(Sure, I know it’s a week overdue, but better late than never, right? Right.)

The 2011 World Fantasy Convention (or WFC for short) was held in San Diego this year, right before Halloween. This was my third year going to WFC, and I have to say this con is probably my favorite now (though Worldcon has also proved to be pretty awesome most years too, and I’m not knocking Worldcon). WFC is smaller than Worldcon, and feels more like a “trade” con than a “fan” con (though of course we’re pretty much all fans of science fiction and fantasy as well, it’s how we got where we are as writers or editors or agents, so the distinction is a bit blurry). As far as official activities go, there are panels and readings during the day, all kinds of events and parties after hours, an art show and autograph session and an awards ceremony, plus lots of just hanging around in the hotel bar or the con suite or the hallways or the dealer’s room (which is 98% book sellers) and talking to people who float by. The purpose of all of the activities and the con as a whole is to inspire, instruct, provide food for thought and most of all encourage connections and conversations amongst like-minded folks around topics of mutual interest. It’s really amazing to me every time how great it feels to be around this particular set of like-minded folks, this wonderful tribe of geeky,  word-centric, “speculative fiction” book-lovers and book-makers.

By now I’ve been to enough cons enough times that I’m finally starting to get to recognize and feel comfortable around a broad set of my fellow tribefolk. I feel like some people also recognize me, and that I actually belong to this tribe more solidly than I felt when I very first started going. And it feels especially great to have my own “posse” of writer-buddies that I regularly meet up with and pal around with at cons—that itself is definitely a pleasure in its own right, not only because they are all kind, brilliant, and endlessly interesting creative people, but also because with a posse, I completely bypass all those social anxieties about whether I’ll have someone to room with, or sit with, or eat with or drink with. (Yes, even an extroverted “people person” like me has social anxieties like that!) Now, after a few years of going to cons and being at least mildly involved in online social networks with other writers, I feel a lot less like a “wannabe” and more on the road towards “professional”, especially this year when I was finally (finally!) able to announce that I have a book of my own coming out. (Next year I’ll probably feel even more that way, especially if I have actual ARCs of my book to wave around.)

So all that is preamble to saying this: I had a great time at WFC this year. The hotel was quirky but comfortable, and the weather was gorgeous. I had lots of buddies to hang out with and lots of great conversations. There were interesting panels, great readings, fun events and of course I came home with a huge pile of (mostly free!) books. I also got that critically important injection of motivation and determination to move forward on my own writing projects that I always seem to need. I came home determined to significantly re-jigger my calendar in order to carve out specific, “sacred” space for both writing and reading (and blogging!) I decided to put aside the novel I’m currently working on for now, and write the sequel to the novel I just sold. I also hatched some plans with fellow author friends to create a book-review blog, and to help market and build our small press. I connected with my Viable Paradise tribe (VPeeps rock!), and made some new friends. 

Some memorable highlights of the event for me were, in no particular order:

• Traveling with my friend Heather McDougal (travel is always better with a buddy), and arriving early for the con and staying the night at our friend Kim Vandervort’s house in Corona before driving down the next morning to San Diego. It was such a nice relaxed way to begin a con, plus it’s always fun having a girl sleepover!
• Stopping at Target (excuse me, “Tar-zhay”) on the way down to pick up some snacks for the con and then getting distracted together in the makeup and costume jewelry sections of Target. We had a goofy and wildly entertaining time buying sparkly jewelry and headbands for the Hadley Rille “Sparkle-off” that was supposed to happen during the autograph session. (It did happen, and we all totally lost to Shauna Roberts. I mean, in addition to sparkly makeup and feathers, the woman had a sparkly gold lizard bracelet, for crying out loud! How can you compete with that?)
• We had a raucous and very entertaining dinner at P.F. Chang’s on Thursday night with a combination of Hadley Rille Books people and VP people. There was much teasing and hilarity around raccoons being bedazzled, and yeah, that’s a private joke that’s going to be hard to explain. I also got to hear about newly minted VPeep Kelly Lagor’s astonishing accomplishment of selling her VP story to Tor.com while *at* VPXV, and as much as I wanted to hate her for it, I couldn’t, because she was such a fun and awesome person that I was compelled to forgive her instantly.
• I had several sessions of sitting around with other Hadley Rille authors and coming up with great ideas to help market and support both the press and our individual books. I am excited to be a part of this particular family of vibrant, creative individuals, and eager to collaborate with others by lending my gifts and strengths to the whole. I’m still sort of pinching myself and going “really? I get to be a full-fledged author member of the HRB club now? Squeeeeee!”
• It was awesome being able to tell people about my book being published, but I especially loved being able to tell Elizabeth Bear, who was my teacher at Viable Paradise, and Elaine Isaak, who did a critique for me at my first Worldcon writer’s workshop “hey, that book you critiqued for me? I am getting it published now! Thank you!” I also loved Bear’s response: “Congratufuckinlations!”
• There was a VP party. There was a VP coffee. There was VP lunching and drinking and hanging out at random intervals. VPeeps rock.
• Speaking of VPeeps, somewhere in a tipsy haze at one of the parties I remember having much fun coming up with song titles for the first album release of the fictional band “Writer Angst Apocalypse” with fellow VPeeps Bart and Sylvia. I have just retrieved the list I so thoughtfully tucked into my badge holder and I see that the songs on WAA’s first EP are apparently:
  1. Sometimes I Wish I Were Neil Gaiman
  2. Your Niceness is Not Scalable
  3. Now You Look Like You Belong—But I Don’t
  4. Rejectomancy Romance
  5. November is the Cruelest Month (Down with NaNoWriMo)
  6. I Write Alone (I Don’t Need A Writer’s Group)
  7. Revisions Ate My Baby

(Ok, so maybe some of those were funnier while tipsy...)

• Saturday night Heather, Kim, our new BFF Sylvia from VPXIV and I finally left the parties and closed our night with all kinds of crazy martinis at the hotel bar. We talked about all kinds of fun writerly stuff, most of which I can’t remember but I am convinced nonetheless that it was extremely awesome. I am telling you, VPeeps are always fun and awesome. I am lucky to be a part of that tribe.
• I loved listening to my friends Gary Kloster and Ferret Steinmetz read some of their work out loud. You know how you get to know people, and like them as interesting creative people, and enjoy talking with them, but never get a taste of their actual artistic output? Well these are two people I’ve always enjoyed as people, but I’d never really read much, if any, of their work. And I was totally blown away by how awesome both of them were.
• I also went to readings by Nini Kiriki Hoffman and Peter S. Beagle, both of whom read outstandingly great stories that moved and touched me, and made me go “WOW I want to be a writer like that when I grow up!” Very inspirational.
• I had a great conversation about all kinds of things, including the zany delights of publishing as a small press, with the very sweet Canadian couple Anita and Brian Hades who run the small press Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing.
• Also enjoyed as always talking with Jacob and Rina Weisman, who run Tachyon Books here in San Francisco. I keep meaning to get to some of their “SF in SF” events—they seem to attract a great crowd of tribesfolk. I just gotta get out more.
• I really enjoyed meeting Cinda Williams Chima and talking to both her and Garth Nix and getting to gush to them about how much my son loves their books. It’s fun to fangirl when it’s not actually about you.
• I had a great conversation at the art show reception with Kelley Caspari about her incredible “half and half” bronze sculptures. I was fascinated by the way she blended two different people into one bust, and really enjoyed talking to her about her artistic process.

That’s it for the wrap-up...now excuse me, I’ve got a gigantic pile of books to go read and new fiction to write!