All right, here's the Trinoc-con 2002 report:

Friday was the first night, and I got to hang out with a bunch of people. I spent $26 at Gavin Grant's table for Small Beer Press (I got a few more issues of LCRW, a few of CRANK!, a mini-chapbook of a Kelly Link story, and an antho with lots of great authors). I also talked to a publisher/editor at Marietta Press for a long time; we'd met at World Horror Con a few years ago. He said to check the sub guidelines at his website since they had just announced a new anthology. And I ate dinner with Andy Duncan, his wife Sydney, and his neice. And I went to the Meet-the-Authors party where I stood at the bar next to Orson Scott Card and refrained from saying anything nasty. And I gave John Kessel my rec form and sample story ("One Less") for grad school. And I went to a reading by Mike Jasper and Ian McDowell. And then I went home.

After my haircut Saturday morning, I drove back over to Durham and sat in on some panels, spent some time in the dealer's room, went to readings, got some books signed. There's an artist named Tim Mullins who produces a little semiprozine called The Dream Engine that has published a few pieces my friend Jamie has done. It's mostly an art zine, with some occasional fiction. Jamie convinced me months ago to submit my story "One Big Crunch" to Tim and that Jamie could do some artwork for the story. So I gave the story to Tim, and he read it that night. We talked about it a bit on Sunday, and he felt it could be expanded slightly, and that I should think about the elements in the story and see why they should really be in there. But he liked the story and it sounded like he wants to use it in the zine. Yay! It'll only pay in contributor copies, but that's fine. I was convinced this story would never see the light of day after sending it to ten different markets.

Saturday night, there was a staged reading of a Fred Chappell short story, "Mankind Journeys Through a Forest of Symbols," acted out by John Kessel, Richard Butner, Andy Duncan, Sydney Duncan, Jodie Forrest, and Brett Cox. It was very funny, and well-acted (for SF authors, that is). Afterward, we all went up to the hotel bar and chatted for a while. I left around midnight.

Sunday morning was more panels, and more time in the dealer's room (I spent a little more than I was expecting, but I found some really great books: Clouds End by Sean Stewart, Land of Dreams and The Rainy Season by James P. Blaylock, Strange But Not a Stranger by James Patrick Kelly, A Walking Tour of the Shambles by Neil Gaiman and Gene Wolfe, and Philip K. Dick is Dead, Alas by Michael Bishop. And the Bishop and Stewart books were signed).

I had a really fun time and got to see some people that I don't normally see on a regular basis. Trinoc-con is a fantastic convention, always entertaining, and this year was no different.

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