*Insert Creaky Floor Sound*

Some thoughts:

Well guys…October officially comes to a close tonight with Halloween night walking across our creaking floors and shutting that creaky door. I’m not much of a celebrator or a decorator, so for me, it’s kind of just another night, but I did have a few things rolling around in my head that I wanted to say. (I can see Emily tensing up and holding her breath right now wondering when and where I am going to come off the rails and just how far off those rails I’m going to go) Fear not, my friend…I think I’ll be ok.

Losing #EDE2020 was a kick in the gut for all of us here. We’d held out as long as we could before we had to make the official announcement that it was going to wind up #EDE2021. I think that, in the back of our heads, we knew that there was not going to be another choice, but…hope springs eternal, right? As with all of your reading this, we had to make all of our adjustments and undo all of the plans that we’d made – both to the event itself and in spaces in our personal lives that were affected by it. As those of you who’ve been around a while now know, we are scattered to the four (or three) winds with Shanna in the LA area, Emily in the UK and me in Buffalo, NY (I can see the connection to my nickname falling into place for some of you now). We’d all planned vacation time around this, made accommodations and flight arrangements around it, started investing in merch and signage and all the things that we’d need to make this an event.

I think that one of the things that hit the hardest was that this was going to be the first time that all three of us were going to, physically, be together in the same place at the same time. As much as we had (and continue to have) hours and hours together in Skype or Zoom or whatever conferencing app suited what we needed at the time, it could never take the place of sitting down in person and having a meal and a beer. Don’t get me wrong, our meeting are pretty fun…we spend about 20% of the time doing actual work and planning and about 80% of the time laughing with and at each other…but it loses something when the video hitches or the audio cuts somebody off.

But, I digress (as usual)

While a lot of things about this postponement sucked – big – I am often struck by the positives that came from it. We’ve expanded our little trio into a quintet (we’ll get to that a little later), we got to meet more of you guys and strike up friendships, we got to kick around some new ideas for #EDE2021, refine some of the ones we already had and we got to bring a few of you guys into the lives of a few more of you guys. And I, for one, think that’s pretty effin’ cool.

So, what’s this all got to do with the price of pumpkins on the farm? Well, I’ll tell you…

I don’t do a whole lot of engaging on social media. I do take over the Twitter account when Emily is indisposed or busy or taking care of any of the various and sundry things that life throws at all of us all the time, but, for the most part, I am more a lurker than a poster. What I’ve seen this past month has, honestly, warmed the cockles of my heart.

When we knew that we weren't be going to be able to pull of #EDE2020, we decided that we wanted to do other things to keep us connected to you guy and to each other. We had a few hangouts, a game day (man oh man, I can still see few of you bolting from your chairs during the scavenger hunt and it makes me laugh every time I think about it), as few giveaways here and there and formed a few partnerships. As the fall approached, we came up with one of our October ideas - a Wynonna Earp themed pumpkin carving contest, we reached out to you guys to help us with the stencils. Without any demands of her own, @Earp_Peacemaker stepped up and said she’d be happy to help and in time, she produced the 20 images that we’d handed out to more than 40 of you guys, some of whom requested more than one. When we announced our virtual trick or treating, we had 2 dozen Earpers scattered throughout five countries step forward to participate. I think that’s pretty amazing.

Guys, seeing you post pictures of those carvings and those trick or treat boxes…maaaaan….it really does give me a warm fuzzy feeling that’s hard to describe, because it’s just so goddamn much to wrap my head around. All of the crap that we’ve been handed by 2020…all of the chaos and the quarantine and the turmoil…all of that and Earpers still manage to find ways to bring joy into the lives of people who are strangers to them. How amazing is that? How amazing is it that there are people willing to step out of their own lives for a minute to 100% do something for somebody else? If you ask me – and I’m well aware that nobody did, thank you very much – I think it’s pretty flippin’ amazing.

Now, I am also seeing people stress about not feeling like they’re good enough in some way or another…they aren’t good pumpkin carvers, they “should” have done more somehow, and to that I can only say don’t. You guys are good enough, you guys DO do enough. I know that sometimes this fandom has its fights and its squabbles and its disagreements, but this fandom also has kindness and friendship and humor and unity and fun and that’s what I’m choosing to focus on. I’m choosing to focus on the silliness and bantering and support and love and encouragement that I see in one form or another almost every single day.

So, for those of you guys who played along with our October fun, thank you. For any small part you played, for any large part you played, thank you. For those of you who didn’t? That’s ok too! If you got a smile from a carving somebody posted or a picture of a trick or treat box…haha! We got you too! You’re now a part of the fun and silliness that we hope becomes the hallmark of being an Earper and one of the pillars of #EDE2021

Fear not, ladies and gentlepeople, we are SO not done with our Earp-tivites….hell we’re just getting started………….