A Conversation with Mera Rose

[00:00:00] Halfling: Thank you all for tuning into the Halfling and the Spaceman. If you're new to our show, we welcome you and hope that you're entertained and inspired to start your own journey into active fandom. And if you're a returning listener, thank you for choosing to spend some more time with us. And today we are super excited to be talking with renowned cosplayer costume designer and just all around fan fanatic Mera Rose.

[00:00:28] Halfling: I don't know how else to describe it. Mera Rose will be talking with us about her journey into cosplay and other fandom as she promises it's gonna be, in her words, a weird ride. So welcome to the show, Mera Rose.

[00:00:42] Mera Rose: Nice to be here. Just a quick side note, it's actually Mera, but I'm glad to get the opportunity to say that because a lot of people will see my name in print and automatically assume how it's pronounced. And so there are a lot of people in fandom that do not know that it's actually pronounced Mera, not Mira.

[00:01:00] Mera Rose: So

[00:01:01] Halfling: Okay. Okay.

[00:01:04] Mera Rose: But yeah, I'm actually super excited to be here and, thank you guys for having me 

[00:01:09] Mera Rose: on. 

[00:01:09] Halfling: Oh, well we appreciate you taking time outta your obviously busy schedule to be with us. So, let's go ahead and get started with something I would consider relatively easy, which is what does fandom mean to you? When you hear that word, what does that mean to you and what types of fandom do you enjoy and you're into, because I know the list is long

[00:01:32] Mera Rose: Oh, the list is long and varied. Gosh, fandom, what does fandom mean to me? It is, it is a wild ride. A journey through the imagination and whimsy. It brings hope, it is a light in the darkness. It's a beacon for all that is humanity, in really neat fictional accounts. Whether it's books or stories or movies or TV shows or animes, there's something for everyone to get into and journeying into one fandom leads on to the next one and the next one and the next one. You're always discovering something new. And that, honestly, that is what fandom is to me. It's all about the creativity, the experience, and the community that it builds.

[00:02:20] Halfling: Yes. A community. Super important

[00:02:23] Mera Rose: yes, and as for the fandoms that I'm into, uh,

[00:02:27] Halfling: Here we go. Here we go, guys.

[00:02:29] Mera Rose: goodness.

[00:02:30] Mera Rose: Well, let's see. I'm a huge fan of post-apocalyptic fiction like 

[00:02:34] Mera Rose: the Hunger Games, 

[00:02:36] Mera Rose: divergent. Also a very big fan of science fiction, especially Battlestar Galactica, one of my big favorites, both old and new, Dr. Who both old and 

[00:02:47] Mera Rose: new, 

[00:02:48] Mera Rose: Star Trek, all of them, Star Wars and I'm not a hater of any of them.

[00:02:53] Mera Rose: I think they're all fantastic and then the list goes on and on. I love anime. I love animation in general. I was a Disney kid, and I grew up on comic books. And, I honestly, my mom, when I was three, made me a costume for our preschool costume contest and dressed me up as a clown. And it was so terrifying for me to actually be dressed as a clown because I was scared of them that I refused to put on a costume.

[00:03:25] Mera Rose: The next year she started asking me what I wanted to be for Halloween and I would just cry. 

[00:03:29] Mera Rose: And so at that point in time I had gotten into Linda Carter. She was Wonder Woman. 

[00:03:36] Mera Rose: And I had gotten into the Wonder Woman TV show and I was sneak watching it while my mom was watching it. She knew I was hiding out behind the chair watching as she was watching it in the living room cuz I was supposed to be in bed.

[00:03:46] Mera Rose: And, so she made me a Wonder Woman costume. 

[00:03:49] Mera Rose: And that was the first time I ever put on a costume and enjoyed it. And I actually enjoyed it so much. I think I wore it for a solid, like four months. Every time I got home from school, it was like, throw on Wonder Woman, go be Wonder Woman.

[00:04:07] Halfling: Did you do the spin around thing And 

[00:04:09] Mera Rose: Oh, of course. And I had a lasso and it was great.

[00:04:12] Mera Rose: I would just, I would, oh, I would loop it out. I would try to lasso the cats. They were not amused. 

[00:04:17] Halfling: cats rarely are amused. Let's just say that , they're rarely amused.

[00:04:23] Mera Rose: That's also one of my fandoms. I absolutely love cats.

[00:04:26] Halfling: Yeah.

[00:04:26] Mera Rose: musicals. I love the musical cats as well.

[00:04:30] Halfling: Okay. We can forgive you for that because everybody has their thing, but 

[00:04:36] Mera Rose: Oh, come on. Theater and musical theater is its own fandom. It's wonderful.

[00:04:41] Halfling: I'm just talking about that one particular.

[00:04:44] Mera Rose: Oh, yes. No, I know.

[00:04:46] Halfling: You know

[00:04:46] Spaceman: movie so much 

[00:04:47] Halfling: more 

[00:04:47] Halfling: than well. 

[00:04:48] Halfling: Yeah. 

[00:04:49] Mera Rose: Yeah. 

[00:04:49] Mera Rose: No, I didn't say I was a fan of the movie

[00:04:51] Halfling: Okay, good. There's a distinction. Yes. Absolutely. Absolutely. Like I said, it sounds like you've had a very broad range of interest and things that you were into, so that's really cool.

[00:05:05] Halfling: Spaceman you had a question for her? 

[00:05:08] Spaceman: You're talking about Wonder Woman and it sounds like, you were a big fan of the 1970s era Wonder Woman, and I can understand why Linda Carter is awesome, but

[00:05:17] Mera Rose: Yes, she is.

[00:05:18] Spaceman: yes. But other than that, what were your earliest memories of being a fan of something?

[00:05:23] Mera Rose: Well, a lot of it actually goes back to comic books and especially Wonder Woman. So I grew up in Roanoke, Virginia, 

[00:05:30] Mera Rose: and here, in the city there used to be a little shop called the Paperback Exchange and so my mother was a very avid reader. and she would take me every Saturday and we would go and she would trade in books and I would get some part of the credit that she had to go in and find something that I wanted.

[00:05:49] Mera Rose: And so they had this little closet underneath their staircase where they kept all of their comic books. And so I would go in with my, dollar or so in credit and pick up, five to 10 issues of whatever looked really, really cool. And so I got into X-Men and, spider-Man and The Hulk. And I got into Batman a little bit, but I got more into Catwoman.

[00:06:15] Mera Rose: And so in the beginning it was really about reading these amazing stories and kind of re-imagining things. And I got to the point where I would sit and I would draw the characters. I would buy tracing paper and draw the characters over and over again. And when I was about 10 years old, My mom gave me a starter sewing machine and I started kind of drafting out these patterns on the tracing paper in very tiny versions and trying to make doll clothes.

[00:06:47] Mera Rose: And so I would make doll clothes for my Barbies and things that were dressing them up as X-men and catwoman and superheroes. And so, those are my earliest memories of fandom. There was a little event here and I do not remember whether it was, it might have been a ShevaCon, but it might have been something at a library.

[00:07:08] Mera Rose: It's been so long that it's hard to remember where Linda Carter actually came to town, cuz she actually doesn't live that far away. she's just over in Lynchburg, or she was at the time I guess. And they had this huge like meet her event. and my mom took me, and all I can remember doing is standing there with my mouth wide open, like holding this comic book.

[00:07:30] Mera Rose: And she's looking at me. She's like, you okay? And I couldn't put words together. And we, I know I have a picture of her with me somewhere from that. It was a Polaroid that my mom had taken 

[00:07:43] Mera Rose: and, walked away from that experience going, I will never not be able to talk to her again. And like all the things I wanted to say, 

[00:07:53] Mera Rose: all the, I think every fan's had that experience.

