I Went To A Convention

So, I went to a convention this weekend. (Pure Speculation, by the way, is a blast every year.)
I guess by now it's kind of a thing I do. I got to meet some really interesting people, but more than that this was really a year of reconnecting with people. I got to see all the Convention Friends that I only see when con season rolls around, and I ran into a dear friend I hadn't seen for months. I spent a lot more time socializing than I did actually attending panels!

Oh I know, I know, it's dreadful. But, I went to some wonderful panels on sex and gender issues in speculative culture, including a really surprising talk on sex and videogames from Bioware's head writer David Gaider. And then despite knowing I had to give a reading from Tesseracts 15 the next morning, stayed up until like 4 AM with my friend talking about our hopes and dreams like sitcom characters in the series finale. Except it didn't, you know, end.

The reading went wonderfully! Shen Braun, who I met for the first time that weekend (and who was Tess15's third first-timer), gave a really fantastic reading. Kind of glad he went right after me, because if I'm any good at this horror thing, then maybe the audience could have used the kind of laughs they got hearing him say "HALLOWEEN" in big verbal capslock. "Feral" made me choke up a bit even though Nicole and I always give readings together so I've even got her delivery memorized! ("Oh, does he?!") I don't think that one will ever stop choking me up. And of course Kate Boorman was there delivering her flawless futurism. She's got just such an ace grasp of slang.

And then Victor told me to get him "something fatty" from Wendy's so I brought him a Baconator.

Basically I spend the weekend acting like a bigshot, and now it's time for me to get back to work on this novel editing! I re-read it (I wrote it in 2009) and while it's pretty strong, damned if it's not obvious the thing was written in a month. Gotta think my plots through to the point where I don't have to write "Or something, I dunno" in the margins with red pen.

Since I wanna do a lot of audio content in here (because I love the sound of my own voice), I'm going to read a section from the novel I'm editing! I'll upload it when I'm less groggy. Because I need to learn not to stay up that late before I do readings.