Worldcon

Lyda Morehouse has written about feeling a fraud at cons, especially big, out-of-state cons, even though she has published 13 novels, all but one with big New York publishing houses. The people around her at the con are so much more famous.

I have a similar experience, though I don't feel a fraud -- I am authentically myself -- I feel a failure. Lyda parties all the harder when she feels low. I curl up in a ball in my hotel room.

So I went to Worldcon and did my four panels. Three went pretty well. One drifted off topic. No one -- including the audience -- cared.

Patrick and I went to the Chicago Architectural Foundation shop, which is wonderful, and to the Carson Pirie & Scott building by Louis Sullivan and to the Marshall Fields building by Daniel Burnham. The Sullivan building is amazing, especially the architectural detail around the entrance. I thought someone should have told Louis to lay off the LSD. The foliage writhes and twists so much! Marshall Fields is impressive. There is an atrium that goes all the way to the roof, topped by a skylight, and a shorter atrium that ends with the world's largest barrel vault by Louis Tiffany. The world's largest barrel vault by Tiffany is something to see.

The biggest disappointment was the Chicago Art Institute. The lines outside were so long that we decided to skip it. We have visited it before, and will go again.

Other than that, I went to no parties at the con. I don't like the noise and crowding. I met some new people whom I liked. I saw some established friends. I had a terrific conversation with an astronomer about why (most likely) Venus does not have a magnetic field and why this might matter. Plus, I got her email address.

Our hotel room had a view down 18 floors to the Chicago River and the tour boats going back and forth.

The drive down was pleasant, though the green hills of Wisconsin go on forever. The drive back was smooth, and we made good time, but we were tired.