World Fantasy Convention

I'm back, in the immortal words of Sean Astin. (What, you never noticed I was gone?)

World Fantasy Convention, Tempe, Arizona--just down the street from Arizona State. It was in the Mission Palms, a fancy resort hotel right in the middle of studentland, ergo lots and Lots of great, cheap places to eat in the area, and a lot of things to see if you're tourist-minded. The hotel was superb. Nice rooms, but the function space was the best--a beautiful courtyard with palm trees and fountain, and the function rooms were off that, all lined up and easily accessible. It was a very accessible con. Good restaurant, nice bar, great lobby. Not much partyage, but I arrived in the party suite Saturday night just as Security got there. Yep, that was the Tor party.

But that's getting ahead of myself. I left Friday morning in a rather nasty mood, not wanting to drop the MIP and go off to play, but I had to. It had been a bitter night with rain, but the morning was bright and clear, and the horses were in fine shape. I headed over to casacorona to join the Tor Bus for a ride up to Tempe. Got there around 1:30 after a stop for lunch, and one adrenaline rush when a huge roll of bubble wrap boinged off a truck in the middle of I-10 at 65mph, in fairly heavy traffic, right around Chandler. There were no accidents, by a miracle.

Arrived, discovered my roommate was not allowed to check in because my card reserved the room. Sorted that out. Caught up with roommate, whom I had not met before--Alison Hentges, a romance writer and writer's-group buddy of Tucson fantasy writer and longtime fan Frances Gross (who was also there with husband Brian). Saw janni, lnhammer, also eventually klwilliams, equesgal, connerybeagle's mom, and many others. Sadly, lrcutter had to leave suddenly after receiving news that her mother had died--I didn't get to see her. :(

We leaped right into the convention. I never did make the panels I wanted to see--hit the Dealer's Room and touched base with various dealers including Willow, who was in splendid fettle, then Alison and her friend Pam and I hung out in the bar until I had to join the LUNA authors for dinner. msagara was there, along with Sue Krinard (whose alternate Alexander fantasy, Shield of the Sky, just came out) and new author Maria Snyder. We had planned this as a social excursion, but Our Editor, Long May She Reign, Mary-Theresa Hussey, had made it to the con and came along, so it turned into a publisher dinner. We went for Mexican--Macayo's--and a great time was had by all. Good news for the LUNA line, it's doing well and they're looking ahead to 2007. :)

After dinner was the mass autographing. I went expecting to sign a few books and then go hang with old friends. It was a rather odd signing--tables in the courtyard, lots of them, and little battery lamps. We were signing basically in the dark. Lots of people groping and peering, and signatures were shall we say a tad bit scrawly.

I signed hundreds of books. I mean it. Two hours with barely a break--and the main one I took was for Beth Gwinn to do a Locus photo. They came in by cartloads. I was there longer than Steve Donaldson. Ah, the egoboo!

And damn I needed it.

So endeth rock the first.

WFC, Rock Number Two

Saturday was the big day for me. Breakfast with Jennifer Roberson--one of my favorite people (and authors), whom I hadn't seen in a while. We had a lot of catching up to do. After breakfast I hung out in the lobby with assorted cool people (we were the Cool People), including lnhammer and aereon whom I hadn't seen in years and was delighted to see. We all split at noon for our various lunch engagements. Mine was with Matrice, a private all-about-me meeting after the group dinner the night before. (note to self and smoemeth re. Macayo's desserts--chocolate cheescake burrito. Killer. It's All msagara's Fault.)

We trucked on down to a place called My Big Fat Greek Restaurant, which had a certain theme-park air but had wonderful food and was a great place to sit and talk. We talked for over two hours. She's Irish, too. Need I say more? I saw the cover for Song of Unmaking--not as stunning as the first cover but lovely and vibrant and will work very well. lynnesite will plotz. The horse on it is Ember.

I had to run after lunch--was meeting state librarian GladysAnn Wells (whom I met in April) at 2. She wasn't a member of the con, but they weren't checking badges, so I took her to the Dealer's Room and the Art Show--she loved that--and then we sat in the bar and talked until she had to go home and feed her horses.

Took an hour's break then, before heading down to find Alison and her friend Denise and spend some time hanging out before the Dealer's Room closed. We ended up spending most of the time at Willow's tables. A beautiful Celtic-knotwork bracelet with a deep, clear cabochon amethyst curled up on my wrist and refused to leave. Alison committed tourmaline bracelet and earrings, and a gorgeous, incandescent chalcedony ring. Denise (a medievalist and romance writer) went straight bananas--gold ring with smoky citrine, and massive silver ring with blue topaz. We helped Willow shut down for the night, then trekked out to find dinner. Ended up back at the Greek restaurant, which turned out to be a great choice again. We definitely had the best dinner group at the con. :) And the lamb souvlaki was awfully nice, too.

Again I had to run to the memorial for kathlaw in connerybeagle's mom's suite. It was a touching and sometimes funny, sometimes very sad gathering, and I think was a good tribute. Most of the attendees were lj users--and nearly all of us are on lj because of Katherine. Afterwards I saw pictures of connerybeagle his very own self, then essayed the Tor party briefly, but it was 'way too loud and crowded and I was tired.

More rock forthcoming....

WFC, Third Rock (from the Sun)

Sunday was fairly hectic, too. Breakfast with Alison, talking much about the state of the genre and the writing life in general. Then my panel at 11: Dressing the Warrior. One panelist was AWOL. Jules (J. Ardian Lee)--an old GEnie-ite like so many of us--and I put on a two-woman show, ably assisted by members of the audience. I had to run from there to the room, change into banquet clothes, then run back down to check out and stow bags before the awards banquet.

There was still time--ah, woe--for one last Willow run. The Egyptian lotus necklace with the shimmering blue-and-green black opal followed me home. Bad. Bad bad bad.

Then off to the banquet, where I was sitting at one of the Tor tables. The food amazed us by being excellent. Four separate menu choices with different salads and desserts--and good wines. Impressive. I had herbed chicken with vegetables, Caesar salad with fresh parmesan, and a chocolate bombe for dessert, and a quite nice small-vineyard pinot noir. It was a serious meal--I'm still full.

The banquet was lovely. Short. Sweet. No long speeches. Standing ovation for Betty Ballantine as Publisher GoH--in some ways she's the mother of us all. papersky won for Best Novel, with much rejoicing. Another popular choice was Greer Gilman for Best Novella.

That was it for the con, except for hanging in the lobby for a while with various congenial people. Then back to the Tor Bus and on down to Tucson. I was home and hugging ponies by 8 p.m.

It was a very good con, and in spite of the deadline interruption and overall stress leading up to it, it was Worth It. I hadn't been to a con in many years, and I realized how much I'd missed it--and how much I needed it for my self-confidence. Not to mention the networking aspect.

So, thumbs up all around, and an overall Very Good Thing.