Saturday was a very busy day at the Con. I started with a panel on Tolkien, where Chris was a panelist. Then readings, readings, readings. Paul Park's was a story he wrote as a fundraiser for Clarion West. Andy Duncan's was a story about a chicken, so you know I was all ears for that one. It's a story in Nightshade's latest anthology, the lead story. A fictional account of Flannery O'Connor's childhood encounter with a frizzled chicken she named Jesus Christ and trained to walk backward. If you've never heard Andy read, it's a treat. He knew how to edit the story to the time and still give you beginning, middle and end. I sat in on Ellen Datlow's readings from Inferno. Elizabeth Bear's story moved fast and she reads well. Ellen wouldn't let her read the punchline to it, though you could tell it was coming. After all that sitting and listening and knitting (remember the yarn shop?), I needed to stretch my legs and move around.

More con stuff follows...

Squeezed in among the readings, I was finally able to spend some time with catrambo and the very Wonderful Wayne. She's had a very busy con, going here and there and talking to this person and that person. Go Cat! Despite her busy con, she and I chatted writing stuff.

I finally saw Saladin. He had been around all this time and we just never were in the same place at the same time. I shopped for Miss E, there's a wonderful toy shop just across the street. Still with my headache (3 days). Oddly, 2 Sudafeds and 2 Bufferins at 6pm and it finally took a hike and left me. Whew.

Back at the room, D had posted a comment so I emailed her because she was supposedly just sitting there, doing day job stuff, in the main hallway most people pass through. After a flurry of short emails, we decided on dinner. And that dinner was not only a culinary delight, it was a delight in every way. D and I have known each other since the mid-90's and our paths have physically crossed only once, at the Boston Worldcon in 2004 for all of 5 minutes at a Clarion gig. We've even been at the same cons since. And as she pointed out in her entry last night (dsmoen), I also met SFAmy for the first time, in the flesh. That's Amy Sterling Casil to the rest of the world. But to me she'll always be SFAmy, commandant of the biweekly science fiction writing workshop on the old AOL, where I submitted my very first efforts at writing again, where I tested out stories that were eventually submitted with a (successful) Clarion application. Back then I "talked" at length with Amy about going to Clarion, since she had already been. So this was truly a very special night in my little world. Back before there were blogs, before everyone had web access, there was AOL. That Writing Workshop and being a volunteer tech for AOL brought the rest of the country closer to me when the Dude was stationed in various odd parts of the country and I had no local friends. I lift a virtual drink and toast two of my original writing companions.

But that's not all. I'm not a party goer, but D needed to make an appearance at the party for Abyss&Apex (http://www.abyssandapex.com). Alas, like many people, I was not familiar with the online magazine or with its delightful editor, Wendy. She runs the kind of party I like to attend. Not a mob scene, but with readings and people passing through and the ability to sit and chat with friends for a while. Plus, she pressed her laptop into my lap and had me read a story by Tony Pi (WOTF finalist with Kim Zimring) called "Metamorphoses in Amber." Go check that one out. Tony read part of it, others read their stories. They've pub'd some good flash pieces. And in between all that, Walter was there and Saladin and Chris. And Amelia Beamer, whom I also know by email for the most part. By the time I left, Wendy's party had turned into a "sad crush" again. Which is all a hostess could desire...to have her party swing between being an intimate salon reading and a sad crush of people babbling all at once.

This morning I'm off in the car, running late after posting this. Due to the time change, it will be darkening as I reach home, but I know the way. The car knows the way. From Harrisburg south, we'll be pressing towards the stable and the lights of home and hearth.

Frog Out