Balticon 48 Wrapup

As I write these initial words, I’m flying home from Balticon as the plan complete’s it’s initial climb to altitude.  We’ve just hit that 10,000 feet level and as I look out the window at the miles and miles of land and the homes, businesses, and shopping centers… all of which are almost 2 miles below me, I’m marveling at the perspective from way up here.

Perspective

Every year brings the family reunion to which we always look forward.  2014 marks my fourth Balticon in five years and like every year that has come before this, I am jetting back to Chicago ever more grateful and appreciative of this wonderful family into which I have been accepted.  As with all things, time has changed us both as individuals and as a whole.  Some familiar faces could not attend.  Others have returned after having been away for a while.  Still other new and fresh faces (and voices) have stepped up and been welcomed into the fold and I find it refreshing to see that the more the individuals who comprise this family grow, change, and evolve, the more that we, as a whole, remain what we have always been- a community of warm friendly, welcoming creatives, fans, friends, and colleagues.

For me, I try to define each Balticon by bringing home new meaning and harnessing that into something I can use moving forward.  This year has been a little more difficult than in years past.  This has been the first year I have had a print book available to sell and promote.  This year was the first year I didn’t have the specter of the CPA exam looming over me either as an item on my 3-5 year agenda or as an in process item.  This was the first year I attended a Balticon with a podcast novel in production.  This was the first year where it seemed like that fabled plan I so often spoke of in my older posts, was actively starting to show progress.

And with that in mind, I had expected to come out of Balticon with an explosive burst of creative energy that screams “OHMYGODINEEDTODOEVERYTHINGNOWANDSTARTNEWPROJECTS!!”

But that didn’t happen.  At least not as I expected.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not stymied nor am I burned out and I did pick up a new collaboration.  But that urge to sit down and burn through it all in one great massive binge… did not happen.

So how do I sum up Balticon?  Good friends?  Check.  Good sales?  Oh yes… sold out.  Check!   Panels?  Check.  Fun late nights?  Check!  But even with these awesome checks on my list, I wasn’t really sure how to sum it all up until I sat in on the live recording of The Shared Desk (and got demoted to the Winnebago… twice) where Tee Morris summed it up perfectly.

Perspective.

I come home and I re-enter the real world with a new perspective.  From an interesting conversation I had with CWSeidman on gender based social issues, to a very heartfelt, sobering, and yes tearful heart to heart I had with Philippa Ballantine, to my passive and active observations of others and the way they inter act with not only me, but with others, and even to a friend of mine who, less than 12 hours after coming back from an overseas trip, traveled up to BWI from DC to sit and have lunch with me before my return flight, there has been quite a lot to take in and assimilate.

This is a good thing.

I don’t yet know if Balticon 2014 was a ‘breakthrough’ event for me.  I am only a few hours removed from it as I write this on the plane, (and a day removed as I later key this into wordpress) and not all of the adrenaline has simmered quite yet.  (Actually it has after having to go to work and I’m exhausted.  ) But I do know that Balticon 48, like all the Balticons I have attended before it has given me much about which to think, reflect, and grow even if it wasn’t in the way I had anticipated.  This is not a bad thing.  Often times we are not given what we want.  We are given what we need.

So, for the fourth time in the four Balticons I have attended, the convention has been a personal success.  I have a few hours of audio that were recorded and I’ll be dropping into the feeds in the coming days and weeks.  I’ve made some new business related inroads and laid down plans for the summer and beyond.  I sold out of the Cybrosis inventory I brought with me.  (Thank you to all who purchased)   I have reconnected with old friends, caught up with others, met new and wonderful people I haven’t yet had the chance to know and I’ve learned a few things to boot.  What more can one ask for?  Oh right… Balticon 49.

352 Days away…

…and eagerly counting.