Friday,
February 20, 2004
ConDFW III: Day the First
First off, I've learned a valuable lesson -- finish any contracting jobs you have on the boil before you go to a con, especially if they're due the Monday after the con. I enjoyed ConDFW, but I would've enjoyed it much more if I didn't have that hanging over my head.
Nonetheless,
a good time WAS had by myself as well as lots and lots of others. Julia checked
in with me to find out when I'd be arriving on Friday -- I had a boatload of
work to finish up, so I knew I wouldn't be arriving any time earlier than 5:00
PM. Lyndon, on the other hand, had been transported there by my buddy Steve,
and the guys were propping up the bar as I arrived.
After waving hi to Julia, Lee, the Sinors, members of my writing group, members of my writing group and other friends, I stopped off in the dealer's room to pick up the copies of FOUR BUBBAS OF THE APOCALYSE I'd ordered from Yard Dog Press (had to have something to sell at my autographing session), dumped them in Julia's room (she'd most thoughtfully requested an extra key and presented it to me so that we could use her room as crash space), then rounded up Lyndon and Steve for a fast meal before the festivities began. This turned into a jaunt across the street to Grandy's along with Julia, Tim Miller, the Sinors and another gentleman who had been a lawyer in a previous life and was now writing roleplaying games for a living (and making more than he had in the legal dodge). We chowed down on cheap but filling food and yakked for about an hour, before realizing that the Opening Ceremonies were looming and we needed to hightail it back to the hotel.
So
hightail it we did, only to discover that the Opening Ceremonies were still
an hour away. Since Julia needed to pick up some supplies for the con, I drove
her out to the Target on Campbell and Coit to pick up breakfast food, chocolate
and pop (for Lyndon, who was waiting for a roleplaying game to start) and Diet
Coke with Lime (for me, so that I could mix the Drink of the Gods Saturday night).
By the time we got back, it was just about time for the opening ceremonies.
ConDFW opening ceremonies are about as casual as you can get, which is fine with me. The main GOHs were introduced, the rest of us stood up and waved as a group, and much merriment was made of the president of the local fan organization, who was wearing a set of epaulettes and carrying a fire-engine red baton under duress, poor lamb.
Afterwards,
the "Porn vs. Erotica" panel was in the same room, so Jeff Turner, Brad Foster,
Julia and myself took the table and discussed the merits and problems associated
with writing about sex. It was a good panel -- we all had different definitions
of porn and erotica, which led to a sprightly debate amongst ourselves and with
the audience. A regular on the con circuit once again offered her rather Victorian
opinions on the use of sex in writing, and we thanked her for voicing them because
they were perfectly valid and expressed one end of the spectrum. And then we
started talking about smut again.
And
finally, we repaired to the lobby for some chat and, erm, creative picturetaking
with these display elements the hotel kept on the coffee tables (how-tos on
futuristic sex toys, "I'd like to thank the academy" and "We are Siamese if
you please" are some of the comments that were bandied about the table). Yes,
we were immensely silly, but that shouldn't surprise anyone who knows con types.
Lyndon wandered though the lobby a couple of times while in his Amber LARP (Live Action Role Playing game), and was finally released after a Cthuloid monster dissolved his sanity and drove him screaming into the night (yes, I know -- Cthuloid monsters in an Amber LARP? Does it help to know that Lyndon was playing an anime girl character from Rayearth Magic Knights? Those crazy cross-genre gamers, I swear. . .). By that point, however, I was rapidly crashing from the workload of the week and a serious sleep debt, so we bid everyone a pleasant good night and left for home.
TOMORROW:
reading, fencing and books, oh my!