Back from Austin

Well, the periphery of Austin, at least. I still can’t honestly say I’ve been to the state capital city. That’s the way it is with conferences. They might as well be held out in the middle of nowhere.

I arrived at the con hotel at 12:30 am Friday after a 2-1/2 hour drive following Citizen’s Police Academy. I was worried I’d be disturbing Darren Speegle, my roommate, but I needn’t have worried—he didn’t arrive at the room until 3:30! We joked yesterday that we might have roomed together for three days, but we were barely in the room together at the same time for more than about 5 hours total.

The convention was fun. I went to more readings than panels, I’d say. Peter S. Beagle, Graham Joyce, Tom Monteleone, Jeffrey Ford, Charles de Lint, Laura Ann Gilman, all of them highly enjoyable. Graham read from a work-in-progress, and I can’t wait to read the novel when it’s ready. I’d forgotten that de Lint was Canadian, but I knew it the minute he opened his mouth. He’s the only person I’ve ever seen reading from a PDA. I’d heard several people raving about Jeffrey Ford, and I’m really glad I went to his reading. An amazing story that completely defies summarization, one that I don’t believe I’d ever be capable of writing. I picked up a copy of his new collection, Empire of Ice Cream and I look forward to reading it.

The registration goodie bag was as well stocked as I’ve come to expect from WFC. Many, many free books. Got a copy of Brian Keene’s Conqueror Worms among the batch. I bought a few books, including Move Underground by Nick Mamatas and 4 Fear Of with stories by Keene, Chizmar, Monteleone and Freeman, signed by all the contributors.

Got to meet many folks I’ve never had the pleasure of seeing face-to-face before (several Shockliners, for example), plus reconnected with lots of folks I know through other cons (NECON-ers). Was introduced to the famous editor of an equally famous science fiction magazine. When I shook hands and said, “I’m Bev Vincent,” he immediately responded, “No, you’re not.” I guess he had me confused with someone else, but it was a funny, surreal moment. “Yes, I am. I’ve got the rejection letters from you to prove it,” I responded. I won’t name-drop all the people I talked with because I’ll probably forget some. You all know who you are.

The con hotel was nice, but cold. Often it was warmer out in the parking lot than in the lobby. There were, of course, parties galore, but I’m not a big fan of hypercrowded hotel suites. It’s not a claustrophobia issue, simply a matter of acoustics and mobility (or lack thereof) and heat. Usually I went in for a beer or two and then moved on somewhere else, like the lobby bar, which was also crowded but at least it had an open side for the overflow. I didn’t stay up very late, usually no later than midnight or 1 am, so I’m not suffering from sleep deprivation too badly. However, I got absolutely no writing done between Thursday evening and yesterday. However, I did overhear something, a comment in passing, that got me thinking in a new direction for one of the subplots for the novel in progress, so that was exciting.

I went to the World Fantasy Awards banquet on Saturday evening. As luck would have it, over half the people sitting at our table were from Canada, though I didn’t know any of them. We always seem to find each other. It was fun talking with them and also sharing some of our Canadian culture with the non-Canadians at the table. The emcee delivered a witty presentation while introducing the guests of honor that tied together the Six Flags Over Texas historical timeline of the state with Six Degrees of Separation to make hilarious segues to introducing the GoHs. The awards ceremony itself went smoothly and professionally. I was really happy that one of my favorite authors, Haruki Murakami, won the best novel category.

Hit the road around 1:00 yesterday afternoon for the three hour drive back home after dropping Darren Speegle and Laird Barron off at their new hotel. More traffic on a Sunday afternoon than late on Thursday evening! I think I’m caught up physically and otherwise from the trip.