Wyoming Pop Culture Con 2025: A Recap

October 4 and 5 marked my second time as a vendor at Wyoming Pop Culture Con, and the first time I’ve been able to do the same event 2 years in a row. (I would have loved to go back to some of the other events I’ve done in the past for a second year, but life hasn’t cooperated in that department until now.)

This particular event is held in Casper, WY, which is a 3 ½ hour drive north of where I live. That means it’s a more expensive event for me to attend; in addition to the table fee, I also have to book a hotel room and consider the cost of fuel to drive there and back. When I attended last year, I took a small loss (due to the hotel room), but I felt it was worth going to for the exposure. I also have an uncle and some cousins who live in Casper, and it’s always good to see them when I can.

I was expecting the same result this year, but I was happy to be wrong (I came away with about $40 profit. It’s not much, but it’s better than being in the red.) But the real highlights of this year’s con came from the people who came to my table. One of those interactions made my weekend—and was worth the trip to Casper all by itself.

This was also the first event I’ve done where I could use my new Wraith and the Revolution banner. It looks great!

The best fan interaction of the event

Someone came to my table the first day because his wife had bought a copy of Exile for him at last year’s event. He told me he purchased Guardian on his own later. When he found out I was going to be at the con again this year, he made a point to come specifically to see me—and to buy the next book in the series. He told me that I was the only reason he came to the event.

This is the first time I’ve ever had someone I don’t know personally come to an event to see me. I honestly didn’t expect this to happen—not now, and probably not ever. I’m just an author who writes about dragons and cyborgs and Scorpion Men… I’ve never considered that someone would go to a convention specifically to see me. I love my stories, but I’m always second-guessing myself, always uncertain if they’re “good enough.”

Then something like this happens, and it’s the most incredible feeling in the world. I don’t know the man’s name, but he made my weekend. If he happens to read this, I want to say that I’m so grateful he took the time to stop by—and that his wife took the gamble to buy him one of my books to begin with. These interactions mean the world to me as an author.

Networking

My table was placed next to an author who is also the president of the Wyoming Writers Inc organization, Millie Copper. She had so much information to share, and it was really great talking with her. On the other side of my table was another indie author who writes mostly urban fantasy-romance, Jaydine Krinchov, who was really sweet and a local from Wyoming. The event was busy enough that I didn’t get much time to wander from my table, but the little bit of networking I did manage was great.

Wyoming Itself

I’m not going to lie; the drive north from my hometown of Loveland, Colorado to Casper is long and relatively boring. Once you’re about 40 minutes north of Loveland, the landscape flattens out and there isn’t much to see. North of Cheyenne, there aren’t even that many towns until you get to Casper (and that’s over 100 miles away.)

But here’s something very few people know: Some of that Wyoming landscape inspired the Dragonlands in my Caein Legacy series. The flatness of the Wyoming plains is broken up on occasion by buttes, and it’s that feature that led me to create the massive plateau that is the Dragonlands. I took the buttes and scaled them up significantly, threw in a little magic, and the Dragonlands were born.

(Apologies for the slightly blurry photos here. I took these as my husband was driving, and it was raining that day.)