In no particular order, some memories of WFC 2006:

--The World Fantasy Convention in Austin was held in a great hotel, much like the one for WFC in Tempe 2004, with a large central area off of the lobby that made it easy to bump into someone I knew and wanted to talk to. This area had access to the bar, the banquet rooms, coffee shop. Let's not forget the vaulting ceiling and the hotel rooms looming over us. I wonder if convention noises bother the guests.

--We didn't stay in the hotel as Ximena's parents live in Austin. We stayed at her mom's and we drove back and forth to the hotel each day using a rental car.

--I loved the weather in Austin. I've been there in the summer months (gasp!) with the heat and the humidity, but it was quite pleasant in November--warm with no humidity. Nice.

--We checked into the convention on Thursday, the day of our arrival in Austin, and had a short day. Friday and Saturday were our main convention days. In fact, we stayed late going to party rooms and didn't get home until three on Saturday morning. On Saturday evening we went out to dinner with Ximena's family and went back to the house, planning on a respite before the World Fantasy awards. Alas, tactical error. Once we got the house we were too tired to go back out. Thus, we missed the awards and Saturday night room parties.

--Polyphony 5 didn't win best anthology, but Wheatland Press did score with best collection: The Keyhole Opera by Bruce Holland Rogers.

--As I said in my last entry, the buisness card holder was a hit. I gave out many buisness cards and received many others. Met Joe Landsdale for the first time. Talked again with Tim Powers. Spent some time table-sitting the Fairwood Press table for Patrick Swenson. Saw and briefly chatted with Ted Chiang, Ellen Datlow, Gordon Van Gelder, Dan and Sarah Hoyt, Charles de Lint, David Hartwell, and other Wordos.

--Buisness. Well, I did pitch my novel to one agent, however I don't think this agent is for me. Ximena got a submission request from an editor of The Town Drunk, after he had overheard her talking about her sock story. And Ximena's brother Julian and his wife Chelsea joined us at the convention on Saturday. Julian is a graphic artist and Ximena pimped out her brother and he came away with some good contacts as well.

--We attended the Broad Universe group reading on Saturday morning as a friend of Julian's was reading. We arrived late, but only missed the first reader, Cat Rambo. Unfortunately, Cat Rambo is Julian's friend. We still got to hear other good stories and later at the Thundercloud sub shop, Cat gave us a private reading of the story we missed.

--We introduced Julian and Chelsea to Tim Powers. Chelsea bought the new Tim Powers novel and we got him to sign it.

--Patrick Swenson gave us a free Fairwood Press book for table-sitting in the dealer's room. We gave our free book to Julian and Chelsea as a gift. They picked Ken Scholes's book and Ken was right there to sign it.

--Great hand bags came with the free books this year. Some great books, too, of course. A Terry Pratchett novel (Thud), Best Short Novels 2006 collection, and many many more.


So we're back home and OryCon is coming up this weekend in Portland. Ellen Datlow is editor guest of honor and we haven't been to OryCon in three years.