Rethinking that Con Thing

Courtesy of Julia Rios, you too can use your phone to do amazing things.

a photo taken of the VP XIII reunion at Readercon.

*blinks*

It’s been 3 days since I started this post. I had a faboo weekend with my family of choice, but yeah, my extrovert battery got hit pretty hard, so I’m only just getting back into the swing of extrovert things.

And work today…well, after a week’s vacation, I really couldn’t expect any better than 31 phone messages and 147 emails. Because that’s just the way the English department rolls.

So…anyway, let’s get back to the subject at hand, which is rethinking that Con thing.

Readercon was fun. It was a con. I saw some friends and enjoyed seeing others from afar. I attended valuable panels, and I burned out and skipped panels I hoped to see. It was a pretty typical con experience for me–highs, low, and the impossibility of doing it all, but enjoying most of what I did.

Except there was something unusual that has never happened to me at a convention before.

And if you don’t want to read on, I’ll cut this here. But if you do, especially as regards writer’s retreats and VP XIII-ness, you may want to click.

Continue reading “Rethinking that Con Thing”

Prep

It’s 2:00. I’ve managed, in the six hours, I’ve been up, to do everything that I had to do today, so in theory I should be ready to write.

I’m packed for Readercon, although I need new tennis shoes, and we’ll take care of that soon. I’ve balanced the checkbook, paid the bills, ordered a boat load of BBQ goodies for the family reunion, tried (and failed) to make Norwegian food reservations for Nordic Fest, eaten lunch, worked out with the Wii (I can walk any freakin’ Wii tight rope flavor you got!)

VERY pumped about this trip. VP Dinner on Friday. Woot.

***

VP Reading Sunday at 11 am!! Here are the details:

VT Viable Paradise Group Reading. Tiffani Angus, George Galuschak, Claire Humphrey, Jennifer Pelland, Julia Rios, Catherine Schaff-Stump (+host),. Viable Paradise alumni read from their speculative works. (60 min.)

Additionally, Chang Terhune is reading. Three of us are from VP XIII, three from the VP XII, and Jennifer Pelland is queen of VP alums. Come hear us.

All righty, then. Writing. See some of you soon.

Catherine

Reunions

I’m at work for a couple of hours this morning, trying to get a few things out of the way before I’m out of the office UNTIL THE 19TH OF JULY!!! Yeah, baybee!

A-hem. This is the time of year that two very important reunions are on my radar screen.

1. Readercon. It’s my first reader con, but I’m going to see, lessee, Miranda, Kat, George, Julia, and Lisa. There will be SIX VP XIII’ers there. That’s damned close to a quorum. There will be MUCH cavorting, I assure you.

Add to the mix several author friends, a chance to meet more VP alums, the VP reading on Sunday, some of the Codex Writers, and a programming schedule that looks really relevant. Also, I get to see one of my oldest costuming friends and my best friend from school in Japan on Thursday night.

The only thing that will be lacking is the husband.

2. Cath’s Family Reunion. I am concerned about our park being flooded, given the constant rain, but we’ll be watching that carefully. If all else fails, it’ll be at our home.

About 40 “relatives” will join us Saturday, July 17th, in a celebration of all things that a family should be. All of these wonderful people, and I get to spend an afternoon feeding them and hanging out.

Everyone should look this forward to their reunions.

So. Tomorrow I may not get here. I have packing, and some advanced writing to do. If I don’t, I will happily see you on the other side, with some Readercon reporting.

Catherine