Flew in Thrusday and Jonna was good enough to pick up. a bunch of us at the CHA airport. When we got to the hotel, I was amazed at how many people were already there! It seems more and more people are now showing up a day early and turning the Con into a four day family get together rather than they usual three day Con.
The whirlwind started early, with old friends greeting each other as they checked in. The bar and lobby filled quickly, with groups shifting as new arrivals greeted folks and the drinks started flowing. As usual, we grabbed our ‘corner’ of the bar and set up there. Between trying to grab something to eat, and talking to folks we haven’t seen in a year, it ‘might’ have gotten a tad loud…LOL
Friday morning started with the usual range shoot, but I chose not to go this year, and spent the morning eating with the usual suspects and trying to figure out what I was going to use for my reading Friday night.
Kudos to Rich, Tish, et al who had to do a MAJOR reschedule due to the convention center having a flood on Tuesday that caused a major shift in panel rooms, etc. They did a yoeman job of reprintig the new schedules and stuffing them into the program booklets!
We did the Trailer Park anthology panel with Three Ravens and had fun with that one, including some of the ‘backstories’ of the stories that ended up in the four (so far) trailer park anthologies.
Opening ceremonies were run by Baen since this is their home con, and Kacey Ezell was the ‘ringmaster’ this year… As always it was interesting and educational!
I got to see the Sailors tell Sea Stories panel and a panel given by our Brit friends on who to write realistic explosions, both very well done, with good examples and humor keeping the attendees interested.
I actually got a chance to attend some panels I wanted to see this year!!! I did a reading of my new short in The Short Stories Friday night in a joint reading with Marina Fontaine (VERY interesting lady) from her Chasing Freedom novel.
As usual the groups floated from bar to lobby, to outside, to bar, to Con suite, ad infinitum throughout the day, into the evening and the early morning. ‘I’ was smart (e.g. tired) and I quit early…LOL
Saturday morning there were some hurting puppies at breakfast and some that didn’t even make breakfast… We did a Wyrd West vs. Science Fiction panel at 1100 that was well received, and had a LOT of panel/crowd interaction, with Lawdog as moderator! People were throwing ideas out and I kept telling the people to just write the damned stories and submit them! Hopefully we’ll be seeing them in anthologies this year and next!!!
At 1400, we did the 10th year of the State of Self Publishing with Dot Grant moderating and once again had an interesting mix of indie and trad put authors in the audience. Dot, Alma TC Boykin and others ran through the changes in the last year, especially with the changes to Keywords, Ad copy, and the impacts of AI on both writing, blurbing, and covers. There was a lot of interaction with the audience in this panel also.
That was it for me, other than author alley on Sunday, so I hit a few other panels I wanted to see, and spent time talking to friends, meeting some new folks, and a few fans that managed to make it this year. We didn’t try to do any special get togethers for meals this year, as it was simply too hard to coordinate with the variety of schedules we had, but kudos to Monalisa and Rick from trying on Friday night.
It was HOT and HUMID all weekend, which limited how much time folks spent out wandering around and sadly I had to leave Sunday to get back for a VA appointment early Monday, so I missed the wrap up and dead dog parties…sigh…
I know I didn’t mention names, because I ran into/talked to WAY too many people to remember everyone and I don’t want to fail to mention somebody, so I just leave the names out (and I’m lousy with names). And sadly, there were a few folks I really wanted to catch up with that I never saw…
But there is always next year! Kudos to the LC group and all the volunteers for another outstanding con!!!
