Penguicon seems to attract a wider range of authors and other guests than most Michigan cons. Got to see lots of old friends and some I hadn't really met or spent much time with before. Lots of fun, if a bit exhausting. I survived:

1. The 6-hour workshop/panel marathon OF DOOM. (8:00 am Sunday morning until 2:00 pm with no break.) I enjoyed the chance to do a lot of panels and keep busy, but this was a bit much. Thanks again to Angela for donating a McDonald's chicken wrap to keep me conscious through that stretch.

2. Battle with John Scalzi for the Coke Zero. Photo by Alethea Kontis (princessalethea), who has a bunch more posted. Click the thumbnail for a larger view. (I won this battle, probably because I had the advantage of youth.)

3. The writing workshop with the marvelous Cat Valente (yuki_onna). This was actually a lot of fun, and the participants seemed to appreciate it. (No crushed souls this year.) As always, I learned a fair amount myself from everyone. And I think if Cat and I were to collaborate on a novel, it would either be the most brilliant thing ever, or else the universe would implode :-)

4. The mass autographing session, which took place an hour before the dealer's room opened, and was hidden away in the back in a room which hadn't actually been set up for us. Being authors, we improvised. Elizabeth Bear (matociquala) gave a marvelous impromptu reading from some of our books to try to wake up the "crowd" (and I use that term very loosely).

5. John Scalzi's surprise 40th birthday party. Thanks again to Catherine Shaffer (cathshaffer) for scoring me an invite to the year's most exclusive event. Though it was a little creepy the way that one balloon kept trying to molest Catherine...

6. The Humor Panel. I was foolish enough to ask "Who's moderating?" Which everyone knows is a good way to get yourself designated moderator. Fortunately, I had a plan. I waited as Scalzi explained his theory of geek humor, then turned to the rest of my panel and said, "Now everyone tell him why he's wrong." Scalzi vs. Everyone makes for great panel. We had drama and conflict. Alliances were forged and shattered. We even had some good discussion in there. (You'll notice John Scalzi has been in three of these points so far. My theory is that there were multiple Scalzis this weekend. Possibly something to do with the masquerade? I think one of them may have been Wil Wheaton in disguise.)

7. Liquid nitrogen ice cream. I missed this at last year's Penguicon, but this year I managed to sneak in and snatch the very last bowl on Friday night. Go me!

Despite some scheduling madness and an impressive consuite that somehow never seemed to have any food, I had a blast. Years back, I thought of conventions as a business thing. As a new author, it was something I should do in order to network and sell a few books. These days, it's the people first and foremost that draw me back. Don't get me wrong, I was happy to hear that Larry Smith had sold a bunch of my books. Mostly though, Penguicon just had an awful lot of nifty people. My biggest regret is I didn't get enough time to spend with them all.

Most of my pics didn't turn out well. But I got a few fun shots, which are posted behind the cut for the photo haters out there.


Catherynne Valente & Jim Hines, Crushers of Souls


Elizabeth Bear reads The Stepsister Scheme.


Dan Hogan (danieljhogan). Author. Ghostbuster. Podcaster. Owner of nifty hats.


Award-winning author Mary Robinette Kowal gives a highly dramatic reading of her water bottle, while Sarah Monette (truepenny) looks on.