

*scribbles down to remind himself of things more often*  OH, Aminrael (Ilse)'s mom told me about some other things about Chicago that we could possibly do and she mentioned some free things, and busses would be cheaper for transportation, because you can buy an all day pass for like 5 dollars I think she said...So, perhaps bus would be an option for getting around and such...

[Aden]

 I'm thinking that touring the city would be organized by the people that want to do it. If people don't want to go downtown, they don't have to. You can make your own plans for touring the city, including riding buses or the train downtown. The train is pretty cheap.