Convergence highlights: part 1.

{ Post written last week -- possibly 7-July-15 -- posted today. } 

A few things [maybe] before packing.  For Readercon.

Because insanity is congenital.  :P  Apparently.


The War for the Oaks review off Smart Bitches, Trashy Books via Will Shetterly.

Emma and Toni Weisskopf were the primary panelists at the Georgette Heyer panel Saturday.  About Heyer's writing influence on sf.

The best of panels.  Educational, funny, witty, fun, clever, fascinating -- taught me things I didn't know, and best of the very best, got to sit down with Heyer fans IN PERSON which aside from my folks, I never get to do.

Convergence was a great con.



I had down times like anyone does... pulled my shoulder Saturday evening [do not reach for the t-shirt when you are too short! do not let brain trick you that you can!] and some other stupid health moments.  Learnt that Bel-Vita is very soothing when tummy unhappy, so that was a double win.

Thank you, Park Plaza, for having a hot tub.  Lifesaver.  Turned me back to human Sunday.  More sleep would've been great, but fixing muscles was better.


I met many many great folks, and saw some of my authors [Wes Chu, Kelly McCullough, Emma Bull, Rachel Swirsky...]  Wow, I just realized that "my authors" is so misleading.  Some of them I've worked with, so possessive pronoun makes sense.  Some are favorite authors.

Editor Lee Harris was fabulous all the time, as always.  Went to the author storytime for kids Saturday night.  Lee, Paul Cornell, Doug Hulick, and five others read.  That was a lot of fun!

They read Neil Gaiman, Shel Silverstein, Dr. Suess, and others I know not.  I should tell you up front that Lee brought a ringer along to make sure he read his funny book to the kids, who adored it -- as did we adults.  :D


I volunteered at con and hung out with the volunteer desk a lot as well.  They let me adopt them as a posse and that was very good.  Vol-desk also liked me bringing them lattes, cookies, and chatter.

Instead of the 4-6 hours I thought I'd work in reg, I hit ten hours!  Note that they round up, so it was closer to 7.5 [ETA to add the missing words here, 5-Sept-15].

Ended up doing an hour at the vol-desk -- plus the snack/drink runs on my time because I like them and they were trapped at desk after all; then a half-hour in cafe-E.  Barely an hour badgering, then 4 hours in the silent auction.  Sunday 2+ hours in the Volunteers Den.  Where they do indeed have the Good Foodle.

So I got some boodle, as the Saint would say.  Plus the lattes from cafe-E are wicked cool.


If you like parties, try Convergence.  If you want an accessible con, same.  And if you always wanted just a good PBJ, or Nutella, or Japanese candies, or latte, or chai, or...

Just try Convergence, okay?  It had LOTS of neat things, a variety of parties, so many costumes and cosplay I can't even, and wow.  This is what Worldcon's party con would be if Worldcon had an annual separate con that did parties, panels, cosplay, and All Things Fannish in one regular place.

Plus Minnesotan fandom is serious about fun cons.

Just note that I went through 5 hotel bookings to get to ours.  That is a saga of epic wtf all its own, and not the sort of problem I've ever had with any con.  Granted, La Quinta broke and its sister hotel couldn't do con shuttle, but still.  Talk about holy wtf.