Contact High

Wow, MarsCon was a blast.

The overall con report is on my personal blog, but let me tell you about the writing and editing stuff in particular.

There are people you admire from afar. You think, "I could never be that clever and talented and cool."

Sometimes, you're lucky enough to meet those people in person, and sometimes, you're lucky enough that they're just as clever and friendly in person as they seem to be on their Facebook page (or whatever). And then it seems they actually like you back and are genuinely amused by your anecdotes and interested in your opinion, and your mind... it is blown.

That was my whole weekend.

Every panel I was on included Helen Madden (aka Cynical Woman) and she was snarky and funny and brilliant, and she spent the whole weekend crocheting a devil-doughnut and taunting me with her adorable amigurumi books and making me want to run out to the craft store right now. (I challenged her to have a panel next year on kinky crafts. I'm not sure, but she may have accepted that challenge.)

I sat on three panels with Shokolada, trading quips and talking about the differences between self-publishing and editing for a publisher, and the differences between erotica and erotic romance. Later, his lovely ladyfriend stopped me in the hall to tell me that she'd really enjoyed them. (And apparently she also asked a friend of mine whether I was a dom or a sub, which I found incredibly flattering.)

I was in a writing contest against Kathryn Lively, and there was actually a smidge of doubt as to the winner. (I posted my story yesterday, if you missed it.)

I sat in a plotbuilding workshop with Allen Wold, who is practically a professional writing workshop instructor and who never fails to teach me a lot. In the room with me were at least two would-be writers who'd been at some of my panels the night before and who were obviously building stories that were better than mine could ever hope to be.

AR Moler stopped Lynn and I in the hallway and we made plans to all go out for coffee sometime soon.

JM Snyder and I spent a good chunk of one panel entertaining the audience with our favorite editing nightmares. I got to use the line, "My safeword is Oxford comma," and it got a fantastic reaction from the room.

I handed out business cards and postcards and bookmarks and collected many of the same. I'm absolutely positive there's someone I'm leaving out of this report that I will kick myself later for forgetting.


I came home exhausted from lack of sleep and aching from all the walking (seriously, someone with a pedometer clocked it at nearly a quarter of a mile from the Con Suite to the dealer's room)... and I already can't wait for next year's.