RavenCon and Collapsing Bookshelves

* * * Before RavenCon * * *

I dragged myself upstairs this morning, opened the door to my freshly organized and cleaned office — and discovered that one of my bookshelves had suffered a Catastrophic Failure. CDs, books, binders, notebooks, and miscellania covered a large chunk of the floor. I just stood there staring at it and thinking: well, that just fits right in … the whole week has gone like that. I pick something up, it slips out of my hand. I turn around and knock something over. I just had the carpet professionally cleaned, and one of my dogs got ferociously ill and vomited all over the place multiple times.

I’m almost afraid to go to RavenCon now … but surely, SURELY, this string of clumsy disasters won’t follow me all the way to Richmond …. *crosses fingers*

Update: by afternoon, I had burned the batch of muffins planned as weekend emergency snacks, then pulled out the cooling rack only to discover that someone had put it away still coated with bacon grease from last weekend’s breakfast … clearly, today is Not Meant To Happen. I’m going back to bed and will emerge when the Weird Streak has left the building …

* * *And After* * *

… And yet another convention goes by … this one even more exciting than the last. It all started with Cece Edic arriving at my house; we stuffed my van full of every possible item we could think of for the con, including two massage chairs (mine and hers), an assortment of “dressup clothing” (most of which I never wore), and a cooler filled with grapes, water, soda, and good coffee creamer (and good coffee, too, because I’ve learned not to trust hotels on the subject of coffee).

Traffic wasn’t too bad, and the hotel was easy to find, thanks in part to Cece’s GPS (no, I’m still not going to get one, but I’m beginning to appreciate their value). The hotel itself was really gorgeous, with a fascinating waterfall-down-slanted-sheets-of-glass in the lobby, spacious layout, and a very friendly attitude from the staff — when the A/C broke in one room, for example, they immediately shifted everything from that room to another without complaint. 

The con itself was fabulous and fun and chaotic and crowded; scheduling turned out a little bit strange, with items like book signing scheduled in the dealers room after the dealer’s room closed and the guest of honor (Rachel Caine)  set up to do signings at the same time as the opening ceremonies were being held … so a certain amount of hasty reshuffling occurred throughout the weekend. But what’s a con without a little chaos, says I?

The panels I attended were, for the most part, only the ones I was a panelist in: World Designing 101, Allen Wold’s Writing the Hook 1 & 2, To Agent or Not to Agent, Quick Write for the Charity Auction, and Leyaks Don’t Get No Respect (I was a nitwit and went to the wrong lobby for the Koffee Klatch, disappointing not only myself but a number of other people). In between I caught up with friends I hadn’t seen since last year, ran water and snacks to Cece (whose massage chair was, of course, almost always occupied), checked in with my publisher, Mercury Retrograde Press (who had a table this year and a LOT of fun as well), and bought items like a FUMP CD from Rob Balder, a book by Allen Wold, and a book of short stories from Danny Birt. Oh, and a RavenCon 2010 T-Shirt, to commemorate the occasion of being a guest author — I discovered after buying it that among the names on the back were mine and Cece’s! When I told Cece, she promptly went and bought a t-shirt as well. I’ll treasure my RavenCon 2010 T-shirt for a long time. Great idea there!

What I didn’t do during the weekend: I didn’t take pictures — I was too busy. I think I wound up with six photos total, so you’ll have to search through the Mercury Retrograde Press Facebook page and other people’s photo albums for that this year. I didn’t attend, as mentioned above, most other panels than mine; I just didn’t have time. I didn’t dress up — ditto. Didn’t do anything fun with my hair, even, for the same reason. I just wanted to be out and about talking to people (so I didn’t really visit the Green Room, either, although it was a nice touch to have one this year). And finally, I didn’t take pages of notes,  they way I’ve done at previous cons, so I can only give the overall statement that RavenCon 2010 went by in a blur of laughter, hugs, talking, and quba peas.

Thank you to all who showed up; to all who said hello and seemed pleased to see me; thank you, THANK YOU, to everyone who bought my novel (I think I actually saw someone sitting on a couch reading Secrets of the Sands at one point — that was really fun!), and thank you to everyone who attended the panels I was on. I humbly hope I get invited back next year; I have no expectation of that, as I know RavenCon rotates their guest list every year to keep things fresh (a practice which I heartily approve of) — it’s an honor and a joy to be a part of one of the fastest growing conventions on the East Coast, and I thank every single person who attended the con and made it such a fabulous time!

See you next year!