Windycon wrap-up

[chris_gerrib]

I'm back from Windycon, my local science fiction convention. I'll probably do a more formal post about my panels, but for this post I'll just discuss my broad stroke impressions.

The after-hours parties this year seemed somewhat, well, underwhelming. Friday night's Isfic Press's launch party, for Tanya Huff's book Finding Magic, was in my view the best. Tanya is a good conversationalist, and the noise level was such that conversation was actually possible. Isfic runs a dry party, but those who plan ahead (like me) can bring suitable potables along.

Speaking of Tanya's book, I had a down period on Saturday early evening, and got about halfway through it. It's really enjoyable. The story "I Knew A Guy Once" was great, "He Said, Sidhe Said," was a hoot, and "Not That Kind of War" was a solid prequel to her Valor series. I'll have a more formal review up, but from what I've read so far, you could do yourself a favor and by Finding Magic today.

Since the party scene was not to my taste, I ended up spending a lot of time hanging out with jimhines and his buddy / fellow author Tobias Buckell. (Honest, guys, not stalking or anything.) Also present were the entire staff of JABberwocky Literary Agency, all two of them. Toby and Jim are cool guys to hang with, and Joshua Bilmes, the chief cook and bottlewasher at JABberwocky, is nice and clearly knowledgeable about publishing.

Lastly, I also did the writer's workshop on Saturday. I'll probably post more on that later (this is more to remind me then inform you) but I found the workshop helpful as usual. There was a bit of a scheduling snafu and I was late, but our moderator made everything work with a minimum of fuss.

Overall, good time as usual, and I'll have more to say about the con later this week.

Comments

[jimhines.livejournal.com]

'Twas good to see you! I'm hoping to write something up on it myself, as soon as I wake up. (We got in at about 1 am last night. Whee...)