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A-Kon was interesting, fun, challenging, and huger than I’d expected, silly me. I did not manage to get online even once, nor do any writing, so now I’m officially behind my own (sculpted for such occasions) schedule and must dive into work. One five-day chunk of wiggle-room is gone. (Four of those and a month of wiggle-room is gone.)
It wasn’t all A-Kon….I hadn’t really recovered to full energy from Balticon (less than a week between arriving home and taking off again…insufficient recovery time for me.) And I find crowds and noise tiring even if I’m just slithering through the crowds from one place to another. Thus I was using every backup battery my brain has to stay awake and at least look alert during the times I was supposed to be out and about among people doing things, and trying to write or negotiate the hotel’s internet access was just Too Much.
The funnest part of the whole thing was meeting Peter Beagle (yes, that Peter Beagle) on the last day. Time for the fangirl squee. I had had my Serious Shy going most of the time (the more highly I regard another writer, the less I can approach her/him and introduce myself or even say “Hi.”) And though I had the Serious Shy going, I hadn’t noticed how close his table was in the Artists Alley to the table where I was with friends promoting the new anthology Ladies of Trade Town, edited by my friend Lee Martindale and published by her after the original publisher ran into cash-flow problems and was going to delay publication at least a year. As things thinned out the last day, and the solid crowd in front of Peter Beagle’s table opened up, I could see just how close I’d come before.
The launch of Ladies of Trade Town went well, including the launch party at the top of the Sheraton’s building (well, almost top–38th floor, with a gorgeous view of the city from up there.) A-Kon treats its writer guests extremely well, from the invitations through the green room, to the details that matter so much when you’re dealing with that kind of crowd. I had two “minders” who took it in turn to help me get to the right place at the right time and be sure I had what I needed. And the green room food…!!! (And the green room knitting circle…or for that matter the knitting row at the tables: we had four in a row knitting once, and three fairly often. I made a lot of progress on the turquoise/purple/green scarf, using up the end of the first ball of yarn on the train home, before I even reached Fort Worth.)
A few ideas popped out and were duly written down, but I couldn’t actually write–too tired, mostly. Now I’m home, slept all night, and at the stroke of nine will be back into the book.
Comment by Genko — June 14, 2011 @ 10:12 am
Welcome home, and always look forward to the new ideas. Hope you are getting the rest you need, and glad you had a good time.
Comment by Kip Colegrove — June 14, 2011 @ 10:23 am
The New Thoughts that are always an important side effect of pilgrimage or quest (journey with high intent) will surely be beneficial, but extraversion does interfere with writing.
Comment by Daniel Glover — June 14, 2011 @ 10:51 am
It does sound like you have a bunch of new material to work with so I hope you jump on the horse and it runs off like a good paladin horse and not a demon one.
Comment by Roger — June 15, 2011 @ 2:12 am
Hi
Great that you are home again and have had a good time 🙂
I read an interesting blog about authors the other day – it was on KJ andersons blog, but its written by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. It would be interesting to know how you feel about that – to me it sounds bad – like you authors risk getting riped of and have better options nowadays.
htt p://kjablog.com/
(Hope you dont mind me posting a link)
Love your work!
Br//Roger
Comment by Harriet Culver — June 15, 2011 @ 8:28 am
IF E. doesn’t mind the posting of links, be aware that the one Br//Roger posted won’t work unless you take the extra space out of the “htt p” at the start of the link 🙂
Harriet
Comment by Margaret — June 15, 2011 @ 9:15 am
Peter Beagle! I haven’t thought about him in years… might have to make a trip to the library for some rereading. Right now I can’t think of a single title, but I do remember I enjoyed his books.
Margaret
Comment by elizabeth — June 15, 2011 @ 10:04 am
A Fine and Private Place. The Last Unicorn. The Rhinoceros Who Quoted Nietzsche (collection of shorter works.) The Folk of the Air. The Innkeeper’s Song. We Never Talk About My Brother (collection of shorter works.)
For sheer mastery of language and beauty of writing…he’s right at the tippy-top of the ladder of excellence.
Comment by Laura BurgandyIce — June 16, 2011 @ 4:31 pm
A-Kon sounds very interesting. I feel the same about crowds – “And I find crowds and noise tiring even if I’m just slithering through the crowds from one place to another”. I like “slithering”, like navigating through is the key rather than basking in the noise. A place with so many wonderful authors in one place, tho… sounds great that you went & I hope you catch up the lost time soon!!!
Comment by arthur Piantadosi — June 17, 2011 @ 8:42 am
This is Arthur. Any kind of fantasy convention sounds like heaven to me. Both my parents read Sci-Fi, and my mom reads some of the same stuff I do, including your books. And I just LOVE your stuff. There are some writers who I read everything they produce, including David Drake, David Weber, Parke Godwin, and yourself. I am sorry that I took advantage of things that you own, but I did not feel it was wrong at the time. I had a friend, and still do, who grew up not reading fairy tales, except the Wizard of Oz. He was a slow reader, and wanted to know the philosophy of things. Just for your information, I am hyperlexic, and I read books to him. I read the Hobbit to him complete. I was going to read Deed of Paksenarrion to him, but I did what I did because of my friend. I do not make friends easily. I never have. I am too quick, too interested in things I think are truth then ball games and shallow trivia, and I still do not read social signals well. I identify with Lou from Speed of Dark a lot, but also the character from Gut Feelings. Nothing of your material is anywhere public, nor will it ever be. I will give you my phone number, or my email address, if you want to talk to me in person. I will gladly pay you whatever you desire for the right to record Deed. Would you like me to say I am sorry? I will, if you want.