Lost rockets

While in Chattanooga for Libertycon, I met a number of authors who were among the so-called Sad Puppy finalists for the Hugo awards in 2015. If you are ever a finalist, you get a small lapel pin shaped like a rocket. I had two because I was a double-Puppy in 2015.

We fellow sufferers talked about the Puppy experience a bit. I told a friend why I didn't have my lapel pins any more.

I lost them the previous weekend.

I explained I never wore my lapel pins, but last year, at the last convention I attended for 2017, I met a fellow 2015 finalist who wore his. I asked if he was afraid to wear it in public. He seemed puzzled at the question.

"The way we have been vilified," I said. I'd be afraid to wear my pins, I'd be afraid someone would assault me at a convention."

My colleague said he earned his pin and he was proud to wear it.

I decided I'd start wearing my pins this year, and I took them with me when I went to SoonerCon in Oklahoma City June 22. After I checked in and got my badge, I took them out and I was going to stick them on.

I took the first one out, and as I tried to stick it on, I fumbled it. I never saw it land. It disappeared. I never saw it again. I put the second one back in its bag. The next day, I realized I'd lost it also.

After I told this story to one colleague at Libertycon, he said, "Well, you can always ask WorldCon for a replacement."

I laughed. "You've got to be kidding! They didn't want us to have them in the first place! Do you think they would ever give me a replacement!"