[00:07:55] Mera Rose: You meet somebody and you're like, and you just can't put words together at that moment.

[00:08:00] Spaceman: I met Jerry Doyle at Origins one year, and I couldn't speak to him. He came and had drinks with us and I was dumbfounded the entire time. This is Garibaldi from Babylon Five, and I'm sitting there so I

[00:08:14] Mera Rose: That's awesome. 

[00:08:15] Halfling: I've never known Spaceman to be dumbfounded and gobsmacked. He's always got something to say, so.

[00:08:23] Mera Rose: We, we sound like we might have a lot in common in that department. There are a lot of people that'll tell you I run on at length. I can talk the ears off of anything but yeah, so I mean that was probably the earliest of the memories. The earliest of the convention memories, actually starts a lot later than that because my first real convention where I remember being at a convention was 1995.

[00:08:48] Mera Rose: And, uh, or I'm sorry, 1996 

[00:08:50] Mera Rose: Woo. 

[00:08:51] Halfling: Mm-hmm.

[00:08:51] Mera Rose: Years getting passed on me. But, 1996 and I don't know if you remember a band in Richmond called Gwar.

[00:08:59] Halfling: Uh, the name sounds familiar.

[00:09:02] Mera Rose: Well, Gwar is a heavy metal band and it was a 

[00:09:04] Mera Rose: local Virginia heavy metal band and they have a bar in Richmond now called the Gwar Bar. Um, but they used to travel all over the place and, I had graduated high school and had taken off on some other paths and was hanging out with some friends and they went, Gwar's going to be playing in Atlanta.

[00:09:26] Mera Rose: And I went, really? I've never been to Atlanta. And I said, oh, you gotta come. It's this event called DragonCon.

[00:09:33] Halfling: Oh, 

[00:09:34] Mera Rose: dragon sounds interesting. I like dragons. What's a con? And so I ended up at the Gwar show at the 1996 DragonCon. And that is actually how I ended up costuming, and in costuming, and in fandom costuming.

[00:09:54] Mera Rose: And it's led to everything else that's happened since, I showed up. For the show. And after the show there was a big huliboo and some shake up with the next event that was supposed to be happening. And this guy walked on stage and went, anybody here have any experience with theater? And I went, I was in high school theater.

[00:10:14] Mera Rose: I did sets and props and costumes. And he went, come here. And it's one of those places, wrong place, wrong time, 

[00:10:23] Mera Rose: rest of your life, And so that's how that happened. That's how that started. So,

[00:10:27] Halfling: Wow. You just happen to be in the right place at the right time. Cuz

[00:10:32] Mera Rose: yep. conventions are really good for that. never know who you're gonna meet.

[00:10:36] Spaceman: No, you never do

[00:10:37] Halfling: That's very true. And you also learned that you can do things you never thought you could do too.

[00:10:44] Mera Rose: That's very fair because, that gentleman got me involved in a organization called the International Costumers Guild. 

[00:10:52] Mera Rose: And I actually ended up being their vice president for a few years and took over his acting president for a little bit and then happily stepped down and left the organization. But, that's a whole nother story.

[00:11:05] Mera Rose: The ICG was great though for a very long time because being involved with it meant you were constantly doing something. There was always an event, there was always another convention coming and in this area you've got so many events. You've got RavenCon and well back then ShevaCon, 

[00:11:22] Mera Rose: which then became MystiCon.

[00:11:24] Mera Rose: Then MarsCon and Balticon and Baltimore Comic-Con and all of the wonderful events down in North Carolina and in Tennessee. And so really within four to five states, you've got, you can fill up 46 weekends outta the year with conventions.

[00:11:38] Spaceman: that's our plan, 

[00:11:40] Mera Rose: oh, no, I did it for many years. Trust me, it will burn you out faster than anything

[00:11:46] Mera Rose: But, I did a lot of costume contests. I won a lot of costume contests and then I started getting people asking me to run costume contests. And so I started running convention costume contests, 1999. Helped out with some, between 96 and 99, but started running, in 99, and then also started judging in 99, judged all over the place.

[00:12:12] Mera Rose: I've been involved in regional, local, international costume contests. And the great thing about doing it is the people that you meet, it really drives your creativity because you'll have all these ideas about all these costumes you wanna make, and then you'll meet somebody and you'll see what they did and you'll be like, oh, I wanna do that, but I wanna do it differently because you just inspired me to do it a whole different way.

[00:12:36] Mera Rose: And, 

[00:12:36] Mera Rose: it's, it's really fun. In the long run, what ended up happening was it turned into a business and we became Prop House 42 productions and started building costume sets and props for the entertainment industry 

[00:12:52] Mera Rose: and for conventions. And, I don't know if you guys have been to many of the Virginia and North Carolina or Tennessee conventions, but you may have come across the iron foam throne of Westeros, or the trans galore Tardis, or 

[00:13:08] Mera Rose: the Thanos throne, or the Batman Arkham Escape Room with the Batman Throne of Judgment and the Harley Quinn and J oker Thrones. All of those were us. And so, , in building these tardis, we ended up, attracting the attention of a lot of Dr. Who people,

[00:13:27] Halfling: Mm-hmm.

[00:13:28] Mera Rose: and, uh started making a lot of friends, that worked behind the scenes and also as TARDIS builders with Dr. Who and kind of became unofficial TARDIS builders for a little while, and then became official TARDIS builders for a little while and so we've had a lot of fun with it.

[00:13:44] Mera Rose: My husband and I run the company together 

[00:13:46] Mera Rose: and we have five kids. And so one of the nicest things about being involved in conventions in fandom is that it was a really safe place for us to raise our kids a very nurturing environment. People that understood their differences 

[00:14:05] Mera Rose: and still accepted them for it, and didn't treat them any differently than anyone else.

[00:14:10] Mera Rose: It gave them the ability to foster a lot of functional skills.

[00:14:15] Mera Rose: And so my oldest son's first convention was actually MystiCon here in Roanoke 

[00:14:20] Mera Rose:

[00:14:20] Mera Rose: and it was the year that Peter Davidson came and so we dressed him up, because he has some sensory issues.

[00:14:28] Mera Rose: We made a foam board tars that he could wear and drop down into and hide when he was uncomfortable.

[00:14:34] Mera Rose: And his brother dressed up as the 11th doctor. And, there was a little girl there who was dressed as a weeping angel. 

[00:14:42] Mera Rose: And the three of them became the best of friends. And it was great because, my oldest son had a lot of issues even at school trying to fit in 

[00:14:53] Mera Rose: and get along with other kids.

[00:14:54] Mera Rose: And then all of a sudden, here's this whole environment where he can just thrive. 

[00:14:58] Mera Rose: And so the next convention that we did, he was like, I don't need a tardis. I wanna be Kit Fisto from Star Wars. Can you make me really big latex prosthetics for my head? And we did

[00:15:11] Halfling: Look, kid. Can I do that?

[00:15:14] Mera Rose: Yep.

[00:15:15] Spaceman: You know, it's so funny because one of our mottos is Find Your Tribe, and it sounds like he did.

[00:15:20] Mera Rose: He did. He 

[00:15:21] Mera Rose: absolutely did. And he still to this day, keeps in contact with just about everyone he is ever met at conventions., he and his next, youngest brother and their younger sister, who's the oldest girl. We have two boys, who are now 19 and 18. By the time you air this, they'll probably be 20 and 19 actually.

[00:15:41] Mera Rose: Cuz their birthdays are very soon. 

[00:15:43] Mera Rose:

[00:15:43] Mera Rose: And then we have a girl who's 16, a girl who's 12 and a girl who's eight. And we like to call the eight year old our DragonCon souvenir cuz she wasn't quite expected. Um, but, uh, you know, it's, it's really funny. So the three of them, or the three older ones and dad are all very intensive gamers.

