X and I went up to WesterCon in Seattle over the Fourth of July weekend. It was a fun con, perhaps the best one I've been to in awhile. Not necessarily for business, but for fun. Although when you have fun, you are networking and networking is business. No, fun + networking = painless business!

The only con to the Con was the hotel and the restaurant. The Double Tree is in the SeaTac area, near the airport. No local restaurants to choose from, really. The hotel restaurant had poor service and rather disgruntled employees. Why disgruntled? There seemed to be a battle between employees and management. And then there was the coffee. Okay, I'm a coffee snob, but we were basically in Seattle and I didn't take a shine to the coffee there.

Anyway, on to the fun stuff. X and I roomed with Jay Lake, plus fellow Wordo Blake Hutchins joined us the last two nights. Hanging around Jay at a con is always a great time. Add Frank Wu to the con and the great time increases ten fold.

Spent some money in the dealer's room. I bought Gaiman's Coraline for only five dollars. I bought a Talebones subscription. Bought a copy of Locus and said hello to Mark and Marina working there. X bought some Jewelery and a smashing Victorian coat. She looked great in the coat, then she also added Girl Genius goggles which matched perfectly.

I talked to many people I haven't seen in awhile. The Swensons of Talebones, Bridget and Marti McKenna, Eve Gordon and Harold Gross, and my Clarion classmate, Alex Irvine. I also talked to Gordon Van Gelder, an assitant editor from Tor, and, and, and others!

We stayed up late Friday night, but slept in late Saturday. Nonetheless, I was conned out by Saturday evening. By then I more reserved and tired of crowds and conversation, so I listened and observed more than talked.

Late Friday night mis-hearing the word "Aspurger's" (the syndrome) as "Assburgers" created fits of giggles. We were either tired or we had become juveniles again. Assburgers became the word of the weekend for us. Whenever the moment needed it, I called out "Assburgers!" Then Jay might say "Would you like butt cheese with that?" Now I don't think I can ever say Aspurger's syndrome without laughing.

Moving right along . . .

I came home to find e-mail about the Denise Little Workshop (Dean got the yahoogroup started) so that got me even more excited about writing after WesterCon recharged my enthusiasm. I can't wait to find out our anthology theme.

Then I got word that I'm invited to attend the Strange Horizons Oregon Coast Workshop. Woo-hoo! This means I have two workshop weekends in a row in mid-August. Wordos Aurora and Blake will also be there. I read the online journals of Greg, Jenn, and Heather. Sarah just started an online journal. It will be a pleasure to meet all of them there.

As I was falling asleep last night I realized what story I would like to workshop at Strange Horizons. I'm going to tinker with it as I continue with revising the novel.

Stories Circulating: 8

On Desk: 3