Best unspoken line at LCC: At the banquet, toastmaster Rick Riordan was explaining to us that award winner rochelle Krich couldn't be there to accept as she was speaking that evening to a gatherng of funeral directors. Given of course, that we're a bunch of mystery folks and we're surrounded by "day of the dead" and other skeleton themed stuff, seemed perfectly reasonable, if silly to us, right?

But what you gotta love is Rick's excellent timing and delivery. Because he went on to explain that the group had been nice enough to arrange to pick Rochelle up. And they sent a car.

And that's all he said. And you could hear the gears whirring as we all thought some variatoin of "And exactly WHAT KIND OF CAR did they send for Rochelle?" and Rick never had to say another word. Timing….

SO, what was fun at LCC? Being on two, count 'em, TWO program items, one as panelist, one as moderator (and having them over on Friday so I could just HANG OUT without checking my watch for the rest of the con.) Getting to at least say "hi" and wave to Adrian and Jen before Jen leaves for another continent entirely. Catching up a bit with my roommate, Janet Dawson. Running into those friends I see once a year or so like Lauren Haney and Carol and Marv Lachman, Lee Killough, Jan Long, Charlaine Harris, Tom and Enid Schantz, and Chris Aldrich, and Ted Fitzgerald and Kate Derie and Bill moody, and Rob Rosenwald and and and. Getting to meet those writers whose work I like and haven't met before. I gushed so over Steven Havill I'm surprised he didn't require a towel after my effusive "ohmigod Iloveyourwork" routine. Catching up with Shira, despite my totally fluffing where we were supposed to meet because by Sat. I was already apparently a little "duh". Getting to talk with Gary Neibuhr, not ENOUGH - who had GREAT ideas of what LCC 2007 could do for one of our honored guests. Meeting Patty Smiley and Meeting the awfully nice (and forgiving) Steven Torres and getting to talk with him about his work (and finding out my review is excerpted on his website). Tops on the list of course, though simply have to be seeing Harley Jane again and getting some time with her. And getting some serious quality time with Louise Ure - her books out in June guys. And big surprise, we're surprised when the dome at the hotel didn't crack when Cornelia Read and I finally met. Oh oh oh oh oh OH.

Things that didn't happen that were disappointing - where the heck was Keith Kahla? My buddy from St Martin's never made it and he's someone I SO look forward to seeing at conventions. He's also the editor for one of our LCC guests and I was looking forward to brainstorming and drinks with him. And NO time to talk with Barbara Seranella or Michael Dymmoch, they're SO busy and Already mentioned was that Mary Sarber was unable to hear the applause because she wasn't feeling well. That I didn't get out of the hotel for one damn meal. And um, did anyone see Peter Guttridge? If he was there, I so totally missed him, darn. Didn't ever get to meet Jim Fusilli so I could gush over him, or tell Reed Coleman how much I was liking his books.

And as my friend Lizzy said years ago about the San Francisco what-was-then "gay pride" parade (i think it's gotten a wee tad longer since i first went), if you weren't there, there weren't enough people.

Just for the record, Untied airlines handled the scooter flawlessly this go-round, easing my fears after last year's "scooter, what scooter" debacle at SFO. Breathe, breathe, breathe.

And now, back to our life, already in progress.