The Journal of Michael Merriam

Rather than bore you with a long rambling account of WFC of my own, I'm going to list everyone I saw, and send you to their journals, where you will find well written, well thought out reports.

In no particular order I saw from LJ: 1crowdedhour, blackholly, ccfinlay, cristalia, deannahoak, ebess, hilarymoonmurph, jsgbits, kafkonia, katallen, magentamn, matociquala, mrissa, porphyrin, retrobabble, sksperry, slithytove, sosostris2012, stillnotbored, and truepenny.

Now, some thoughts:

matociquala and truepenny really did have the best shoes.

sosostris2012 definitely had the best boots of the night.

Charles de Lint is a really nice person, and a fine musician, as is his wife Mary Ann. Ditto for pnh.

katallen gets this maniacal gleam in her eyes as she is about to beat you at air hockey.

retrobabble and sksperry look cute and harmless in all the pictures. They are not harmless, though they are very fun and funny.

Poor jsgbits nearly snorted noodles up her nose at dinner. I think it was sksperry's fault, but I am unsure if that is true, so I will attach no blame. I will however blame him for infecting me with his accent.

careswen and I were given Canadian names. We are Jean-Michel and Cherie Thibodeaux in Canada.

We sat through the WFC Award Dinner (which was not that good) with hilarymoonmurph. It was nice to have a friendly face in a sea of strange.

Now that I've done the dinner and awards, I will never need to do them again, except on the highly unlikely chance that I ever find myself nominated.

We brought home a lot of books. I mean a lot.

I spent hours in the bar and over-flow bar with the cool people above (and many others!) and only drank five pints of Guinness the whole weekend.

I'm so glad we got sucked into the amoeba on the first day.

I'm glad I went with careswen to the Dead Dog Party afterward.

Best Con Ever.

I have pictures. Eventually they will be loaded somewhere for all to see.

And in order to make sure that I keep my feet firmly on the ground, I was greeted with two rejections this morning. One from Fictitious Force and one from Aberrant Dreams. They both asked me to submit again.

Well, back to the reality of college. I have about 200 pages to read by class tomorrow.

In Peace
Michael

EBear and Sarah win the award for best shoes.

Amanda had the best boots.

We've been adopted by the Canadians and given Canadian names.

Goodness but I'm tired.

Steve,
No.

careswen and I have fallen in with those pesky Canadians! This is not a bad thing by any stretch, as sksperry and retrobabble are both almost too much fun. jsgbits made sure we continued to be part of the Amoeba, finding us in the morning. We added blackholly and a handful of others to our ever-growing mix.

Just so everyone knows, Charles de Lint is one of the nicest people I've ever meet. I'm just sayin'.

I went to one good panel and one unremarkable panel yesterday. The Broad Universe Rapid Fire Reading was fun to attend.

We ran into ebess and her partner not once, but twice! Hoping we can spend some time with them today. And mrissa. And porphyrin. And...

Had a nice long chat with Adam Stemple.

Saw the delightful Roo for about 30 seconds, which is too little Roo time, just fyi.

We were tossed from the overflow bar at midnight, and ended up in consuite. I left a little after two in the morning, but some people were still going strong.

Wish you were here,

Michael

There is so much going on that I can't possibly get everyone's LJ id's typed in, so, I'm just going to say that on the first day, we checked in and were given lots of free books. We hooked-up with Stella, who pulled us into the Amoeba with Bear, Charlie, Sarah, Steve Perry, Jen, Kelly, Jamie, Kat, Deanne, Tobias, JJA, Amanda, Leah, and people I'm sure I missed. We did Charlie and Leah's readings, and a panel with Bear and Charlie, but pretty much we've hung out in the overflow bar, or gone out to eat.

Careswen got to meet two of her favorite fantasy artists (Jeff Easley and Clyde Caldwell) when Stella walked her up to them and introduced her.

From Minneapolis I've spoken to Magenta and Martin, S.N. Arly and Steve Fox, and we saw M'rissa twice, but still have not spent any quality time with her. Maybe today.

Okay, we're off!

Michael

We have arrived at the Concourse Hotel in Madison, WI, after five and half hours on the road, an hour of which was just getting out of Minneapolis at rush hour. careswen is my road warrior queen.

We found the hotel without incident. No, the incidents started when we checked in. Back when I reserved this room, I knew we were going to be out here for days, and I knew the best way for us to save a little money was to bring some food from home, so I asked for a refrigerator for the room. I was told that this would not be a problem

Right.

Once in the room we found no fridge. I called down to the front desk, and was told that all the refrigerators were checked out, and maybe they would have one tomorrow. Tired from my long ride, I grunted in a non-committal way and hung-up the phone.

careswen had other ideas. She is much better at this dealing with customer service people than me. She called the desk again, pointing out that they had told me at the time I made the reservation that we could have a fridge in the room.

I have everything on ice, and the ice machine is right outside my door. If we get a fridge tomorrow, we are getting it from free.

