First of all, let’s put up the super fun link to Chris Cornell’s pictures. It was great to see him and Sean again, and to expand our knowledge of VPers past. Our t-shirt is the best one. I’m just sayin’.
So, I’m back, and for the first time in like, four days, I’m not sleep depped. I never did make a reasonable transfer to Pacific time, and we threw daylight savings into the mix, and, well, big time yawn! The latest I stayed up any night was to hang out with VP Peeps Friday, and that was 2:30 am Iowa time.
I didn’t go to any other parties. I couldn’t do it. I was bumping into furniture as it was. Okay, I made it to Jay Lake’s cheese party, but it was 4 in the afternoon, so that helped.
What did I think? In a nutshell, if you have business connections, or it’s the only place where you can see some of your buddies, World Fantasy will be useful to you. As far as conventions go, the panels were not gripping (perhaps because the program came out late, there was little time to organize. I also have a high level of expectation, coming from academia, where panels are usually well organized.). The dealers room was fine. The readings were truly fine.
If you are a beginning writer, looking for a way to get included in the community, this is probably not for you. It’s not the place to make a casual writing acquaintance, so I think a newbie might be uncomfortable there. There also isn’t a great deal of writing instruction on the panels, and the topics are kind of generic. For such a large con, there’s only two tracks of programming as well.
What’s a newbie to do? I’d recommend Wiscon, and although I haven’t tried it, I hear Readercon is also pretty good. I may well try Readercon next year as I seek out other places to meet new writers.
I think I expected World Fantasy to be more expo-ey, and it was not. I imagine it’s a stop I’ll make again as my writing career expands, but I’m not sure I don’t do more networking on the Internet than I did there, and of course, it costs boatloads less to do it from behind this screen.
It also doesn’t help that Viable Paradise was a close bonding experience, because it set the bar higher than World Fantasy could have delivered at this point.
That said, the experience was not without its merits, and I am happy to detail them. But you may not wish to read my personal adventures, so I will judiciously use the cut.
I knew three things going into the con.
1.) I would see my good buddy Julie Rose, and even if the con was a total loss, we’d have fun. And we did. We spent a great deal of time, especially on Saturday, talking and bonding. It was awesome. Julie also took me to lots of lovely restaurants, but my fave was the wonderful Cuban place she took me to Saturday night. Thank you, Julie. You, alone, would have been worth the trip.
2.) I would meet up with Chris Cornell, Sean Craven, and Christopher Kastensmidt at the VP meet up. That was as cool as I expected it to be. We all wore our shirts, we all basked in VP XIIIer auras.
The other VPers present were awesome folks, and it looks like we’ve joined a grand tradition. I’ve added a few of you to my friends list, and I’m glad we had a chance to meet.
3.) The third thing was business-y. I had a chance to meet up with the Almost Agent. Even though we only made it to third base (figuratively, not literally), he was happy to hook up and have some conversation. He is still waiting for my next project, and he still seems very interested in me. Nothing’s changed, or has been formalized, but it’s nice to have that interest confirmed, and makes me want to work super hard this month on getting the troll book out to him in January.
Things that happened that I didn’t plan, but were swell.
1.) I knew I would be rooming with Shelly Rae Clift. She was really good company. I’d do that again.
2.) Coincidentally, I finished Norse Code and met Greg Van Eekhout at the same time. And I heard him read a piece of Kid Versus Squid. VERY funny writer. As a funny person myself, I truly appreciated his offbeat sense of humor. I’m a fan now. Hurry up and publish something else.
3.) Also heard E. C. Myers read a very good story, Superman homage. I want that to come out soon so I can read the rest. Eugene and I had a very good conversation as I continue to do research into agencies as well. Thanks for taking the time to help me with my research, Eugene!
4.) Catherine Cheek read a pretty good short story too, part of the Leonardo Variations, a Clarion fundraiser soon near you.
5.) J. Kathleen Cheney both organized and read at the Broad Universe Rapid Fire Reading Saturday night. It was good to see her too.
6.) Jay Lake had me over for cheese.
7.) Wendy Delmater shared the Abyss and Apex anthology with me, and recommended a good story.
Things I wish had been different.
1.) Jet lag totally walloped me. I don’t usually have that much trouble, but I have been working like a dust devil, and it’s been a month, so maybe that’s why. As a result, I missed two out of three morning walk opportunities, and I blinked like an owl. A lot.
2.) There doesn’t seem to be a number two at this time.
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If you’d like a more candid description, feel free to shoot me an email.
Catherine
The next time we see each other at the coffee shop, we’ll have to put down the dueling laptops and talk.
Yeah, I wouldn’t suggest World Fantasy as a first con. I keep hearing good things about Wiscon and keep putting it on the calendar and then end up not going (mostly economics).