Millennicon 28 AAR

Reading Pixie Noir on Saturday. Yes, that's my balloon buddy.

It was a good weekend, for all that it was a pleasant surprise, and, ah… interesting to schedule around my existing events. We weren't present much on Friday and Saturday outside my scheduled panels, due to that. 

The highlight of the weekend for both of us was meeting Christopher Stasheff, the First Reader's favorite fantasy author. I had the honor of interviewing him on Sunday morning, which you can find at According to Hoyt this morning. 

I was also mightily tickled to meet and shake Mike Resnick's hand. One thing about this whole adventure has been getting to meet authors. Far from my childhood when the people who wrote the books I immersed myself in were mythical creatures as far above me as could be imagined, now I can sit in a room and laugh as the man himself reads and cracks jokes. 

My first panel was on the lines between fantasy, dark fantasy, and horror. This led to an interesting conversation about shadowing, and genre marketing, and what makes horror, versus merely dark. I met Tim Waggoner, who was seated next to me, and Addie J. King, who did a very deft job of keeping us all on topic and the conversation moving. It came down to shadows, we decided, there are no real lines between the three named genres. 

Saturday I was part of a group reading, which I found out on Friday, having had no idea until I talked to people at the con. I also found out on Satuday that the group reading was ostensibly for members of Broad Universe, something I had never heard of, and am certainly not affiliated with. But I made the listeners laugh with part of the first chapter of Pixie Noir, cut short by my need to run away to Dayton for an event. 

The fanfiction panel at Millennicon, left to right: Cedar Sanderson, Jim Hines, Steve Leigh, Michelle, and Steve Saus

Sunday I had both a panel, and afterward, a signing. The panel, on fan fiction versus 'real fiction' was interesting. I do hope that Michelle, who likely will never see this blog, takes her seedlings of ideas and grows them. The conclusion drawn from this panel was that fan-fiction is more a legality, stemming from writing in worlds where copyright prevents the stories from being salable. Not-fan-fiction are stories like fairy tale re-imaginings and mythological reinterpretations. But all of it is real writing. 

We finished Sunday out with my interview of Chris Stasheff, which was a great honor for me, and listening to David Burkhead read his Live to Tell. I'd read it before, but it's very good, an accurate portrayal both of PTSD, and coping with that under adverse circumstances. I highly recommend it. 

I came home exhausted, transcribed the interview, and then slept for about 13 hours, worrying the First Reader. But I feel much better this morning, and almost ready to tackle math anew!