Also, our room is right outside the pool and whirlpool, which is nice on one level, ( careswen is in the whirlpool right now, getting some relaxing done before bedtime) but the room smells like chorine. Also, we have no way to control the temp in the room. We are at the mercy of the hotel for heat and air control.

I did manage to get the wireless to work, after a bit of voodoo, so reports will come to you from the Con!

See you tomorrow,

Michael

More prep for World Fantasy Con. Food arrived today from Simons. We always squirrel away food in the room. It saves money, and since we will be in Madison for almost five days, we need to find ways to hoard every dime. I plan on baking a dozen muffins tonight, and a dozen cookies, to take with. I've gathered up a bunch of stuff to lug along. In fact, everything is, if not packed, at least staged, except for clothes and last minute stuff.

I also set out the buffet for Reverend Selena. At first she was deeply happy, but now she is deeply suspicious. Occasionally she wanders into the den and looks at the suitcases in a considering way.

I understand that the Concourse Hotel has free wireless Internet. With any luck I will be able to post Con reports at night before bedtime.

I have to admit that the closer I get to leaving for WFC, the more anxious I become. The nasty little voice in my head is working overtime, telling me that I shouldn't go, that I don't belong, that there will be REAL writers there. Why does a nobody with a handful of semi-pro sales like me even think he deserves to go to something like this?

Yeah, yeah, I know. I know that the stupid little voice is wrong, but one of the big drawbacks about being in this business is that you spend a lot of time listening to the voices in your head, and sometimes they get unpleasant. Stupid brain.

No writing news to report. "Fetch" is simmering away, waiting for a rewrite. The Hag of Kilmarra story is stalled again. I have two more stories waiting to be written, one about the world ending every first Wednesday of the month, and a Native American monster tale. I am also starting to think about another Rija story, since the editors at Gryphonwood asked if I was going to do another one or two. I have fourteen little homeless stories out looking for an editor to love (or at least buy) them.

Well, I still have laundry and other housework to finish before WFC. And candy to hand out to little monsters. See everyone in Madison on Thursday!

In Peace
Michael

This is just a reminder that World Fantasy Con is coming soon. There is a limit of 850 attending members. Approx. 580 attending memberships have been sold. If you have not yet registered for WFC, now would be a good time.

This PSA brought to you by the guy who wants some familiar friendly faces to talk with at WFC.

Nothing on the novel, but I started two, count 'em, two short stories. I like short stories.

Plenty of reviews and crits on the three stories posted to The Online Writing Workshop. One story needs a massive re-write, the second a few moderate adjustments, and the third some sentence level housekeeping. I'm pretty happy with the situation. I plan to let careswen have a go at the third story in the next week or so, and then send it on its way. A big old hug to everyone who left reviews and critiques. You all know who you are, and you are the best!

I thought I would post a list of conventions I'll be attending this year. If anyone wants to come up to me and say hello, I'm easy to spot. I'm the large man with the white cane. I'd love to visit with you.

Con of the North

This is one of the premiere gaming cons in the upper Midwest. careswen and I will attend this Con for one day only. On Saturday the 19th we will be gleefully engaged in a variety of gaming pursuits. We won't actually know what our slots are until we get there, and I will be damned disappointed if I don't get into the LARP on Saturday night. Costumes and pirates, what could be better? I think we might go ahead and stay at the hotel for this one. I'm going to call today for room rates.

Minicon

The Grand Dame of Minnesota SF&F Conventions. This year the Con has moved to the Sheraton-Bloomington, just a couple of miles from our house, so we will simply drive back and forth. At Minicon I usually sit and observe. I'm a little intimidated by Minicon, truth be told. It has a long running attending membership, all of whom have know each other for decades. It's not that they are unfriendly; in fact everyone seems very nice. The problem is me. I'm so quiet, shy, and easily overwhelmed by crowds that I tend to wallflower at Minicon. I'm going to try to change that this year.

CONvergence

A free-wheeling SF&F fandom/media convention, CONvergence is also at the Sheraton-Bloomington. For this Con we will be staying at the hotel, rooming with some friends. This is the convention you go to in order to observe Klingons and Anime Cat Girls fighting with boffer weapons. The theme this year is Superheroes. I'll be Matt Murdock. But don't let the apparent silliness fool you. Some of the best panels I have been to were at this convention. Despite the fact that this convention is barely controlled chaos (very well run barely controlled chaos, mind you), I'm usually more comfortable at this con than any other, probably because I'm more involved. I will typically sit a few panels at this con, both in the literature and gaming tracks, and last year I did a public reading. This convention usually hosts the Tales of the Unanticipated magazine release party. I may volunteer more at this Con. Blind badger anyone?


World Fantasy Convention

I missed the one in Minneapolis a few years back. This year it is being held in Madison, Wisconsin. Damned if I'm going to miss it again. Yes, we will be out there for six days. Yes it will take a huge bite out of our budget. I don't care. I'll be the blind guy walking around star struck. Or I might put on my theatre face and try to network. Please Divine Powers That Be, do not let me be the cause of an editor spilling hot coffee on his child. Again.

Well, back to work.

In Peace
Michael