[00:16:04] Mera Rose: And Dad was actually a semi-professional gamer for Sony for a while. 

[00:16:08] Mera Rose: And so they got involved in a lot of, we, we go to a convention to put up props and set pieces and do panels and content. And, you know, once we got everything done or they had a break, dad and the boys were off in the game rooms and meeting people and they still stay in contact with everybody they've ever met through that in the various networks, the PlayStation, the Xbox, Steam, they're all Steam friends now.

[00:16:35] Mera Rose: So it's really cool. It's like a convention every weekend. They set up LAN gaming or not LAN Gaming 

[00:16:41] Mera Rose: Um, Yeah, it's, it's basically they all get online and they play together at the same time.

[00:16:47] Mera Rose: It's a lot of .

[00:16:48] Halfling: Oh, okay. Okay. 

[00:16:50] Spaceman: Co-op. 

[00:16:50] Halfling: co-op. 

[00:16:52] Mera Rose: Yeah.

[00:16:52] Mera Rose: Co-op. There you go. 

[00:16:54] Halfling: I remember one year, I wanna say that it was actually MystiCon, and you probably can't tell it because I'm sitting right now, but I'm only four seven, and toward the end of the convention, I had done some panels and toward the end of this convention a woman came up to me and said, would you mind if I introduced my son to you?

[00:17:20] Halfling: And I said, no, that's fine. I thought it was really weird because I'm nobody but she explained that her son had Down's syndrome and that he, because of my stature, I guess he thought we were kindred spirits and someone that he could sort of relate to.

[00:17:40] Halfling: Because I was short, but I was also doing these panels. And Spaceman and I were doing Crimson Streets, so I was there as an editor talking about, you know, all that. So when she wanted to introduce her son, I thought, okay, wow, this is cool, you know? And so she brought her son and the first thing he did was he gave me a big hug.

[00:18:00] Halfling: And then he said that I was his best friend and it just, I mean, it just absolutely melted my heart. But he had apparently been having a little bit of a rough time with the number of people that were at this convention, but apparently my presence sort of, you know, got him a little grounded, I guess.

[00:18:22] Halfling: And he was able to cope. And then he finally met me and it was it, for him, it was like meeting his hero or something. I don't know, , but, but it was, it was great. It was absolutely awesome. And it's another instance of what we say, you know, find your tribe, you know,

[00:18:37] Mera Rose: Well, and there, there's a really, this is one of the reasons why I do a lot of the panel content and things that I do. 

[00:18:44] Mera Rose: So as we started the journey with the kids, I realized it that I didn't have all the tools that I needed. So I went back to school. I've basically been a lifetime student. I'm one of those, if you read my bios on websites, you'll see me as described as the Renaissance person that wears many hats.

[00:19:03] Mera Rose: I'm a farmer. I'm a, you know, I'm a prop maker. I'm a costumer, I'm a production designer, but I'm also an educational and disabilities advocate. And I went back to school and got, degrees in psychology and sociology so that I could learn the skills and tools that I needed. And it wasn't enough.

[00:19:25] Mera Rose: I got addicted. So I went back for human services to try and figure out how to implement everything. And then went back again for a master's of psychology. And so what I end up doing is a lot of panels on inclusion, 

[00:19:42] Halfling: Mm-hmm. 

[00:19:42] Mera Rose: you know, basically helping people understand the importance of being inclusive, especially in cosplay.

[00:19:49] Mera Rose: In fandom. One of the most fun panels that I do every year, at Dragoncon is actually called Adaptive Cosplay. And it's about how to tailor your CO and your cosplay wear to fit your body's needs, even if you're neurotypical, not disabled, but especially if you're trying to costume for wheelchairs 

[00:20:12] Mera Rose: or mobility devices or any sort of physical issue that you may have.

[00:20:17] Mera Rose: And so it's one of the most fun, best attended panels, that I do and then in addition to that, there's also disabled in fandom, which is run on the diversity track at Dragoncon. And that one, gosh, it's amazing. They bring in a lot of people, for the panel. Who all have different experiences, and we all talk about the ways that fandom has helped build the community and how inclusive it can be.

[00:20:46] Mera Rose: And so it's really nice to raise the visibility and so I think that's one of the greatest things about conventions is that you are connecting through fandom and everything else should be irrelevant. It doesn't matter what your disability is or your ability is, or your race, your politics, your gender.

[00:21:10] Mera Rose: When it comes to fandom, it should be just about the fandom.

[00:21:15] Halfling: We could not agree more. Couldn't say it better, right spaceman?

[00:21:20] Spaceman: Absolutely. That's the reason that we actually started this podcast is because we believe that fandom gives people an opportunity to find communities they wouldn't ordinarily find. We might not be neighbors, but we're spiritual neighbors.

[00:21:33] Mera Rose: Exactly 

[00:21:34] Halfling: Our motto is, everyone is welcome as long as you're not a jerk.

[00:21:38] Spaceman: Yeah. 

[00:21:38] Spaceman: Don't be a 

[00:21:39] Halfling: be a jerk. 

[00:21:41] Mera Rose: We, We, say it a little differently around here, but then we're also very well known Deadpool cosplayers, I think everybody knows what Deadpool number one rule is. Don't be a, 

[00:21:52] Mera Rose: you can bleep that out. Um,

[00:21:55] Halfling: We, we got it. We got it.

[00:21:56] Spaceman: it.

[00:21:56] Mera Rose: Yep. So, but uh, but yeah, 

[00:22:00] Mera Rose: It's, important, 

[00:22:01] Mera Rose: People should go into fandom with an open mind and be willing to accept and make new friendships and not look for the differences, but look for all the similarities that we have. I know one of the things that I think you guys have talked about on a couple of different podcasts that I've listened to, I have listened to your show, that you've covered gatekeeping a little bit. 

[00:22:26] Mera Rose: And gatekeeping is something that I talk about regularly because it is a very big problem, especially in the cosplay community. There can be a lot of toxicity and so one of the things that I tend to talk about in panels quite often is that, we should never be trying to limit access or eliminate somebody's ability to participate.

[00:22:47] Mera Rose: We should never be saying, oh, you're too big to be that character. You're too, you know, you're too short to be that one. You don't have the right skin tone and we certainly, one of the other things in the cosplay community that I have to cover quite often, um, you should never have to change who you are to be the character you want to be.

[00:23:07] Halfling: Amen.

[00:23:07] Mera Rose: wanna be a Superman. I don't care what your skin tone is, do it. If you identify with that character, you've got every reason to cosplay it. 

[00:23:16] Halfling: Mm. That's absolutely wonderful. I'm glad that some of our guests have echoed the same sentiment because it is something we really want to hammer into people. It's about just being part of the tribe and accepting other people for who they are and to me it's kind of a hot buttoned topic too, because I would be one of those people that other people would look at and say, oh, you can't play that character.

[00:23:41] Halfling: Look at You 

[00:23:42] Mera Rose: Oh, I've experienced it firsthand and it's happened more than once. I think the worst was when I was first getting into it. I was a goth kid, I was a head banger and of course I was born and raised in Roanoke, but my dad grew up on the reservation in Cherokee, North Carolina. Along with every generation of his ancestry as far as they remember and so in Roanoke there are a lot of people that look at me and go, yeah, we know who your dad is. And you get pigeonholed by being a specific thing, but once you leave, everybody looks at you and goes, oh, you're white. Which is a very weird world to live in, by the way, walking that, that kind of strange path between both worlds. And so one of the first things I ever did as a cosplay, I did a female version of a mortal combat character called Night Wolff.

[00:24:37] Halfling: Mm-hmm.

[00:24:38] Mera Rose: Are you familiar with that one? It's a Native American character, an indigenous everything. 

