About the Con
Close Quarters is a Professionals slash con. The focus is on Bodie/Doyle, but my aim is for the con to be "gen friendly" and to welcome all fans of The Professionals. It will be a small, relatively informal con - probably between 30 and 50 people - and will take place entirely in one mid-sized meeting room in the hotel - the "con suite." There will be panels, games, art, a vid show, and hopefully some dealers, and everything will be in the con suite.
All events and programming, and even the items for sale by dealers, will focus on Pros - this is definitely intended to be a single fandom con.
And now for a little background.... The seeds of CQ were planted when I went to my first SHareCon (a Starsky & Hutch slash con) in October 2004. I was impressed by the spirit I felt at that con and just tranfixed by the idea of a single-fandom con. I wanted one of those for my fandom.
Over the last two years I nurtured the seeds of that idea. My obsession with Pros and Bodie and Doyle has grown ever deeper. Bodie and Doyle have burrowed their way deep inside me, to that place that all slashers recognize, where I dream about those guys, they live in my head, I just can't get enough of them no matter what I do - I want pictures, I want stories, I want discussion, I want squeeing with fellow fans, I want more more more more more. I'm just deeply, terminally hooked. And I know I'm not alone!
And after attending a Pros con in the U.K., I discovered the utter bliss, the amazing freedom and joy, of being able to talk about nothing but Pros, to sprinkle all my comments with references to stories or episodes, to relate everything I said in some way back to Pros, without worrying at all about whether I was boring anyone or being rude by talking continuously and exclusively about my fandom!
And so the idea of a Pros con here in the U.S. became more and more irresistible to me: a place where fans could gather for a few days to talk and think about nothing but Pros, where I could immerse myself in Pros and spend three days doing nothing but thinking and talking endlessly, ceaselessly, to my heart's content, about the things that obsess me most with those who share that obsession. I tossed the idea around a lot and found I had the support and encouragement of friends and fellow fans, who made me believe it was doable - and promised me their help! *g*
Thus Close Quarters was born. My hope is that this con will capture the essence of what I love about this fandom and will be imbued with the spirit that first captivated me at SHareCon: enthusiastic and friendly, warm and welcoming, happy, harmonious, passionate, with a broad sense of history and a deep and abiding love for the show, the fandom, and above all, of course, for Bodie and Doyle. My dream is of a weekend of laughter and a little lunacy, one where all of you who are attending feel that incomparable con feeling, that you are somewhere where you absolutely belong and there's nowhere on earth you'd rather be at that moment - a con that, after it's over, makes you smile whenever you think of it.
But of course, I can't do it alone - and what's more, I wouldn't want to. Please, all of you out there who share this passion, this obsession - or who used to, or who want to - come, join the party, share the joy, feed that obsession, see old friends and meet people you've only ever "spoken" with online. Whether you've been to a hundred cons before or none at all, it doesn't matter - you'll be welcome, and with any luck (and lots of hard work!), you'll have an unforgettably wonderful time.
I hope to see you there ...
Justacat
xxxxxx
