First off, because it is awesome: A crocheted Jig the Goblin. (Crocheted Smudge the Fire-spider is also pictured.) This officially makes socchan my favorite person of the week.

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I’m off to ConFusion for the weekend, where I have the honor of being Toastmaster. Basically, I get to MC the opening ceremonies and introduce our various amazing guests, including Pat Rothfuss, Harley Thronson, Tom Smith, Roxanne King, Peter Brett, Joe Abercrombie, Brett Weeks, and Robin Hobb. Those are just the guests of honor, mind you. Check out some of the other authors who’ll be in attendance. It is indeed epic.

So is my schedule, which looks roughly like this:

Friday

7:00 pm - I Suck! In which various authors compete in good fun to play “dueling suck.” I’m excited about this one, which I proposed after joking around with Pat Rothfuss at ConFusion last year. If all goes well, it should be mightily entertaining. Jim C. Hines [M], Patrick Rothfuss, John Scalzi, Scott Lynch, Joe Abercrombie.

8:00 pm - Opening Ceremonies I’m actually a bit nervous about this one. I blame Howard Tayler, who did his Toastmaster gig at Penguicon last year in a tuxedo. How can I top that? (I do have an idea or two…)

Saturday

10:00 am - Jim C. Hines Kaffeeklatsch I’ve never actually kaffeeklatsched before, so this should be interesting. It’s in the Concierge Lounge, and it looks like you need to sign up at OPS if you’re interested. I’m thinking about bringing dust jackets for Libriomancer to sign and hand out. What do you think?

11:00 am - Reading with Me and Kristine Smith Kristine and I will be reading our stories from The Modern Fae’s Guide to Surviving Humanity.

1:00 pm - Science in Fantasy Jason Sanford [M], Catherine Shaffer, Jim C. Hines, Cindy Spencer Pape.

4:00 pm - Care and Feeding of the Writer Elizabeth Bear [M], Jim C. Hines, Catherine Shaffer, Gretchen Ash, Robin Hobb.

5:00 pm - Mass Autographing

Sunday

11:00 am - Future of Publishing Roxanne Meida King [M], Jim C. Hines, Rick Jackson.

1:00 pm - Women in Combat Carrie Harris [M], Jim C. Hines, Scott Lynch, Kristine Smith, Kameron Hurley.

3:00 pm - Closing Ceremonies

And then I come home and collapse on the couch. This doesn’t even include things like barcon time or the Dungeons and Dragons game I’ll be playing in along with various other author guests. I wonder if they’ll let me play a goblin…

I’m really excited about this con. I’ve been going to ConFusion for roughly a decade now, and the con has just gotten bigger and better. Can’t wait to see everyone!