[00:24:45] Mera Rose: And I took that to a convention in North Carolina and I got yelled at.

[00:24:51] Halfling: Uh,

[00:24:51] Mera Rose: and I went, no, really? Do you want me to. Pull up my, because I, I've got my tribal card.

[00:24:58] Spaceman: You know, it's funny if Rami Malek can get in trouble for playing an Egyptian in Night at the Museum, you know, Rami Malek, who is Egyptian

[00:25:07] Mera Rose: Yes. 

[00:25:08] Spaceman: Ah, we live in a

[00:25:09] Mera Rose: Well, and I have to laugh because that's not the only time it's ever happened. I have been heavier and lighter. It depends on the year as to what my weight is. Apparently it fluctuates with everything and so some years I've been very heavyset and I've played characters that had slightly more fitted costumes.

[00:25:29] Mera Rose: And I've been told, you know, there are some guys that are always gonna make really horrific comments. And I've gotten some of those and then I've had other years where I've been very, toned down and slim. And I've put on a body suit and I've gotten the reverse where I get the cat calls and then there are the other side that are going, oh, she's obviously a, you know that word, because she dresses like that.

[00:25:52] Mera Rose: And I'm going, it's Captain Marvel. That's what the suit looks like.

[00:25:57] Halfling: Yeah. Yeah.

[00:25:58] Mera Rose: You know, I don't think anyone should ever pass judgment on someone for cosplay a character that they love, period. It does not matter what your body type is, actually there are a couple of really wonderful cosplay movements.

[00:26:13] Mera Rose: One is called cospositivity. And if you search that hashtag, you'll find it pretty easily. And the cospositivity movement is all about body positivity, no matter what your size, no matter what your ability. And then the other side of that, Is a really amazing movement that was started by two friends of mine, Jabar King who goes by Bar Noir and Walter Dean, and they started the Cosplay Your Way Movement. And Cosplay Your Way actually has an amazing documentary out there. You can see it, I believe it's on Netflix still. I might be wrong, but I'll try and get you the link. 

[00:26:51] Mera Rose: And, it's all about representation and cosplay and these two guys have really fostered a movement.

[00:26:59] Mera Rose: It's just very inspirational, everything that they've done. And I was actually lucky enough to get a, you know, welcome to it with a shirt this year. I was like, oh my gosh. I, Cosplay Your Way. I get to promote it now. Yay. Because, we did this, skit at the masquerade trying to promote, body positivity and equality and cosplaying your way.

[00:27:23] Mera Rose: To a song written by a woman named Jacks called Victoria's Secret. And so we did that during the DragonCon Masquerade and it was me, my two middle children, one of whom is a part-time wheelchair user. The other one is legally blind. A amazing costumer named Ronald Seaman, who is a military veteran that was severely injured in the line of duty and uses a sit to stand wheelchair, 

[00:27:51] Mera Rose: , bar nor, and the fantasy literature track director, Saska small.

[00:27:56] Mera Rose: And, we just had a blast. We had so much fun on that stage, and it was really nice to get out there and people got it. The audience cheered. They knew what we were trying to say. It doesn't matter who you are. The idea of a specific image is a lie. Do you. and enjoy cosplay your way.

[00:28:18] Halfling: That is awesome.

[00:28:19] Spaceman: That that is totally

[00:28:21] Halfling: That is absolutely awesome. Not to detract from this, but I wanna switch gears just a little bit cuz everything you've said has just been awesome. It's like the bomb. So we appreciate all that , but I do wanna switch gears a little bit. We had somebody come on the show and talk about the concept of digital storytelling, which I'm sure that you're familiar with.

[00:28:45] Halfling: So my question to you is, because when I first learned about this, I was like, what in the heck? Because I had, because I'm old. Okay. , we're both 

[00:28:55] Halfling: old. We're both 

[00:28:56] Halfling: old.

[00:28:57] Mera Rose: I, I don't think you're that much older than me, but we'll go.

[00:29:00] Halfling: But, you know, I mean, I just felt totally like a fish outta water. I had no concept of what this was. But anyway, so she started talking about it and started talking us through the process. But my question to you is do you participate in digital storytelling? 

[00:29:15] Mera Rose: Well, I think every costumer and cosplayer does to some extent these days. 

[00:29:20] Mera Rose: And the reason why I say that is because digital storytelling is basically in the cosplay community. It boils down to social media. 

[00:29:29] Mera Rose: So as you're designing things and making them, you're putting them out there. So you're telling a visual story that's literally walking people through your builds as you're making them.

[00:29:41] Mera Rose: And then they get to experience you in the contest, either in person or by watching it online and see exactly how all of that work plays out. And so digital storytelling is very important to the cosplay community. And it's one of the reasons why a lot of cosplayers have gotten as much visibility as they have.

[00:30:01] Mera Rose: I actually have been using it slightly differently. And I have a feeling that might be why Patrick gave you my name, because, I run a costume contest, a DragonCon called the Page to Stage costume Contest. It is a truly unique, one of a kind international competition. And so when we talk about costuming, most people think about the big characters.

[00:30:29] Mera Rose: The stuff that you see in video games and on TV shows, animes, they don't think about where they come from necessarily, or the things that have inspired people to make those characters. And that's books, that's the characters that comes straight off of the page. So we went back to the authors.

[00:30:50] Mera Rose: And to create this contest, we started with what we call the open division, and so the open division, you can take any character from any literary source throughout the entirety of time, fiction, non-fiction, whatever you'd like to do, make a costume that is your interpretation of the character and then put it on our stage.

[00:31:12] Mera Rose: Then last year we took it one step further. We created an invitational division where we basically go to the authors and we say, give us your favorite character, and we take those characters. We have a selection committee that chooses 40 of them, and we're actually in that process right now for 2023 and so over the months of October, November, and December, authors are submitting characters to us that they think are challenging costume costumes to do and interesting looks. And at the same time, costumers and cosplay are submitting nominations to basically become part of this challenge competition where they can get an invitation.

[00:32:04] Mera Rose: We invite 20 costumers, they get to choose from one of those 40 characters, make the costume, and they have to show us everything they're doing throughout the year up to the event to make the costume. So they do that both online through digital storytelling and then also through their build books that they present to the judges.

[00:32:27] Mera Rose: And then they come to our stage at Dragoncon on Thursday night and they act as the character on stage. And then our judges decide who did it the best. So the fun part of that is you've got the digital storytelling aspect from each of the authors giving the information for the character. And a lot of the authors have actually helped our previous contestants, with inspiration for how to make their character, which is another really cool aspect of the contest.

[00:32:58] Mera Rose: And then we have had the costumes, making the costumes, but that wasn't enough because the contest itself is also a story. So we created an AI, basically her backstory. Is that she is the literary artificial intelligence seeking creative interpretation, LAISCI. And so Lacey, for all intents and purposes in the digital storytelling, is the one choosing the characters, choosing the costumes.

[00:33:30] Mera Rose: And I put together these little video edits and put them out as promos, of Lacey issuing the challenge, inviting the costumes, inviting the authors, announcing the characters. And then when we get to the stage, Lacey introduces the entire event. And all of the authors that wish to participate get up on stage in our opening authors intro. And last year we did it as the Pirate authors Sea Shanty, and we had Chris Jackson and Jenny Kotch and Mel Todd and JD Astra, truly awesome authors get up on stage and dance around as pirates with this AI, who then opened the competition and handed it off to the MCs. So it's a great wrap of all the digital storytelling, and I have to give a little bit of a plug because my 16 year old daughter is the voice actress that does the voice for Lacey.

[00:34:30] Spaceman: Awesome. 

