SWANCON

All gone now. It had its ups and down for me this year. I felt somewhat disconnected from everyone, a combination of neck pain and real life getting in the way of totally immersing myself in the Con. However, catching up with Tim Powers again was brilliant, as was the reaction to the Alternative History Game Show: they were hanging off the rafters, and the whole thing was riotous. I'm repeating the performance next year, so I've got 11 months to come up with a set of even-more-bizarre historical tricks to play. A whole bunch of people told me they had pictures of the thing afterwards: please send!

Other highlights include winning a whole bunch of stuff at the Swancon 30 launch, including a poster each for all the kids; being referred to as "annoyingly prolific and talented" by the annoyingly prolific and talented Stephen Dedman, and as having a "coruscating imagination" by the astonishing Dave Luckett; watching the overwhelming public support for Lyn's issue of ASIM-- at least one member of the Con walked up to her out of the crowd and said it was "the best issue they've ever done, and the only one he's read the whole way through." The Luscious One was beside herself with happiness after THAT one :) ; and getting a loooonnngg round of applause when swancon 30 announced our wedding will be at their Con! (To quote my stepdaughter Cassie: "Can't you two stop being nerds for just ONE minute?"). The Aurealis Awards Ceremony was an unintentional highlight: it's hard not to laugh when not a single winner is at the Convention, and you're left with a series of people accepting awards on behalf of others. And watching poor Shaun Tan try to work out different things to write as we cornered him and made him sign a big pile of books for the kids was fun, too (Aiden is a HUGE Shaun Tan fan, and when he found out we were going to see him, bailed us up and said "Buy! Meet! Sign! Got it?" We got one, Aidey!!!)

All in all, it was a reasonably good way to start the holiday. Other people will undoubtedly have longer con reports out by now (I'm typing this on the public terminal at the hotel, so can't be bothered paying 2 bucks per half hour to spend ages reminiscing). Go check them out.

BRISBANE

...is hot, muggy, and has the most annoying public transport in the world. Saw the Maritime Museum this morning: very cool. The restaurant at the hotel is cheap, and delicious-- it's hard to hate a city that has so much fish on the menu :) Off to the Queensland Museum this afternoon, before meeting with a few friends from the Vision Writing group at dinner tonight. More sightseeing tomorrow before we hope to catch up with the excellent Brisbanian writer Geoffrey Maloney. We miss the kids like crazy- this is one of those cities that seem built for kids, with playparks and cool stuff all over the place. We're well on the souvenir trail for them, and we're sending them a postcard every day: this morning's one came from the Museum of Brisbane, and tomorrow's we got at the Maritime Museum. It's all go...

It has inspired at least one story idea though, so I may have something in first draft form by the end of the week. It's just that there's this one building I can see from our hotel window, and it just doesn't belong with all the other buildings...

AND A SALE!

Sold Silk to All-Star Zeppelin Adventure Stories. And they said there'd be no market for haunted time-travelling barrage ballon stories... :) I'm 3000 miles away from the photocopied submission guidelines taped to my office wall, but it strikes me that it might be the last sale I need for SFWA membership. which would be cool, too :)

Off to the pool deck now. :)