mmerriam | Minicon 2008 Report

Saturday, March 22, 2008

8:45 am

Hello all. I'm writing a Minicon report, which I will then post to LJ on Sunday night, since I cannot seem to get the hotel internet to work for some reason. You know what Sheraton Hotel, I'm will to pay $10 to have internet in my room for 24 hours, but I've spent 20 minutes wrestling with something that should be plug and play, so the hell with it.

We got to the Con a little late on Friday, but still caught the second half of panel about taboos in SF/F. Talked with

hatfield13 and

naomikritzer afterward, then up to the room to map out the rest of the panels we want to do and eat some food. We hooked up with

mrissa, and

greykev dropped her off at the panel she was on, then

careswen and I went to the Nasty Characters panel.

I realized I've done a lot of panels over the last few years. It's getting to the point where I'm not really hearing anything different.

Once that panel was over, I wandered among the room parties, stopping at Krushenko's to talk with Eric Heideman, Jason D. Wittman, and the rest of the crowd for a bit. I'll be taking part in the Speculation Reading Series this September. I ran into

pentacon in the hallway and chatted with him for a bit, then Sherry and I went to the hotel bar for some hot food before bed.

This turned out to be a mistake. It took 15 minutes to get the attention of the waitress, it was another 15 before she took our order, the food (a couple of appetizers) took 30+ minutes to come out to our table, she forgot drinks, and then it took another 20 minutes after we asked for the check for it to arrive. Folks, the place wasn't all that busy. So all together, what we thought might take 30 to 45 minutes ended up being an hour and a half.

Anyway, I had a decent night of sleep and I'm ready to hit the con again! I'll write more entries as time allows.

12:08 pm

I'm back in the room, resting my back. I had forgotten how uncomfortable I find the chairs in the programming rooms here. Went to

pameladean's reading, which was just lovely, and spoke with

wordswoman and Pat Sullivan from TCSFWN afterward.

Saw

mrissa,

truepenny, and

elisem in the dealers room, and I had a nice chat with

elizabethth from DreamHaven Books. I also talked a bit with Tyree Campbell from Sam's Dot Publishing which is always a good thing.

A not so good thing: I was reminded at one point that some people in fandom believe only the major-league publishers (the Tor's and Asimov's of the field) are legit, or if a small press/semi-pro is somehow legit, it must be low-quality. Look up people, a lot of good work is being done by small press publishers. Many of these publishers are grooming the next generation of emerging writers. I'm just saying.

I'm really glad I came this year. I really need to be around fandom and my friends within it right now. I've missed this.

By the end of Con season (heck, by the end of Minicon, even) I might be singing a different tune, but for now, this rocks.

8:58 PM

I'm trying to decide if I have enough energy left to manage anything more tonight. The programming room chairs are really making my back hurt, and I think I need a little quiet time.

The Editor's Impression Panel, where professional editors were given the first page of a novel submitted (blind) by local writers and asked to react, was pretty much a blood bath, which was pretty much what I expected anyway. I got some really good things from this panel while listening to these editors read and talk about the pages they were looking at. Brutal stuff, but well worth it.

TCSFWN reading went well. We had a decent turnout and I pretty much enjoyed what was read by everyone. We had some people ask about the group afterward. I'm still reading too fast, but I was also under a time constraint, so we shall see if I can slow it down tomorrow. Sherry and I talked with

materia_indigo, and I spoke to Dana Baird for a few minutes before her reading.

careswen and I skipped out half-way through the next panel to go have food with

mrissa and

greykev. Good conversation, good friends, and adequate food.

I made a mad dash to my next panel, the one about the difference in magic between Minneapolis and St. Paul.

lyda222 moderated, with

naomikritzer,

kalmn, and C.J. Mills rounding out the panel. I thought we did really well,

lyda222 kept it moving and was enthusiastic. I actually managed to contribute. The panelists and audience were great, and had plenty of excellent input.

Talked to

hatfield13, and then Mike Shoenberg. for a bit, then

careswen went to Jane Yolen's bedtime stories reading. I talked with Joel Arnold, Mike Shoenberg again, and poked my nose into the LJ party, where I talked with

dsgood and

greykev before I wandered off. I talked with

kalmn about how impressed I was with Wiscon's accessibility (GIANT LARGE PRINT POCKET GUIDE!), saw Dana again, and then decided to head up to the room. In the elevator I was with a young lady of about 12 or 13 who enthusiastically showed me the D&D Mini she had just painted, burbling happily about how it was her very first painted mini and showing me all the details (which I couldn't make out, but I made appropriate noises, because really...). She got off two floors before I did.

And now I am in the room and kind of tired. Also, wrote 750 words on the Not a Milk Maid of Destiny novel.

Sunday 6:18 pm

We got out of the room in good order. We went to the dealer's room, where

careswen was enchanted by the knit dinosaurs. We encountered Andy. I started my programming day with my reading, which, among the five attendees, included one person I didn't know.

careswen and I then went to "Geek Be Not Ashamed" panel, and then off to lunch with

greykev,

mrissa Andy, and Jason, after saying hello to

dd_b. I spoke with Dana one last time and

careswen,

greykev, and I hung out near consuite and played a quick game before making a last turn around the dealer's room.

The last panel I was on was good, but I didn't contribute much. Shannon Gibney and Jane Yolen were way quicker on the draw than I am. This, added to the fact that I was just about done with Con at that point, made me a little less involved in the discussion than I would have liked to be. It was a good panel, I just kind of faded.

It was a good Minicon this year.