[00:34:31] Halfling: wow. That is awesome. That is absolutely awesome. Mind blown because that this concept, this whole concept is just Oh, wow. Wow.

[00:34:41] Mera Rose: It's a lot of fun. People have really enjoyed it. We've gotten a lot of buzz. We've had people as far away as South America, Africa, and India reach out to us to try and not only get involved, but find out how we do it so they can replicate it for their own countries. And of course, we're an international competition, so we want them to also send their costumers here.

[00:35:00] Mera Rose: So at some point, I don't know how many years in the future it might be, but we might see something where we're able to do regional events in countries and then bring them here for a final.

[00:35:10] Halfling: Mm-hmm. . Ah,

[00:35:12] Mera Rose: a lot of fun. Fandom reaches every corner of the globe.

[00:35:15] Spaceman: It it really does

[00:35:17] Spaceman: It 

[00:35:18] Spaceman: really, really does.

[00:35:19] Halfling: Yeah. Well, spaceman.

[00:35:22] Spaceman: I

[00:35:22] Halfling: lost. Are you space, are you 

[00:35:23] Halfling: spacing 

[00:35:24] Halfling: out over there? Spaceman? I'm completely 

[00:35:25] Halfling: space out.

[00:35:28] Spaceman: So who is the one person you would say has inspired you the most and, who is the person you would most like to meet?

[00:35:36] Mera Rose: Oh, that's an impossible question. Oh, it's really impossible because I've been inspired by so many people. I guess my first inspiration was my grandmother, she's the reason I am who I am, she raised me with my mom after my dad took off, and She raised me to find a way to help. That was it just help.

[00:36:03] Mera Rose: And so for 30 years she ran a free, no-cost daycare center where anybody could drop their children off at the church in Roanoke that she helped found actually. 

[00:36:14] Mera Rose: And so she's always been, I guess, the central inspiration. Everything I do is geared towards that. Always help find a way to make things better.

[00:36:24] Mera Rose: But beyond that, oh gosh, I have so many creative inspirations and some of them are just very recent too, because I think we find inspirations in every day, but Linda Carter, Stan Lee, Leonard Nemoy.

[00:36:39] Halfling: Huh?

[00:36:40] Mera Rose: Um, well, I always loved Spock. 

[00:36:43] Halfling: Mm-hmm. 

[00:36:44] Mera Rose: it ears, no, it was the intelligence. Uhura, Uhura inspired me to learn languages and set me off on quite a path that ended up with me at Dragoncon actually because the people I was hanging out with were also linguists.

[00:36:59] Mera Rose: But, there's too many people to really name and then you get into the people that inspire you in what you do and costume contests, I'd have to say that's people like Diana Tolan and Char, who run two very large, anime competitions and Hime Crunchyroll and cosplay contest of champions.

[00:37:20] Mera Rose: And, then you've got people that inspire me. Just in wanting to do things and do them well. Rachel Reeves is one of the con-chairs for DragonCon. She and her father, Pat Henry and her sister Mandy, put together a fantastic event. They have a lot of help, obviously, but they are a great inspiration for fandom and how well coordinated it can be and how well done these events can be.

[00:37:52] Mera Rose: Marty Gear. Marty Gear is the man that grabbed me and took my hand and said, come on. He was the doctor to me. He said, let's run. And he got me into the I C G, Thomas Wilford, Marty and Thomas, both were very inspirational, especially in the steam punk movements of cosplay. And Thomas, you probably have seen on Steam Punked and other things. And he's just a really amazing creative inspiration and, Marty is the father of modern costuming and cosplay. He is the reason why costume contests run the way they do.

[00:38:33] Mera Rose: He founded the F N C C, the Friday night costume contest at DragonCon. 

[00:38:38] Mera Rose: He had a vision that cosplay was for everyone and that there should be no dividing lines, and he wanted to see unity. In the community, and that's all I did. And I, a lot of what I do is geared towards that. So that's one of the reasons why he is an inspiration.

[00:38:56] Mera Rose: There are a lot of really amazing people in the con community and they're all very inspiring and 90% of their names are not known. They're not celebrities that you're gonna meet and go, oh my gosh. 

[00:39:08] Mera Rose: Although I've met a few of those. 

[00:39:10] Mera Rose: But they're very inspirational as far as people I would like to meet.

[00:39:14] Mera Rose: There's one person I missed at every event I could have met her at, and I can never meet her because she's gone. And that's Carrie Fisher.

[00:39:23] Mera Rose: I was at five separate events with her and I missed her at every single one because I was on other programming content that conflicted. And so I never actually got to meet her face-to-face.

[00:39:34] Mera Rose: But she's one that, If you could back up the wheel of time and I could meet her, that would be it.

[00:39:39] Halfling: She's a good choice.

[00:39:40] Spaceman: Yes, the princess that rescues herself,

[00:39:44] Halfling: Love

[00:39:44] Mera Rose: the general that handles it all.

[00:39:46] Spaceman: That's exactly right. 

[00:39:48] Halfling: One of the things that we wanna do is, and you've really touched on this, quite a bit, so we might just want to go on into the next thing, but we were gonna talk about what actually got you interested in cosplay and how you got involved in it.

[00:40:03] Halfling: But really throughout this conversation, you've sort of , led us through that, but I liked hearing about your grandmother being such an inspiration to you. So that's good to hear. But we've, and we've also touched on the gatekeeping issue.

[00:40:20] Halfling: But one thing that I'm kind of curious about is, we talked about the issue of gatekeeping. What words of advice could you say to someone listening who's thinking about going to a convention and participating in cosplay, but they don't look like the character that they're really into, that they wanna play?

[00:40:41] Halfling: they're hesitant because they're afraid. Somebody's going to say, oh, you're too short, or, you're too fat, or you're not the right ethnicity or whatever. And there's so many reasons that people engage in gate keeping is ridiculous. But what would you say to somebody out there who might want to, but is hesitant because of 

[00:41:00] Halfling: of that?

[00:41:01] Spaceman: Hold on. Halfling. Before you would do it, let me bring my troll voice in you. You don't even look like that character . Sorry. Sorry. Had to bring out 

[00:41:09] Spaceman: my inner troll 

[00:41:11] Mera Rose: You don't have, yeah, you don't have to look like the character to embody the character. You don't have to be a perfect image of what the character looks like to pay homage to the character that you love and respect. There's always gonna be a voice out there, whether it's the one outside of someone saying something horrific or the one inside your own head.

[00:41:33] Mera Rose: When you look in the mirror that says that's not, that doesn't look quite right. What you have to do is you have to look past it and say, I'm doing this character because, And find those things that ground you to that character and then put your own spin on the rest. Because as long as you are you and you are doing, you as the character, you are doing it justice.

[00:42:02] Halfling: That's awesome and great, great advice. 

[00:42:05] Spaceman: That's gonna segue into another question, are there things that you wish you would've known when you really got started in this, that you could pass on wisdom to people that hope to follow in your footstep.

[00:42:17] Mera Rose: Oh, sure. Number one, cosplay is expensive. I had to start a business to support my habit, but that's also its own cautionary tale as well. If you get so into it that you decide, oh, I'm going to do this and take commissions and start a business and have people pay me to make products. Remember, you can burn yourself out. You can burn yourself out very quickly if you do not manage your time and your energy.

[00:42:48] Mera Rose: And also manage expectations. But that's the biggest thing to remember in cosplay anyway, manage your expectations. Everything has a learning curve. You did not learn how to tie your shoes in one day. You are not going to learn how to sew a corset the first time you try. You are not going to learn how to work with thermoplastics and make the most perfect armor set the first time playing with e v a foam, playing with all these chemicals. The first thing you need to do, Is read the warnings. I do a lot of demos on thermoplastics. Back in the early millennia they used to call me the thermoplastics queen, cuz I was out there doing demos everywhere on how to work with very early thermos like, uh, Centra.

