Left Coast Crime is what i refer to as my "home" convention. While I have been to, worked on and LOVE Bouchercon, having been a Fan Guest of Honor at LCC in 2001 (Ferris wheels in Anchorage in February.) and having chaired the convention twice, it is, simply, special to me. I assumed for a long time that I would attend every year, even thought I missed the first two LCCs. It's not worked out that way and never will. Either the cost is prohibitive or the travel is impossible (too many hours, too many serious complications for wheelchair travel, I could go on...) So I try to cram in all I can - making plans to meet up with people which I try to do in advance (sometimes it works!) but also relying on serendipity. This LCC felt strange to me because there are certain good friends I count on seeing, and it throws things off if they're not around. But that will always be the case with conventions.

So there I was on Friday, being oh so glad that my first of two panels was in the afternoon. I felt fine, by the way, done with the attack virus. And while I felt guilty as hell that I might have exposed my friends to what hit me, there was nothing to be done about it. Viruses don't respond to nuttin'. We slept late, ran out and Stu grabbed lunch and suddenly it was mid-afternoon and I was late to the Green Room.

The panel was going to be a fun one - how can it not be when you get to talk about your favorite books (however we all wished to define that). We had great suggestions and a very cool audience. It was, I blush to say, the first time since I was named Fan Guest of Honor eleven years ago that someone (other than me in my program bio. What, you think I won't drop that every chance I can?) mentioned it. It was a panel made up of Fan Guests of Honor. When I initially had to bow out (as it was first scheduled for 9 am. Yeah, right) they moved it. So nice. And at the end of the hour, when Stan handed each of us two red roses, well, how classy was that? (I did at first think they were doing this for every panel. Oy, I thought, they'll go broke!) well no, it was a thank you from the committee.

Race down to the dealer's room/signing area to catch up with someone who's not there. Race back up to the bar to find her. One of those "we gotta make plans weeks in advance" deals because my date was with Harley Jane Kozak, who was working harder than most of us over the weekend as she was Toastmaster. Harley and I go back a few years; when I was helping with program for the Bouchercon in Monterey, I saw her name as a panelist. I knew that name, dammit. I had filed her name away years before as someone who had stolen an entire movie from everyone in it. I had a very small "oh, some day I want to meet this actor" list. It had two names on it, both actors I thought were stupendous and had stolen movie scenes just by being so great. So I'd actually checked to see if I could possibly be wrong and when I'd written Harley about her program,I'd sorta kinda included a fangirl "ohmigod" to her. So when we met at Monterey, AND I had a copy of her first book in the books I'd received, well....oh yes. And I really like her books. I so really like her. She's so great. And we hadn't seen each other in a while. So yay, we had like oh, you know, 30 minutes or so but we caught up. A tiny bit. Mostly hearing about my birthday buddy - Harley's older daughter and I share a birthday. She has done me major favors, we've listened to each other over the years, laughed, mostly, commiserated, gossiped. She's mega-cool.

(Yes, I have met the other actor. I am so damn lucky. Found her on Facebook, sent her a fangirl "ohmigods" and when she was in Seattle a few years ago, we hung out for a while. She's Lisa Jane Persky. She too is so utterly cool.)

So like then it was evening and Stu and I headed out to dinner at a place he'd read about. I gotta say, even with a stomach bug, I can tell you that Sacramento has really good restaurants. Given that I felt fine, and knowing that nothing i ate had anything to do with what happened, we had a wonderful dinner at Cafeteria 15L. Oh wow. Lovely service and even with only a few days in town, we figured on returning.

That seems to have been Friday. I know I did more, I know I did. I know I bought Ann Parker's new book - yay - but never found Ann. I know I talked with folks about friends and planning on seeing them later in the dealer's room. I have jumbled memory of when we did what, from dumping half my clothes off to be laundered (the first time i have ever done that at a hotel. And lemme tell you, I trusted them with silk. And prayed.) I know that for a second day I thought about signing up for wi-fi in the room and calling an old friend I wanted to see, but everything was too iffy.
Hey it was now Friday and I had been in a hotel room with a window seat for two days now and I hadn't felt up to sitting in it. I have wanted a bay window and a comfy window seat since I was a little girl, dreaming of a wonderful cozy place to read and look out at the stars and well, everything you do in a cozy nook.

What a strange convention, huh? I am afraid I probably am forgetting so much but only a few days later and between sleeping late and crashing early, I have short reports. More anon.