The con is over, long live the con

I started the day by dropping in to a reading (Victoria Sandbrook, who was reading some unpublished short pieces. I can’t wait until they’re published so I can point people to them), then dealt with stuff like getting tea, picking up a $3 pair of earrings in the dealers’ room because they matched my outfit, and checking out of the hotel.

My first panel of the day was small — medical advances, science or science fiction, with Dr. Robert Finegold and David Shaw. That was an interesting panel — very cool images and videos with stories behind them. We talked about the MUSE headband, electrodes and prosthetic control, prosthetics, exosuits, 3D printing, lab-grown grafts, CRISPR, new imaging techniques, antibodies as medicine, side effects, personal genetics … It was a really great panel, I’m glad I was on it, and I hope I get the chance to do it again (but I’ll prepare with notes for next time!).

Then it was off for a spot of lunch and socializing with friends before my second panel — great beach reads for winter, which I moderated. Panelists included William Hayashi, Tui Sutherland, and Susan Jane Bigelow (all of whom are now on my “grab their first books and go from there” list). We discussed comfort reads, rereads, length of reads (Tui said that she’s more likely to take on an epic book like Neal Stephenson or a trilogy (currently, one by Jo Walton) in the winter. We talked about classic SF, cozy mysteries, and Regency romances. One young audience member pointed out that one reason he likes to reread is that the first time through, there’s all this tension, but when you reread, you can just enjoy. One audience member asked for short fiction recommendations (Susan  recommended Long Hidden and Hidden Youth; I suggested two collections, Ken Liu’s Paper Menagerie and Caroline M.Yoachim’s Seven Wonders of a Once and a Future World). I regret not mentioning the Nebula reading list as a great place to discover new favorites. I really enjoyed that panel, and I think it was probably perfect as an introduction to moderating.

All in all, it was an excellent con, and I’m looking forward to next year, when I hope to be on the programming again.

And I wrote this evening!

Words written today: 400
Words written this month: 9,941
Words written 2017: 50,456
Average words/day 2017: 1,009
Books completed 2017: 1
Pages read: 2 chapters
Books read 2017: 2
Exercise reps: 0

Staying with my friend Bonnie tonight, and I’ll drive home tomorrow. (And write, of course.) Tuesday, we will resume our ordinary life of making school lunches, copyediting, grocery shopping, and so forth. Life is good, both the quotidian and the extraordinary.

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