[00:43:36] Mera Rose: And then once Warble came along and wonder flex fo shape and one of the first things I do and anyone who's been to one of my panels or demos can tell you is I give you a safety briefing. And I mean a military level safety briefing, you even get the M S D S sheet because some of these things are very, very dangerous and you can hurt yourself even if you don't feel it initially.

[00:44:03] Mera Rose: You can hurt yourself long term if you don't pay attention to them. I tell people also to be very careful if you decide to get into prop making and playing with saws. Cautionary tale. I have a Franken finger from building a Tardis. I had built 25 TARDISes before I ever had a problem. And that's the other thing I caution people against don't work long days.

[00:44:27] Mera Rose: Because if you're putting 16 hours in back to back trying to do this con crunch thing to get ready, you will make a mistake. And in my case, it was a mistake that cost me the tip of my middle finger on my right hand.

[00:44:41] Halfling: wow.

[00:44:42] Mera Rose: been doing it for 25 years. I'd never made that mistake. But it doesn't matter how long you've been doing it, if you're tired, you will find a way to screw it up. The other thing is, if you get to the point of frustration with a project, don't be afraid to walk away from it. Don't be afraid to come back and tear it apart and say, I don't like the way that looks. I'm gonna redo it. That's okay. And when you get up on stage, and this is probably the biggest advice I give to new cosplayers

[00:45:09] Mera Rose: if you decide you're going to enter a costume contest when you get on stage, don't worry about the audience. Don't worry about the judges. Everything they think and they see is gonna be what they think and they see you do you! Enjoy it? Have fun with it and enjoy the experience of it. If you get something at the end, great, but if you don't, that's okay.

[00:45:35] Mera Rose: And that's not a reason not to keep going. No, not, well. I can't say no one ever wins their first costume contest, but it's not very often.

[00:45:45] Halfling: Right, right. that's all good advice and especially the last part about, just ignoring what everybody else may be thinking and just do, like you said. Do you, so that's great advice. We're gonna start wrapping things up a little bit, but what are you doing now?

[00:46:03] Halfling: What are the things that you're doing? Are there any specific projects that you can talk about?

[00:46:09] Mera Rose: Well I have a couple I can't talk about cuz they're under NDAs, but 

[00:46:14] Halfling: well, fair.

[00:46:15] Mera Rose: I do have, of course the page to stage at Dragoncon. We're doing a lot of work right now, getting the characters together and, Choosing the costumers that will be getting invitations. We're also gearing up for the open division.

[00:46:30] Mera Rose: We do run both divisions. The open division does not compete against the invitational division. They are two separate contests that happen at the same time at Dragoncon, on the same stage. And then I'm actually in the process of making some armors, slightly classified on what exactly they are, they will debut at Dragoncon next year.

[00:46:52] Mera Rose: Hopefully all of the children will be with us next year, of course, because of, you know, that wonderful pandemic. We haven't been able to bring everyone with us, the last two, but, we're hoping to all seven of us go as a family and really enjoy, the con together, cosplaying as a family again cuz we haven't been able to do it for the last few years.

[00:47:12] Mera Rose: And then, I've got a couple of community theater productions I'm gonna be working on, and, there's a pretty big move on the horizon for a pretty big project, but it's under an nda, so I can't give you any details on that other than if you really like superheroes. Stay tuned.

[00:47:35] Halfling: Well, I can't speak for him, but I'm into superheroes. I like superheroes. So . 

[00:47:40] Halfling: Well, 

[00:47:40] Spaceman: The only superheroes I like is the outro to Rocky Horror. So, you know,

[00:47:45] Mera Rose: I love Rocky Horror.

[00:47:46] Halfling: oh. We, you know, we used to do Rocky Horror every Friday night, it was either Friday night or Saturday night, at this theater in Greensboro and it's so funny that there's the one scene where Janet, you know, the tree limb that she catches herself on, and the first time I went, I knew that people, you know, like yelled out stuff or whatever.

[00:48:11] Halfling: So I thought I was being really cool and I said, watch out for the tree eating slut

[00:48:18] Mera Rose: Oh, I think that stuck, cuz I've heard that before.

[00:48:23] Halfling: Well, it caught on at that theater, the next time we went every, that was what everybody 

[00:48:28] Spaceman: Yeah. The next weekend everybody was yelling that 

[00:48:31] Mera Rose: That's awesome. I got to be in a few shadow casts of Rocky horror. so I traveled the country quite extensively. One thing we didn't cover is actually the craziness of how I met my husband through fandom.

[00:48:43] Halfling: Oh. 

[00:48:43] Spaceman: Oh, 

[00:48:44] Mera Rose: but,

[00:48:44] Halfling: and no. You 

[00:48:46] Spaceman: gotta, 

[00:48:46] Spaceman: you 

[00:48:47] Spaceman: gotta 

[00:48:47] Halfling: us. Yeah. 

[00:48:47] Halfling: We 

[00:48:47] Halfling: need 

[00:48:47] Halfling: the 

[00:48:48] Halfling: dish.

[00:48:48] Halfling: You gotta 

[00:48:49] Mera Rose: Okay. So so back in 1999. 

[00:48:54] Mera Rose: I got restationed as a he to Washington State.

[00:48:58] Mera Rose: So I was stationed in Bremerton and he was stationed in Bangor, Washington. And there was a little gaming store, in downtown Bremerton. And it's really funny because the night before I had done, back then I did Columbia. Since then, I've done Magenta a couple times. But, I used to enjoy tap dancing quite a bit when I was a kid, so I thought it would be fun to do Columbia.

[00:49:22] Mera Rose: And I rolled my ankle and ended up with a little bit of a sprain. Well, the next day my friends and I went to the SCA events cuz I spent a long time in the sca and I was actually a female fighter on the west coast for a little bit there in the kingdom of An Tir. 

[00:49:39] Mera Rose: And, I went with my ankle all bandaged up and put on my armor and got in there and did my thing and came out and was like, oh, my ankle's really tender and went back to the tent and put on this wonderful, you know, cuz my other side of the family heritage is Scottish. So all of my, heraldry for SCA was Scottish. And, so I put on this really wonderful dress and went to start walking and caught my foot on the hem of the dress and went down and broke my ankle.

[00:50:05] Halfling: Oh Lord. 

[00:50:07] Mera Rose: And so, my friend that I was with and her husband picked me up, carried me to the emergency room, they wrapped my ankle up in a cast, put me back on crutches. And of course here I am in this Renaissance dress. And, the fellow looked at me and said, do you know where we were supposed to go to the gaming store and play World of Darkness tonight? And I was very involved in World of Darkness, LARPing and that kind of thing. That's a whole nother story that never needs to be gone into. I went to the gaming store in an ankle cast in this Scottish dress. and the base called him as we were pulling up and said they needed him on base immediately.

[00:50:43] Mera Rose: And so he dropped me and his wife off. And as I went to get out of the car, here's this guy holding the door for me. And I looked at him and I was like, this is the right place for the larp, right? And he looked at me and he goes, yeah, are you the new storyteller? I said, how did you know? He said, they told me we were getting a new AST , somebody that was involved with the Camarilla group.

[00:51:05] Mera Rose: And I said, yeah. And he said, well, this is a true blurp, you know? And I said, yes, I do know that. And he said, well, after we get done tonight, we're going over to play D&D at Sean's house. You know if you wanna come. I said, oh yeah, that'd be great. Went inside, did the whole thing in an ankle cast in crutches, went to Sean's house afterwards and, looked at, Sean as I'm making my character, and I said, are there any other Drow in the campaign? Because I was playing a Drow bard. And he said, actually, surprisingly there is, and I'm gonna lock you two out on the balcony for a while because we've gotta get the rest of the party where we can actually meet up with you.

