WorldCon was a flat out sprint through a notional, once a year college campus (I of course had the Community theme going through my head all week). You never see everyone you want to see for long enough. This year, for the first time, we also didn’t get to sit in any panels we weren’t running bar one. But you do, if the wind is right, get a string of amazing experiences and this year the wind was extremely right indeed.
-Dinner with Sandra Odell, Rachael K Jones, Alex and Melissa Hofelich and Marguerite was one of those moments where you realize that your extended family is full of some of the best people you know.
-Every moment spent with the incredible EA family. We work with deeply lovely humans and I got to meet more of them this year than I ever have before. Also if four of them can make a taco pulley (Video next week I swear), then imagine what 30 could do?
-Chatting with Julia Rios, Claire Rousseau, Pablo Defendini, Dave Robison and so many other fiercely talented people.
-Meeting authors like EM Markoff, Alexandra Rowland and the mighty Margaret Dunlap for the first time. And, with their help, bringing a potentially choppy panel into a smooth landing.
-The Positivity Intervention, where Marguerite and I were basically ambushed by our people who told us how amazing we are and how much they love us.
-So we were standing in line for the official Hugo portraits. The Escape Pod crew get called, we all file up and…suddenly the photographer, the lovely Olav Rokne, grabs me by the arm and goes ‘I have voted for you for Best Fan Writer for the last four years. You need to be on that ballot’ and then thanks to Mur we take the best photo I’ve taken all year. Here it is.
-Sarah Gailey, who is both one of my favorite humans and favorite authors going out of her way not only to tell me that I’m a massive part of why she writes but that she will tell me this every single time we meet. There is a photo of us talking, which Marguerite has called ‘My favorite fan writers’. It’s my other favorite photo of me this year.
A week in Greendale. A week with some of the best people I know. We left inspired, exhausted and energized. Onward, to To Do List mountain!