A possibility regained?

Back in 2014 I had an invite to be a panelist at LonCon 3. I had been a panelist at the WorldCon in San Antonio the previous year (it was nice to have a WorldCon I could drive to) and I was invited back to Worldcon for the following year.

The folks running LonCon were also very good to me with my panels. I had two, right on target with my author interests - Steampunk and Alternate History.

I've never owned a passport, and my wife and I were looking our first trip ever overseas.

Now, one of the guests for LonCon was Billie Piper, who played Dr. Who's companion Rose Tyler in 2005 and 2006.

When Dr. Who restarted in 2005, I did a double-take at that name - Rose Tyler. See, I live in East Texas, whose regional capital is Tyler - famed for its roses. In fact it's known as The Rose Capital of the World.

So I noticed the name, "Rose Tyler". And looking forward to LonCon, I had a thought. I would carefully pack a genuine Tyler Rose and while at the convention present it to "Rose Tyler".

I thought it was a cute idea.

Well, a few months before the convention, the newspaper where I worked was sold to a corporation, I had two weeks of paid vacation, but the cheap corporate assholes said that - since I was a new employee to them, I had no seniority, and no accrued vacation. They just wiped it out.

I could hardly afford to take a two weeks unpaid leave, so LonCon was off. I told the folks running the convention what happened, and we all felt bad.

I was given the heave-ho the following January, and I've worked at my current newspaper just over two years. When I wrote "Another Girl, Another Planet" last year, I modeled the villain on the SOB who fired me, as motivation.

 Last week I received word I was accepted as a visiting pro at Dragoncon. Yesterday the con, as part of updating its list of pros and guest, said Billie Piper would be there this year.

A-hah! So maybe I could still present Piper with one of those Tyler Roses, after all. Three years late, but better than never.