Like I’ve Never Been Away

But I have been, see? It’s just that between the close of the working day one Tuesday evening and rolling back into the office another Wednesday morning, the last week at World Fantasy seems like such a seamless splice into my life that already I’m wondering if it happened or if it was just some half-remembered very weird late night movie. This is perhaps no more than an example of the way my brain works on jetlag. Probably.

So, obviously I’m in no shape to deliver anything approaching a coherent con report, nevertheless I’ll do my best to throw down what impressions remain.

Well, I was on a panel about “regional fantasy”, which went okay. The other panelists (Jay Lake (American), Fiona McIntosh (Australian) and Holly Phillips (Canadian)) were all charming, witty and interesting. And we hardly ever deviated from the subject.

I did a reading too. The Gubbins (which will be familiar to members of the British Fantasy Society and people who attended the Word Dogs reading at the Ingram bar prior to Eastercon) went down well. I also read a passage from the novel, about which I was pretty nervous; but no-one fell asleep and no-one attempted to assault me, so I guess that went down all right too.

Didn’t win an award for Nova Scotia, but then I didn’t expect to. Was a little surprised that the Fair Folk book won the category ahead of Adventure and Polyphony 5, but I have it home with me and will be able to make my own mind up about it at some point.

Came home with LOTS of books *sigh*.

But…friends. First and foremost, WFC is about friends. Old ones and new ones. If I try to mention everyone I met I’ll end up forgetting people, so I won’t, but I enjoyed everyone’s company. Here, however, are some random nuggets that will mean little to anyone but those involved:
– Jeff and Ann: “velvety and curvy”. You two are always a joy.
– Robert: thanks for putting up with four days of unintentional snubbing and showing me your old haunts on the last day. I hope the dapper marionette gets the exposure he deserves sooner rather than later.
– Nancy and Alex: an excellent reminiscence of the Milford days, especially the excitement of the Southern-cooked meal with Robert, Deborah (hi, at last!), Rick and Therese and all the chat afterward.
– Chris and Allison: Mr Dunc told me you were a pair of diamonds, and he *never* lies. Thanks for looking after him after his little incident.
– JK: sorry (again) for the book gaffe, you’re a gentleman through and through.
– Gavin, Kelly, Kristin, Alan: good to see all of you again, and glad I was able to take your money in exchange for my old rope. Hope you enjoy it.
– Caselberg: [insert insult here], then deliver it to yourself, but with fondness.
– Darren: enjoyed our late night chat, man. Didn’t realise how intense it got. Thankfully the arrival of the delightful Ms Sparks jollied us up some. Hope you found that party.
– Holly: good to meet you m’dear. I suspect I’ll be commenting (in a very positive sense) about your collection which I read half of on the plane home. Have a whisky for me next time you get together to do the music thing.
– and Al: it was a pleasure and an honour to be flying the gsfwc standard by your side during the awards. Hope your head heals quickly. Ya numpty.

And then I came home, and now I’m here and trying to resist checking out how much an air fare to Saratoga Springs is. Not that I’m thinking of going, of course.