WFC 2010

I never know how to write up a con.  The long list of names is rather dry, and I obsess over whether or not I forgot someone.  A detailed blow-by-blow is a bit much for anyone who didn’t attend.  I could do a photo album, but that’s a lot for a blog post.  (I’ve posted pics on Facebook in the WFC album. A few are also up on Twitpic.)  So maybe I’ll just do a highlights reel.

Free book haul: Awesome.

Agents and Editors: Getting to meet Eddie and Jessie from JABberwocky?  Awesome.  Jessie came bearing contracts from France and a fan letter from Germany, which pushed the awesome up to eleven.

And I finally to meet Sheila Gilbert and Betsy Wolheim from DAW.  I spent many enjoyable hours with them and the rest of the DAW family, and oh yes, they spoiled me rotten 🙂

My Reading: I headed over about 15 minutes early and waited in the hallway, and all of these people kept showing up to wait with us.  After a while, I finally asked, “How many of you are here for my reading?”  I figured maybe Esther Friesner was doing a panel, or some other big name had something going on opposite my reading.

Everyone raised their hands.  We filled the freaking room!

And this was before everyone finished filtering in.  At the risk of overusing the word, it was indeed awesome.  My thanks to everyone who showed up!

Barcon: The bar frightened me.  So many authors and editors and agents and others packed together, spilling out into the passages…  I strayed into the edges of the bar scene once or twice, then fled screaming, the introversion circuits of my brain popping and sparking like a Mythbusters 4th of July experiment.

Avoiding Barcon: So I mostly dodged the bar and hung out elsewhere.  Had lovely lunches with Deanna Hoak and Marie Brennan.  Several nice chats with Laura Resnick.  Got to play a bit with the Buckell twins, who both gave me baby fistbumps before I left.  I loved these smaller conversations.

Mass Autographing: I missed most of the mass autographing, and I feel really bad about that.  The autographing was at 8:00.  But DAW had invited a few of us to dinner at 7:00, and the restaurant had lost the reservation, so it took 15-20 minutes just to get seated.  I apologize to anyone who was looking for me at the signing.  Please understand that I wanted to be there, and it’s all DAW’s fault.  They forced me to eat delicious lasagna.  I remember saying “Oh please stop giving me this wonderful chocolate and let us go to the signing“, but you know publishers…

The Voyage Home: All too soon, it was Sunday, time for Catherine Shaffer and I to head back so I could get home in time for Trick or Treating.  We were both exhausted, and had a very giggly drive in which we discussed everything from obscene puppetry to certain people’s plans to save the world to the fact that Doselle Young is an alien.  To thank me for driving, she treated me to White Castle.

Yeah.  Next time she can just walk 😛

This was a very different experience from my last WFC in 2002.  I actually knew people this time, and was known by even more, which is still a little disconcerting. I got to meet and talk to so many wonderful people.  Even though I’m completely exhausted, I wish I had been able to stay longer so I could have spent more time with everyone.

But hey, WFC in Toronto is just two years away….