Swancon–day three

This was my mega busy day – workshop, kaffeeklatsch, panel. It was also the most funnest day so far.

The romance crew arrived – complete with swag. I'm really intrigued by the swag of romance, versus the non-swag of sf. Gonna have to figure this out. Met them, had a chat then headed out to the Swancon panels.

I attended two of the panels of the writer's stream – one on writer's use of social media and the need for writer's to be publicists as well, the other discussing the mid-list crisis. The first was an interesting discussion on what publishers expectations are, and how writers should approach the entire social media world (the consensus – work out the platforms you're comfortable with and just do them. Better to do a couple of things well then a lot of things bad). I had to leave the second a bit early, but it was an interesting discussion of what the mid-list meant and what the changes in publishing mean for long-term career.

Grabbed a quick lunch before the sex scenes workshop, which from my perspective went really well. It was a lot more talk-oriented than I would usually do (I gave the activities out for people to work on if they wished) but certainly the impression I got was that everyone picked up something to consider next time they're writing a sex scene, which was a fabulous result.

I then ran straight to my kaffeeklatsch, picking up a lovely woman (whose name escapes me – I apologise!) on the way. Turned out there were another couple of women waiting for me too – Tracey who I've corresponded with a bit on Twitter and her friend Em. We had a fabulous conversation about process, how to get published and what it all means. For my first ever kaffeeklatsch, I think it was a hit!!!!

Then to Ian Nichols' presentation on writers and making money – v. interesting. Finally, the Meet the Voyager authors panel which ended up being fun as we shared our stories of how we coerced the wonderful Stephanie Smith to publish us [image error]

Dinner was with all the Voyager gang and a few ring-ins and it was one of the most incredible meals of my life! We went to a French restaurant – the wine kept coming all night. I had escargot for the first time and loved it!!!! Then venison – I figured if I'm here, I should go the whole hog. I'll blog a little more about this for the Voyager blog later in the week.

Back to con for a quick boogie, then a quick visit to Ellen Datlow's room party, and then home. As I said to Glenda on the way back to the hotel – I think I'm ready to call this the best con ever!!!!

Not spending a lot of time at the con today – morning and lunch with my cousin and her family. But this arvo at 5pm is the Ticonderoga Party, celebrating 15 years and launching Dead Red Heart and More Scary Kisses. Then the Ditmars. It should be fun!!!!