Readercon 27

Note: I tend to separate various entries by timestamps.  They are in reverse order, with the latest posting at the top.

Thursday 7 July 11:00 PM

Reading: Livia Llewellyn- Livia read something different then a snippet from her upcoming novel for us.  A bit of a story she wrote called "The Acid Test." It will be included in Black Feathers, an anthology by Ellen Datlow due to be released in 2017 by Pegasus Books.

Reading: Scott Edelman- Scott reads a bit of “The Man Without the Blue Balloon and the Woman Who Had Smiles Only for Him.” Since he'd JUST gotten to the reveal when time was up, I told him he needed to read the rest to me before the con was over! Afterwards he and I spent time catching up and he showed me some photos from the Bram Stoke awards in Vegas earlier in the year.

Reading: Jim Kelly-Jim's story that he read for us was picked up earlier in the day for the tenth anniversary issue of Clarkesworld. I wish I'd written the name down, but it was the story told in the first person by a 20 year old woman working in a bakery in a tourist area in the future...

Chatted with folks for a while more then headed up to crash.

Thursday 7 July 7:00 PM

Saw a few people come in--the familiarity of the faces negates any misgivings I had about attending this year. Mike and Anita Allen, Phil Merkel, Walt Williams (and his wife Margo and daughter Hannah), Yves Meynard, Scott Edelman, Liz Hand...so many others. Had dinner and hung out with Glenn Skinner who is usually the first person I seek out at the convention.  He and I took a brief look at the program, decided on our evening's events, and parted ways with a promise to catch up later. I choose to hear some readings.

Thursday 7 July 3:40 PM

"The Gathering" continues.  Like myself, I bump into a few folks who are getting to know the new digs.  Since I've been attending Readercon, it has (up until this year) been held at the Marriott in Burlington, Massachusetts. This year, the Marriott in Quincy is our hosting hotel. I have a room on the 8th floor with a nice, if distant view of the Harbor Islands.

Wednesday 6 July 7:00 PM

There are a few things that make me feel alive, beyond the whole breathing thing I mean.

The touch of my wife. The laughter of my children. A good story. Writing.

Readercon.

I know this is starting off rather dramatic. But I shouldn't be at Readercon this year. See, last November I should have died.

Twice.

The story is long and boring and I've gotten to the point where I can tell it with a few amusing asides and gripping pauses. I even throw in a pirate occasionally just to spice things up a little.

Blackadder as a Pirate. I thought the concept was gold.

But the bottom line is this: from hospital bed, through rehab and radiation....I was determined to hit many milestones during my recovery. Attendance at my favorite con is...was...one of those milestones.

Now that I have you all weeping, ready to rent your garments in grief over the bizarre story I never quite told you, it's time to put my big-boy pants on and write about the readings, the panels, and the people that bring me back year after year.