World Fantasy Convention
Oct. 31st, 2004 09:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dancinghorseI'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![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
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). Sawjanni, 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.
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.
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no subject
Date: 2004-11-01 06:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-01 01:50 pm (UTC)Heh. The more things change, the more they stay the same. I just read your entries in reverse over morning tea -- sounds like it was a blast. Wish I could have made it this year....
no subject
Date: 2004-11-02 12:15 am (UTC)Sue