[00:51:39] Mera Rose: And I went, oh, okay, great. So here I end up locked out on the back balcony with the other AST who had opened the door for me,

[00:51:47] Halfling: Mm-hmm.

[00:51:48] Mera Rose: rhyming at him in Iambic pentameter for almost three hours. And by the end of it, it was love. And we were stuck 26 years. Uh, 26, no, 23 years later, we're still here.

[00:52:00] Halfling: Yay. Congratulations.

[00:52:01] Halfling: Yay. Congratulations. 

[00:52:03] Halfling: Well, 

[00:52:04] Mera Rose: that's, uh, 

[00:52:04] Mera Rose: that's actually how I met my wonderful geeky husband through fandom.

[00:52:07] Mera Rose: Um, but

[00:52:09] Halfling: that's cool 

[00:52:09] Mera Rose: They actually convinced him to play Frank-N-Furter once. My husband and his youth was a very easily mistaken, Clark Kent clone.

[00:52:19] Spaceman: Oh, okay.

[00:52:20] Mera Rose: Now he looks more like a member of ZZ Top, which is great. We've aged wonderfully together, I'll tell you that.

[00:52:27] Spaceman: Oh, that is awesome. That is so awesome. 

[00:52:31] Halfling: What a great story. And to think you weren't gonna tell it. 

[00:52:36] Mera Rose: well, you know, I always go back and forth on it because people are like, wait, people actually speak and Iambic pentameter? Uh, Yes, there are some of us geeks that are serious Shakespeare geeks.

[00:52:46] Spaceman: Look, I know people that know Klingon and Elven, so Yeah.

[00:52:52] Mera Rose: I might know Elven, Klingon, I've tried and unfortunately because I was a Russian translator for so long, it automatically kicks in between the Russian and the German. I cannot get the Klingon out correctly.

[00:53:03] Halfling: I can imagine that would be difficult, if you have the background with those two languages, and then you try. Yeah, I can see that. I can see.

[00:53:11] Spaceman: All right, so what are the conventions that are on your must attend list?

[00:53:17] Mera Rose: DragonCon 

[00:53:18] Spaceman: Dragoncon? 

[00:53:20] Mera Rose: Mm-hmm. 

[00:53:21] Mera Rose: DragonCon always.

[00:53:22] Spaceman: okay.

[00:53:24] Mera Rose: I have done up to 46 conventions a year. Really up until 2019, 2020, 2019, I paired some down. I think I did 30 that year, somewhere between 30 and 35, but in 2020, of course, everything got put on hold. 

[00:53:41] Mera Rose: Last year or 2021 was actually the first year that I only did three conventions.

[00:53:49] Mera Rose: And it was really interesting because all of a sudden I could breathe.

[00:53:53] Mera Rose: Because between the production schedule for Prop House 40., The farm, all the educational disability, legislative advocacy that I do and my kids, I didn't really have a lot of time for myself ever. And so it was kind of interesting cuz all of a sudden I was like, rediscovering that I had time in my life again.

[00:54:13] Mera Rose: I actually missed MarsCon this year for the first time, and missed RavenCon this year for the first time, which kind of sucked because I really love the people at those two 

[00:54:23] Mera Rose: conventions. So those are kind of on my must go-to list. If I'm gonna be able to make a conventional on that weekend, it's gonna be those two.

[00:54:30] Mera Rose: I also, I love, uh, I will remember the name of it in a minute. LibertyCon, got a chance to go to that one actually for the first time last year and had an absolute blast there. Went toConCarolinas for the first time last year. 

[00:54:46] Mera Rose: and love that. ConCarolinas is probably firmly on my list now.

[00:54:51] Mera Rose: And C2E2, always an amazing show. I always have some footprint and presence at GenCon, New York City Comic-Con or San Diego Comic-Con. Even if I'm not there. We have crews, even if I'm not there. We have crews that go and set up the props and things that we're sending. 

[00:55:09] Mera Rose: So there's always some footprint there, even if I don't make it. I was hoping to get to, home at this year, holiday Mat Sury down in Florida, and that did not work out, so I'm gonna be aiming for that next year.

[00:55:22] Mera Rose: If all things work out and I'm actually down in that Southern way, south of Virginia region, next year I will probably be doing MomoCon. MegaCon, Celebration, a few of the ones that I can do for fun, 

[00:55:39] Mera Rose: And not have to worry about going down and like doing

[00:55:41] Halfling: Yeah. 

[00:55:43] Mera Rose: hardcore costuming, paneling stuff.

[00:55:45] Mera Rose: That said, the rest of my calendar's open. So if you've got an event and you want a cosplay guest, a costuming guest, somebody to come, just sit on panels and explain stuff. I'm happy to do it. So, you know, hit me up

[00:55:59] Halfling: You sleep right at some point. you sleep, please tell me.

[00:56:04] Mera Rose: I think I sleep well. I don't know. I mean, I chugged down 64 to 128 ounces of coffee a day. So, you know, it's, there is one. And my dearest friend, Saska is the fantasy literature track at Dragoncon. She's the director for that. She often introduces me as both the other half of her brain and the chimney that is powered by nothing but caffeine.

[00:56:29] Mera Rose: Because I smoke like a chimney and I drink coffee like it's going out of style. And so there's a very common joke that I don't sleep, but I actually do. I average at least eight hours a night. These days. I'm lucky if I can keep my eyes open past nine.

[00:56:42] Halfling: Mm-hmm. 

[00:56:43] Mera Rose: I had a milestone birthday this year and it got a little harder.

[00:56:48] Halfling: I feel you. I really feel you. So you do so many conventions every year, both larger and smaller conventions. Do you have a preference or is it sort of, you know, you, you enjoy both for different reasons.

[00:57:04] Mera Rose: I think it's actually more that I do enjoy both for different reason. The larger conventions are fun because, you get the kind of larger cosplay visibility, so you get to see more of other people's creativity. You can present your own, there's more response to the creativity that's being presented and you get to meet a much larger variety of people, I feel like, at the big conventions. But the small conventions are amazing too. One of the things that I really loved the most aboutConCarolinas and LibertyCon was actually being able to talk to some of the authors who I loved to read and have those one-on-one conversations without feeling like I was holding up a line of people behind me.

[00:57:46] Mera Rose: I'm a very avid reader and so, like I work with celebrities now on a fairly regular basis, so I don't even register that they're celebrities. Sometimes I'm just like, oh yeah, no no, that's that's James and so when I geek out these days, it tends to be over authors.

[00:58:02] Halfling: Mm-hmm.

[00:58:04] Mera Rose: Which I think is kind of a flip flop in mindset from 20 years ago.

[00:58:08] Mera Rose: I did, makeup assisting on Walking Dead over in Richmond. I dealt with a bunch of celebrities over there, and then they brought the celebrities in at Dragoncon and I was like, eh, hey guys, how you doing? And walked right past 'em and was like, do they have any authors set up in this ar Oh, no they don't.

[00:58:25] Mera Rose: They're downstairs. Oh no, they're in the vendor hall. It can get a little hard to find some of the things that you want in bigger conventions. 

[00:58:34] Mera Rose: So it's nice to be at the smaller ones, especially if there's people you're really interested in meeting, but you also get that kind of nice vibe where it's just like a family.

[00:58:43] Mera Rose: It's not all about the corporate stuff. 

[00:58:45] Mera Rose: One of the things that does drive me a little batty about the con community is how many people are now trying to move in and make money off of the con community not because they actually enjoyed the community, but because there's money to be made in it.

