#MisCon: author life and geekery

This past weekend (and actually today, Monday, too), has been the Missoula Science Fiction & Fantasy Convention, commonly known as MisCon. This is my third or forth year attending, and second (I think??) as a panelist. It's always a blast and this past year has been no exception. There's no shortage of great costumes (people are SO creative), wonderful other authors to chat with, and tons of writing workshops with super fun topics, and really a much needed boost on my part in terms of getting my writing mojo in gear for the summer.

This year, I got my schedule for the panels and did a little head scratching. Building a Better Monster? Writing the Future? Becoming Human? These were a few of the panels I've been on that left me going, "huh, very fun, but not what I was expecting." Then, while doing a signing, I ran into a former student who's now one of the organizers. She laughed and admitted that she'd been the one to put me on the panels, knowing about my anthropology and science background. (Gotta love being a professor in a small town--it takes no time at all before you have strange connections to everyone!)

Definitely had a blast talking about Building a Better Monster--especially as we ended up talking about how so many "monsters" are alone on their planets, or don't seem to exist within a normal ecosystems, and how to fix that. Totally made my nerdy heart happy. Plus, there were great other panelists and definitely lots of fun to be had with the audience.

I often find myself wishing this convention were a couple of times a year, though that would probably just exhaust me. Though, maybe that's just a sign that I need to attend more of them? :)

Have you been to a comic book or sci-fi/fantasy convention before? What did you think?