Wiscon 29 Con Report

This was our second Wiscon, and it was just as enjoyable as the last! I'll be splitting the report up into several entries, since it'd be huge otherwise, and I'd be up all night typing out my notes :)

Without further ado, my impressions of Wiscon 29....

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Day One - Friday, May 27
Owing to our busy week, we didn't start packing until Friday morning, and didn't leave the house until around 11am. Before Wiscon, we'd decided to visit The House on the Rock. We had some general directions, taking us up to Madison, then around to Dodgeville, WI, and finally to the house itself. It was further from Madison than we'd thought--about 45 miles west. Last year we drove up highway 90 to Madison (with a side-trip to Circus World), but this year we took a slightly more scenic route which made for a more interesting journey, and saved us half an hour in travel time!

We reached House on the Rock around 2:30pm. We weren't sure if we'd have enough time to see it all, since there's apparently about 2.5 miles of halls and twisty passageways. We needn't have worried, since we got through it in under 2 hours, and still managed to see everything to our satisfaction. I highly recommend this place if you're ever in Wisconsin--there's so much cool stuff, and it's really unique. The only downside we found was that there was so much stuff collected there, it eventually became overwhelming and we found ourselves just trying to get general impressions rather than examining everything individually.

After House on the Rock we stopped off for a buffet dinner at the Courthouse restaurant in nearby Dodgeville, before heading back to Madison for the convention.

Upon our arrival at the hotel we found the parking lot was full, so we had to park in the short-term parking area. We checked into our room, took all our stuff upstairs, and moved the car when a vacancy arose.

Our timing was impeccable. Soon after we picked up our convention packages from the registration desk, people started filing into the ballroom area for the opening ceremony. The first speaker welcomed everyone to the con, announcing that this year's attendance was the highest ever: approx. 700 people had already arrived, and total attendance would most likely surpass 900! From the sounds of it, next year they're going to have to limit attendance, since the hotel can't handle more than 1000 people.

As usual, there was a humourous play to amuse the audience. This year it was about a fan working their way up to convention organizer. There were a few amusing puns, but it was mostly groan-worthy. The opening ceremony just wouldn't be the same without it though ;)

Following the opening ceremony, we went up to our room, where I tried to get my new wireless internet card working. After much frustration and wasted time, I gave up and we went to the "Big Jumps, Long Tomorrows" reading to listen to Stephanie Burgis, Mark S. Hobson, David D. Levine, and Amy Thomson. Mark and Amy both read extracts from their novels, each having a space theme. David read from his recently completed novel, which is currently under consideration by a publisher (he's got his fingers crossed), and Stephanie read her short story up on Fortean Bureau, titled Stitching Time. All the readings were very clear and interesting, with the added advantage that they weren't at midnight when audience concentration (mine, anyway) tends to wane.

Next up was a midnight reading, entitled "Children, The Fabulous Monsters." Present at this one were Rachael Rebecca Hoffman-Dachelet, Jason Erik Lundberg, Pam McNew, Catherine M. Morrison, and Marsha Sisolak. By this time I was getting quite tired, but the readers did their damndest to keep me awake! Rachael read 4 poems, Jason read his story, "Solipsister," forthcoming in Electric Velocipede, and Pam read "A Daughter Lost," which I believe was in Chizine, and reprinted in a school text book. Marsha (editor at Ideomancer) read a story titled "Tangled String in Marble Hands," which was a reworking of a Clarion tale, and Catherine read a story called "Cut Class" (this one might've been in Say... or SciFiction--I'm not sure). All up, an entertaining bunch! After the readings, I caught up with Pam and had a long chat. She was a member of my critique group at one stage, so it was nice to finally meet her and gab about writing.

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That wraps up day one! More installments when I have a chance to type up more of my notes :)

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