Capclave etc

So it's been an exciting couple of weeks! To recap, I went away on a writing retreat for a week, was a guest at the Brown Library Comic Con in Green Bay, Wisconsin, came back home to a strained muscle in my back that had a spasm, which made me faint in the kitchen and fall down and have a giant bump on the head and have to go to the emergency room. But I had CapClave (https://www.capclave.org/capclave/capclave19/) this past weekend and we also planned to go early so we could go to some museums.

By last Wednesday when it was time to leave, my back and head were mostly better, so we were able to get there with no problem. The con hotel in Rockville is right next to a metro station, so on Thursday we took it into DC and spent the morning at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum. We also had lunch there, and I had seen reviews on the museum web site that mentioned the cornbread muffins, and yes, they are delicious. I hadn't been there since I was a kid, so it was very cool to see it again. In the afternoon we went briefly to the American History Museum, where Adam Rippon was doing a book signing and I got a signed book for a friend. Then we still had time so we went to the Air and Space Museum, which was being remodeled but the big stuff, like the Skylab walk-through and the other rockets and capsules were still open. We saw the African American Museum from the outside, but it was packed with people. After that we took the metro back and met up with the con committee to go to a dinner with the other guest of honor, Rob Sawyer. The next day on Friday, the con started.

And I had a fabulous time. It's a small convention, with a little over 300 attendees, but it's run by a very experienced group that will also be doing the WorldCon in DC in 2021, and there were lots of great panelists. I got to share a reading with Sarah Pinsker, and do panels with Natalie Luhrs, Suzanne Palmer, Kellan Szpara, Alan Smale, Brenda Clough, Keith DeCandido, and a bunch more great people and got to hang out with Victoria Janssen and her friend Natalie, and have lunch with Rob Sawyer and his wife Caroline, and to have dinner with David, a friend who grew up in College Station, and meet his friends.

It was a very friendly convention and they gave out "First Capclave" ribbons to people who were there for the first time so they could welcome them, and I just had a great time.

I also did two video interviews, one with Mike Zipser for Fast Forward and one with Jean Marie Ward for Buzzy Mag. I'll put up links to those when they get posted.

The programming rooms were all in one corridor, with the dealers room and consuite nearby, so it was a cozy setting and the hall was filled with conversation. Saturday night, in the big atrium of the hotel, there was a mass autographing for all the guests, cake for everybody, and they did the WSFA Small Press Award for short fiction, which went to "The Thing in the Wall Wants Your Spare Change" by Virginia Mohlere, published in Luna Station Quarterly.

So it was a great convention and I highly recommend it. Especially if you're new to conventions and want to start with something active but not so large that it's overwhelming.

Our flight was at 5:40 am on Monday, so we left the hotel with the wonderful Mike and Beth Zipser, who live much closer to the airport. We went out to dinner with them at a delicious Afghan restaurant and hung out for a while, then they were awesome and got up with us at 3:00 am to get us to the airport on time.

And now I'm behind on everything because I didn't get much done while I had the head injury, so I have a lot to catch up on.

ETA: Oh crap, I'm half asleep so I almost forgot one of the best parts. At the mass autographing, Bill Lawhorn the chairman gave Rob Sawyer and I customized Vincent Villefranca bronze statues. https://twitter.com/marthawells1/status/1186637963951853568

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