We had a great time, and came home laden with books and booty.

Friday night we arrived later than planned, thanks to a traffic snarl, so we only attended the ‘meet the guests’, by way of scheduled activities.  There we bumped into James Maxey, as predicted, exchanged pleasantries with Alan Wold, and discovered that George R R Martin’s beard has grown in the Santa direction.

We also spent some time discussing art with Alan Welch in the art room.  He’s got some fun photograph collages growing on his site, one of which will soon adorn a wall in my office.

The majority of our Friday time we spent chatting with the weapons masters, aka Shadow Players.  I had my hand slapped (or slapped at) for not keeping up my martial arts as I should, and was then invited to fill it with something sharp.  Whose idea that is of keeping the peace, I don’t know.  The various swords, rapiers, daggers, axes and knives have me all but convinced it’s time to enhance my unarmed skills with a few glittery bits of metal.

Saturday was a longer day, and feels more blurred.  In the morning we caught a Heroes and Villians panel that managed to wander all over the comic world and touch only once on Harry Potter.  I was impressed with Martin’s handling of the panelists as moderator.  I’m sure he has lots of experience.

After that was a discussion of politics in sci fi.  It seems everyone’s got a bit of the libertarian in them, but most pick only those pieces which suit them.  No surprise there.  The panel stayed reasonably cool, and generally on subject.  One question which we never got to ask; why is science fiction more often used as a political platform than fantasy?

After a quick lunch, (with a slow waiter), we bought a bag or two of books and got Game of Thrones signed by Martin, then did some more art shopping.  My husband picked up a lovely mermaid picture by Tom Fleming that gets better every time we look at it.

Next up was a very poorly attended, but interesting panel on world building.  Tom Fleming and Matt McFarland did a great job of keeping the place alive despite the small audience, and provided a perspective on worldbuilding that was different from the usual fantasy approach I’m familiar with.  I’m especially excited to use a new-to-me tool, Google Earth.

We finished off the day with the urban fantasy panel and the scriptwriting panel.  Neither was quite what I expected, but both offered some good stuff and new pointers.  It’s interesting to learn how many people feel frightened and/or displaced in a city but comfortable in a very rural setting.  I can’t say that I’d walk into any city neighborhood, but I’d rather deal with city than some boon-dog rural places I’ve been.  Certainly the creepiest and scariest moments of my life which were in response to setting took place in rural locales.

The takeaway point of the scriptwriting panel seemed to be: if you ever get optioned, take the money and run.

Somewhere near the end we also met Edmund Schubert, the illustrious editor of IGMS, and thriller writer Scott Nicholson. And I’m sure I’m missing people…for which I beg their forgiveness.

All in all, a good con.  At future cons I’ll pack a few small snacks to stay fueled through the day without wasting time in a restaraunt, and bring cash.  But at least I had plenty of water and comfortable clothes this time, which were notes-to-self from prior cons.

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