[00:58:59] Mera Rose: And so I get a little frustrated with some of the more corporate aspects of conventions, especially the ones that you can tell are really being run for money because you don't get any kind of experience beyond being a number. And so the smaller conventions give you that. Dragoncon gives you that because they're family owned, they're small, they have a board that makes sure that they're still on track.

[00:59:23] Mera Rose: But I think some of the larger conventions do lose sight.

[00:59:28] Halfling: Yeah, we actually prefer the smaller conventions just because the experience is more intimate and you can really have better connections with people, at the smaller conventions.

[00:59:39] Spaceman: And it doesn't really hurt that I have social anxiety. So you know, the smaller conventions are easier for me to stomach.

[00:59:45] Halfling: Mm-hmm.

[00:59:46] Mera Rose: Oh, I totally understand the social anxiety thing. Fun fact, I was actually diagnosed atypical autistic, when I was nine years old. One of the reasons why I knew how to teach my kids, um, to, you know, in the con community and help them get that experience is because it's how I got it. Social anxiety can be crippling in large events.

[01:00:10] Mera Rose: The trick is to find something that you can really hold onto. That thing that you can focus on that helps get the anxiety under control. And it's different for everybody. For me, when I'm at large events, it's generally me going, oh, I've gotta go here and do content here and do content here and do content.

[01:00:30] Mera Rose: That's one of the reasons why, you know, for instance, last year I think I did almost 30 hours of DragonCon, of content. I can do that there because it's how I focus and how I function through the social anxiety. I actually have a slightly harder time with it if I'm not doing anything at a convention.

[01:00:46] Mera Rose: LibertyCon, I was a fish outta water. I knew like five people there and that was probably the most social anxiety I've had in a con situation in a long time. But it went really well and I met a lot of new people and I had a lot of fun. I don't think that would've been the case if it had been a large event.

[01:01:05] Mera Rose: So I, I get it. I do understand that

[01:01:07] Spaceman: You know, it, it is very strange. Many, many years ago, when we were going to GenCon and Origins, I had absolutely no problem working in the dealer's room or doing panels, because that was my role. But when I was by myself and I had to go out and interact with people, it was completely different.

[01:01:24] Spaceman: So it was, it's one thing to have people come to you and initiate the interaction. It's another thing for you to go to them and initiate the interaction. Luckily we haven't had that problem in a few years. They've mostly done smaller conventions. Matter of fact, this podcast owes its origin to, RavenCon.

[01:01:41] Spaceman: And this year we didn't take any books. We just said, okay, we're gonna see what it's like and we're gonna see what the community's like. And this podcast came out of it. So

[01:01:49] Mera Rose: You know what, Mike and Anita are two of my favorite people in the world. You asked about inspirations. Anita is one of my creative inspirations and when they, had me run the MystiCon costume contest one year and take over for her, and I said I would do it, but I insisted that the only way I would do it, is if they would let me give her an award for all the work she's done for the costuming community.

[01:02:11] Mera Rose: And they let me do it. They are two really amazing, very inspirational people. I love RavenCon. It's one of my favorite

[01:02:18] Spaceman: we, 

[01:02:18] Halfling: we do 

[01:02:19] Halfling: too. 

[01:02:19] Halfling: We do 

[01:02:19] Halfling: too.

[01:02:19] Halfling: Yeah. We actually have Mike, do an episode with us. 

[01:02:22] Mera Rose: I will look forward to hearing that one.

[01:02:24] Halfling: yeah, . 

[01:02:25] Halfling: He was great. We wanna thank you so much for talking with us today. It has been great to get to know you and hear about everything that you're doing.

[01:02:35] Halfling: Thank you again. Where can people find you and find a little bit about what you may be up to? 

[01:02:43] Mera Rose: Well, 

[01:02:43] Halfling: sharing.

[01:02:45] Mera Rose: yeah, sure. There's a few places. I am on Facebook and primarily I think my social media footprint is on Facebook, most of my links can be found on Link Tree, so it's https://linktr.ee/mera.rose. You can find most of my links there, after the first of the year, I will have my own streaming again.

[01:03:08] Mera Rose: We shut it down just before the pandemic because we were so busy, and then I went, oh, I shouldn't have shut it down. I should have kept it going. I would've had something to do over the pandemic

[01:03:18] Mera Rose: and it took a couple years for us to put everything together to get it back up. But, uh, merarose.live, we'll be live sometime in January.

[01:03:26] Mera Rose: And then of course, you can find me, through anything that says Prop House 42. You can locate me at any of those events. And if I'm not there, then shade would be. , but uh, yeah, I do have an Instagram and a Twitter, not checking those as much as I used to. I have also recently created a Mastodon account that I may move over to

[01:03:47] Mera Rose: Not sure how that's all gonna go. The future of social media is really interesting. but yeah, those are the big places. I would say for right now, I am gonna be a judge. Up until this year I have run the big lick Comic-Con costume contest in Roanoke, and I actually gave my notice today because we're focusing so much on page to stage, I don't have time to dedicate to three events next. So I'll be a judge, but I won't be actually coordinating their contest. So, you can find me there in February. Not sure about nova, the B LCC Nova, competition because it falls on a weekend that I may have another obligation, and then of course DragonCon. You can always find me a DragonCon

[01:04:34] Halfling: Okay. Very good. Well, we'll definitely get your contacts on our show notes, because I'm sure that there are people listening who just are fascinated and would love to learn a little more about you. Cuz I know we didn't cover half of it today. So maybe we'll invite ya back for another episode.

[01:04:53] Mera Rose: if you wanna. I'm more than happy to come back on. I will say if you ever decide you wanna do an episode just on the page to stage, I can probably twist Seska's arm to come on at the same time, the two of us are quite fun together.

[01:05:07] Halfling: Oh, 

[01:05:07] Halfling: sure. That that 

[01:05:07] Spaceman: does sound 

[01:05:08] Spaceman: like a 

[01:05:08] Spaceman: great

[01:05:09] Spaceman: episode. Yeah, 

[01:05:10] Halfling: yeah. Yeah. We could certainly do that. 

[01:05:12] Spaceman: yeah, Absolutely.

[01:05:12] Spaceman: Yeah. We'll 

[01:05:13] Spaceman: reach 

[01:05:13] Spaceman: out 

[01:05:13] Spaceman: after 

[01:05:13] Halfling: the 

[01:05:13] Halfling: first of 

[01:05:14] Halfling: the 

[01:05:14] Halfling: year.

[01:05:14] Halfling: Yeah. Yeah.

[01:05:15] Mera Rose: great. Yeah. Because by then we'll have the invitations out and we'll have the characters out and we can talk to you a little bit more about how the process actually goes and what made the committee make the decisions they made this year.

[01:05:26] Halfling: Sounds, sounds like a great episode in 

[01:05:28] Spaceman: It sounds 

[01:05:28] Halfling: Yeah. Sounds like 

[01:05:29] Halfling: fun 

[01:05:29] Halfling: Yeah. 

[01:05:30] Halfling: Yeah. Uh,

[01:05:33] Mera Rose: Well thank you so much for having me on. I really appreciate it. It's been a lot of fun talking to you both

[01:05:39] Halfling: well, we appreciate you taking the time outta your busy schedule. 

[01:05:42] Halfling: Oh, no. Busy

[01:05:44] Halfling: crazy 

[01:05:44] Halfling: busy with a capital B . 

[01:05:48] Mera Rose: Here than others. Yes. But today's actually been fairly calm. I'm amazed I say that. Watch, everything will fall apart as soon as we get off.

[01:05:54] Halfling: Oh, let's hope not. Let's hope. Let's hope not. Fingers crossed. Well we wanna thank our listeners for tuning in today and we hope that you have enjoyed and perhaps become inspired by today's guest. We wanna thank, Mera Rose and give her a huge shout out. And this is the Halfling of Halfling in Spaceman signing out.