Back from WFC
Nov. 7th, 2005 10:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pbrayBack from the World Fantasy Convention in Madison. I had a great time--met lots of interesting people, caught up with old friends, met e-friends in person, hung out with folks who share my passions, had too much to eat, drink, and too many late nights. In short, it was a perfect weekend.
I described WFC to someone as a tribal gathering, but it's more than that. It's part corporate board meeting where we hear the state of the business, part family reunion where we see people we haven't seen for years, or finally get to meet that new cousin/in-law we've all been hearing about, and part college reunion where you catch up with the class of 2002 and see how everyone is doing.
The best part of WFC is getting together with kindred spirits.
Was thrilled to meet LJers in person, including![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kaygo, aieron, janni, lnhammer, jaylake, naomikritzer and to catch up with mcurry, matociquala. Hung out with bgliterary at the autographing on Friday night, where we discovered our shared interest in SF on the small screen. Also met Sarah Monette, Sarah Zettel, Kristen Britain, eeknight and others whose real life/LJ names I wrote down somewhere, but can't find right now. Apologies to those I've missed.
On Saturday nightarcaedia's clients surprised her with an appreciation dinner. It was a great success, though I had to leave early for my 8PM panel on architecture and monsters which went very well. I was surprised by how many people turned out for a panel at 8PM on a Saturday night.
Had good meetings with my editor and agent, and I'm feeling good about the next series. Enjoyed talking shop with other writers, and sharing career strategies.
jpsorrow was a great roommate and traveling companion. This was his first WFC, so it was a tad overwhelming at first, but by Saturday he was trained to introduce himself by saying "My first book is THE SKEWED THRONE, and it's coming out from DAW in January."
There are too many folks to mention by name, but I want to thank everyone who took the time to speak with me at WFC, to tell me that they liked the Devlin stories, or my reading, or that they enjoyed one of the panels I was on, or even just that they thought the lizard trinkets were cool.
In short, I had a great time, I got to hang out with wonderful folks, and I left feeling energized and ready to write.
Returned home, and found that my house was
It was nearly 1AM by the time I got home, and after the long weekend I was brain dead. As I entered the house I saw a rubber lizard on the kitchen counter. It didn't look like the lizards that I had gotten as promo giveaways-- mine were metallic colors, but this was spotted and fairly realistic looking. Puzzled, but clueless, I continued on.
Then I saw another one peeking over the door to the fridge. Going to the bathroom, three lizards glared at me from the faucets on the sink, while their brother proudly perched on the towel bar. I spotted lizards on picture frames, on bookcases, crawling over my CDs, on the sofa, climbing my bike, a total of nine lizards perched around my bed glaring at me from the alarm clock, the night stand, the blinds on the window....
Even my life-sized cardboard Aragorn now sported a lizard on his shoulder. It was funny, but vaguely creepy as well. The message was clear. "You were gone, and now this place is ours."
Since I'd just spent the conference joking about being queen of the lizards, it struck me that someone had heard me, and my subjects had decided that my house was now their rightful territory.
I lost count at 70 lizards, butjennifer_dunne has confessed that there were 84 in total. Kudos to her for pulling this off, and to jpsorrow who knew of the gag and didn't let it slip the entire weekend.
I described WFC to someone as a tribal gathering, but it's more than that. It's part corporate board meeting where we hear the state of the business, part family reunion where we see people we haven't seen for years, or finally get to meet that new cousin/in-law we've all been hearing about, and part college reunion where you catch up with the class of 2002 and see how everyone is doing.
The best part of WFC is getting together with kindred spirits.
Was thrilled to meet LJers in person, including
kaygo, aieron, janni, lnhammer, jaylake, naomikritzer and to catch up with mcurry, matociquala. Hung out with bgliterary at the autographing on Friday night, where we discovered our shared interest in SF on the small screen. Also met Sarah Monette, Sarah Zettel, Kristen Britain, eeknight and others whose real life/LJ names I wrote down somewhere, but can't find right now. Apologies to those I've missed. On Saturday night
arcaedia's clients surprised her with an appreciation dinner. It was a great success, though I had to leave early for my 8PM panel on architecture and monsters which went very well. I was surprised by how many people turned out for a panel at 8PM on a Saturday night.Had good meetings with my editor and agent, and I'm feeling good about the next series. Enjoyed talking shop with other writers, and sharing career strategies.
jpsorrow was a great roommate and traveling companion. This was his first WFC, so it was a tad overwhelming at first, but by Saturday he was trained to introduce himself by saying "My first book is THE SKEWED THRONE, and it's coming out from DAW in January." There are too many folks to mention by name, but I want to thank everyone who took the time to speak with me at WFC, to tell me that they liked the Devlin stories, or my reading, or that they enjoyed one of the panels I was on, or even just that they thought the lizard trinkets were cool.
In short, I had a great time, I got to hang out with wonderful folks, and I left feeling energized and ready to write.
Returned home, and found that my house was
It was nearly 1AM by the time I got home, and after the long weekend I was brain dead. As I entered the house I saw a rubber lizard on the kitchen counter. It didn't look like the lizards that I had gotten as promo giveaways-- mine were metallic colors, but this was spotted and fairly realistic looking. Puzzled, but clueless, I continued on.
Then I saw another one peeking over the door to the fridge. Going to the bathroom, three lizards glared at me from the faucets on the sink, while their brother proudly perched on the towel bar. I spotted lizards on picture frames, on bookcases, crawling over my CDs, on the sofa, climbing my bike, a total of nine lizards perched around my bed glaring at me from the alarm clock, the night stand, the blinds on the window....
Even my life-sized cardboard Aragorn now sported a lizard on his shoulder. It was funny, but vaguely creepy as well. The message was clear. "You were gone, and now this place is ours."
Since I'd just spent the conference joking about being queen of the lizards, it struck me that someone had heard me, and my subjects had decided that my house was now their rightful territory.
I lost count at 70 lizards, but
jennifer_dunne has confessed that there were 84 in total. Kudos to her for pulling this off, and to jpsorrow who knew of the gag and didn't let it slip the entire weekend. 