No place like home

A lovely final half day at the conference, breakfast for volunteers, conversation with others, and a great neuroscience talk by Ben Kinney.

And then escaping the area before the hockey fans arrived, the beginning of a long drive home, wherein I’m sure I annoyed the Google Maps lady by ignoring her instructions to take the turnpike. (Turn here to take 476. Okay, take the next exit to intersect with 476. Okay, the next one? No? Fine, take Pennsylvania 33, then. See if I care!)

Anyway, it’s been a wonderful break, and tomorrow is all about catch-up. But I did get 104 words!

In an alternate universe, I got enough sleep

An absolutely fantastic day! We started with the SFWA business meeting, wherein the results of the election were announced. I was not unanimously acclaimed for Director-at-Large, though there were 292 (I think) aye votes. There were also nays and write-ins. Of course, I’m now Vice President, but the overwhelming positive vote was nice. When it was my turn to speak, I thanked those who voted for me as Direvtor, then paused and said, “Surprise!”

The highlight of my day, though, had to be sitting down to talk to Jane Yolen about her time as SFWA President!

The Nebula banquet and Awards were fun, too.

Each table had a lovely robot centerpiece created by Don Jones.Art robot centerpiece

Sadly, most of my photos of the actual ceremony are blurry and not worth sharing.

There were a number of alternate universe acceptance speeches after the awards by nominees who did not win.alternate universe. ebula Award winners

And I got my picture taken with Jane Yolen, who said, “You make me feel tall!”Erin with Jane Yolen

And after I got up to my room, I wrote 115 words and this post, and now I am going to sleep!

A new streak begins

Okay, yes, so far the new streak is only one day, with 257 words written, but it will grow.

Here are pictures from today at the Nebula Conference.

Audience at panel discussion Audience for morning panel on money management

Conversation between Sheila Williams and SFWA’s newest Grand Master, Jane Yolen

Afternoon panel on dealing with discouragement: Barbara Krasnoff, Shanna Swendson, Bishop O’Connell, Siena Leslie, and Trevor Quachri

Cobb salad presentation at Crafted, the hotel’s restaurant

Nitrogen ice cream! (i might be a tad envious of their mixer.)

Jeffe Kennedy and Lawrence Schoen show off their panache and their hats at the mass autographing

Oh, no! A broken streak!

I had such a marvelous time yesterday at the Nebula Conference, meeting people, listening to people, being lost in a whirl of pretend-extroversion … and I didn’t write. For the first time this year!

To distract you from my shame, I offer a picture of the audience at the panel I was on this morning on money management.

Audience at morning panel

So many books!

This morning, I followed the usual routine — get up, make kids’ lunches, get them off to school. Then I made sure I was ready, and about 10, I set off on the drive. Took longer than Google expected, possibly because I took more pit stops, there was construction, and there was at least one accident. Eventually, though, I got to Pittsburgh.

The Nebula Conference is one of those marvelous conferences that gives out a bag of swag, mostly books. So my first activity upon arriving was to spend around 3 hours assembling bags of books. (Before my arrival, they’d already spent 2 hours getting all these books unpacked and set up like this!

Tables piled high with books
I’ve already met wonderful people whom I’d only known online before (including Dawn Bonanno! We’ve been friends online for like fifteen years!), and had a good dinner. Came back to the room, unwound a bit, wrote 219 words, and now I’m ready to sleep.

Requisite view from hotel window:
View from window