First off, I've never before attended a WorldCon, and this is only my second Sci-Fi Con (the first being AggieCon earlier this year). I don't know why I haven't before. It's probably a combination of two things.
First, I work for a miniatures company. Being so involved with games cons (Gen Con, ReaperCon, Origins, etc.), most of the time Sci-fi cons or fan cons were off my radar. I just looked at them with a quizzical head-tilt and wondered "what do they do there?"
Second, ridiculous as it sounds, there was some fear of just not fitting in with the people who attended. If I allow myself to actually think about it for a full second, that is a goddamn silly thing to think for a woman who grew up watching Dr. Who and Star Trek and who started reading Anne McCaffrey and Piers Anthony at age 8 or 9.
I can blame my newfound Con involvement almost entirely on Parris McBride (and I suspect I am not the only one who can say that!). Parris LOVES fandom and conventions. She met her now-husband George R.R. Martin at the Cons, long before Game of Thrones. Parris was always asking me (and then Zak, my husband) if we were going to attend AggieCon or WorldCon. AggieCon is always in Texas, but WorldCon moves to a different city worldwide every year. This year the city was San Antonio.
At first I was skeptical. And that's an understatement. I have a busy life. I have to partition my spare time carefully. And, as I said, there were doubts number one and two sitting there in my head. But AggieCon would be short, and pretty inexpensive to attend. And George was the Guest of Honor. Sure, I'll go!
Long story short, Zak and I had such a great time that we ended up texting our dog-sitter and begging him to watch the dogs for an extra day so we could stay longer than we'd planned!
So, suddenly WorldCon was on the table. And to my surprise, it was my husband suggesting that we go!
I think almost anyone who's written science fiction or fantasy has at one point dreamed of the Hugo awards. There are others--the Nebula, the World Fantasy Awards--but the Hugo was the first. Many of my idols, the authors who I most adored as a kid (C.J. Cherryh, for one) were Hugo-award-winners. If we went to WorldCon we could vote for the Hugos! Wow! That sold me. Getting to vote was really cool.
Second, George and Parris were going, and their minion Raya who has become a good friend. George was nominated for a Hugo for The Battle of Blackwater episode from Games of Thrones on HBO. So between them (though we knew that George would be incredibly busy) and many of my Viable Paradise instructors who were attending, at least I knew some people.
And there were panels and seminars about all sorts of writing stuff. Lovely! I would have things to do.
Well...turns out I wasn't quite prepared for how MUCH I had to do!
Every morning I would haul myself out of bed (sometimes after having put myself into bed at a gawdawful early hour and after several-too-many Shiner Bocks), stagger downstairs, stuff breakfast/brunch into myself and then take off for three to five HOURS of panel discussions. Then we would meet people for dinner. Or we would go out by ourselves, just Zak and I, and have fun realizing which of our favorite authors were at the next table!
I met up with a couple of my Viable Paradise classmates, Sean and Jake (thanks for the awesome dinner invite, Jake! We had a blast!). I was able to touch base and at least say hello to almost all of my VP instructors who were there, and a couple of them (Teresa Nielsen-Hayden and SFWA President Steven Gould) were generous with their time. BIG thanks to Steven and Laura Mixon for a few moments of their time today before they left Steven's signing. Our talk was inspirational, and it left me fired up to continue to improve my writing. :)
The Hugo awards were terribly fun and it was even more fantastic to see friends and instructors win!! My instructor Elizabeth Bear won for her SF Squeecast podcast, Patrick Nielsen-Hayden for his excellent editing, and John Scalzi won the coveted Hugo for Best Novel (YAY Scalzi! Zak and I both voted for you!). :) Plus, George won for Blackwater!! A phenomenal night, so much fun.
I walked away from this WorldCon with:
A very long chain of colorful ribbons attached to my badge (they call it "con-beard" but I am calling it "con-tail", as in pony-tail, because I am female, dammit)
Many new friends in the Brotherhood Without Banners fan club for George R.R. Martin. We wore many of their ribbons, a couple of their t-shirts, and the awesome pins designed by Raya Golden! We have also made some fantastic new friends. Thank you all so much for welcoming Zak and I into your circle!
A bottle of Ommegang brewing's Game-of-Thrones-licensed "Take the Black Stout" which I got to drink at the private Brotherhood party and then have both George and actor Rory McCann (who plays the Hound in the HBO series) autograph the next day;
SIXTEEN PAGES of notes from my panel discussions
Renewed acquaintance with many of my VP instructors
Did I mention "new friends"? Not only the BWB peeps but we met some wonderful people at the dinner Jake Kerr invited us to. :)
A big respect for what it takes to organize a big international event. Organizing ReaperCon is a cakewalk compared to this.
A flood of inspiration and ideas on things to improve in my own writing;
And finally, last but not least, a husband who says that *maybe* we can get ourselves to WorldCon 2014...in London!!!
Pics or it didn't happen? Of course! Check back tomorrow...
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