Monday, May 31, 6:15 p.m.

A first: I'm writing this journal entry from the plane home, which I've never done before. We're currently at cruising altitude, so I busted out the iBook to get this down. It's a little bizarre using a laptop on an airplane, but fun. Whee!

The weekend was amazing. WisCon is now by far my most favorite convention. So many people that I am friends with in the field, whether through Clarion or the blogosphere, were there in Madison. I had so much damn fun, and I wish it could go on for another week or two in order to spend enough time with everyone. But I got to have a meal with almost everyone that I wanted, which is good.

This is also the first convention I've gone to with Janet, and it was a different experience. Before, I would frantically try to hang out with people I knew in order not to feel alone, but that wasn't as big a concern this time. Granted, there were enough people there that I knew hanging around that loneliness wouldn't have been a problem, but if Janet and I felt like resting back in the hotel room for an hour or two, I didn't really feel like I was missing out, and that's a really nice change.

Anyway, on to what you've all been waiting for: the report. (Janet fills in the bits I've missed here.)

We arrived in Madison at 1:30 on Friday afternoon, following two flights that were delayed around a half-hour each. We had gotten up that morning at 5:45 so that my dad could pick us up at 6:50. The flight to Detroit was fine, and we discovered that Lena was on our same flight to Madison, though about ten rows up, so we didn't get to talk to her. After getting to Madison, the hotel shuttle took us to the Madison Concourse, and our room was ready for us to check in. Up to the room to drop stuff off, then back down to check in with convention registration. We got our name badges and other info, talked briefly to David Moles, Jay Lake and Kristin Livdahl, then to Christopher Rowe (who gave Janet her contributor's copy of Say...Why Aren't We Crying?), then it was over to the art show to help Janet set up. She was able to get another half-panel, and therefore fit all but one of her pieces (the left-off one was a sketch that she'll be displaying at Trinoc-con).

After hanging all the artwork, we walked over to the dealer's room and dropped off copies of the chapbook at the SLF table. Then we ran into Susan Groppi, who commissioned Janet on the spot to illustrate the next Strange Horizons membership card. Yay! After that, we went hunting around for food, but neither the Governor's Club nor the con suite were open yet. We walked around the Gathering for a bit, and saw Jay getting his hair braided:

fig. 1
Jay Lake is pretty

There were some items displayed for the Tiptree auction that Janet and I bid on, then we took a more thorough peek in the dealer's room. By that time, we were really hungry, not having eaten since that morning, so after getting together with Celia Marsh and Hannah Bowen, we took a walk down State Street to a little Nepalese restaurant, and sat at a table overlooked by a photo of the Dalai Lama. The food was good (Celia ate bison), and while we were eating, I noticed Jenn Reese, Greg van Eekhout and Dave Moles standing outside and trying to decide where to eat. I ran out and gave hugs and handshakes, and discovered Greg was way taller than I was expecting.

A brief pause here, as I've just been told the plane is descending into Raleigh. Back in a bit.

...

Supplemental: Tuesday, June 1, 10:45 p.m.

Okay, that was more of a break than I planned, but I was exhausted after the flight home. The story continues...

After dinner, we went to the hotel for the opening ceremonies, titled "Conablanca," which was pretty funny. Then we met up with the very cool Sarah Prineas and chatted for a bit. Then came the parties on the sixth floor. There was one hosted by Clarion and Clarion West, one by Tachyon Press to launch Leslie What's new novel Olympic Games (which we bought and got autographed; Leslie was one of our Clarion teachers, and we were really excited to see her first novel under her own name see print), and one by Small Beer Press. We got to hang out with Kelly Link, Gavin Grant, Alan DeNiro, Gwenda Bond, Christopher Rowe, Richard Butner, Barb Gilly, and a bunch of other people. I found out Diana Sherman will be at the Strange Horizons Oregon Workshop, which is cool. And John Kessel, winner of the Nebula and Tiptree Awards, wore a toga:

fig. 2
John Kessel is godlike

I headed up to bed at around 10:30, but ended up watching a bit of Conan O'Brien since it came on an hour earlier (timezone-wise) than I usually watch it.

Saturday morning, we got up at 8:30 and went upstairs for continental breakfast at the Governor's Lounge. Then I headed down to work a couple shifts at the SLF table, but found out they had it covered, so it was panel time. The first one was "Looking out/Looking in", which concerned how socio-economic issues inform the SF of a given country. There was a lunch break in programming at this point, so Janet, Lena and I first went upstairs to the Governor's Club, since they were still open for breakfast, and got a couple of snacks. Janet took this cool picture of us in the mirrored ceiling:

fig. 3
The three musketeers are reflective

We then walked out the hotel and down to the farmer's market which encircles the state capital every weekend (which was only a block from the hotel), and took a look at the fresh food and greenery. The weather was biting cold, in the mid-fifties, as opposed to the low nineties we had just come from in NC, but despite the wind and chilly temps, we walked all the way around the capital and Lena bought some pepper jack cheese curds. We came back in from the cold and took a peek at the Tiptree Bake Sale, and bought some yummy chocolates.

Then it was time for more panels. Next was "Class in SF" about how science fiction texts can deal with class issues, and how most don't show the poorest in society. That was something I noticed this time: I went to more panels about social issues than I normally would. I think this is part of being married to someone passionate about such things; Janet's gotten me thinking about these things more now.

Next was the panel about blogs and journals, with Gwenda, Susan, and Tim. It was interesting to find out what Kathryn Cramer (who was not on the panel, but in the audience) went through with right-wing extremist idiots who disagreed with what she posted. Then was the Cybernetic Magnolias panel with Richard, Christopher, Gwenda and Kelly. They had some difficulty coming up with Southern women who actually wrote genre fiction with a Southern sensibility, but an interesting discussion ensued; at one point near the end, when they were running out of ideas, Christopher looked at me and said, "Lundberg?" at which point I froze up when everyone stared, but then after a few minutes of thinking, I brought up the point made earlier about the higher frequency of Southern woman oral storytellers as opposed to writers, and wondered if maybe that was why we didn't see more in print.

Dinner time. We ran into the Clarion administrative triumvirate (Lister, Mary, and Amelia), and they mentioned they were heading to a German restaurant. Everyone piled into two cars (there were nine of us), and we drove to Essen-Haus. You had to enter from the back of the building, like a speakeasy, and on the walls were a tuba, the heads of several deer and an enormous moose, and infinite rows of ceramic steins hanging from the ceiling. At the table in front of us, they passed around a giant glass boot filled with expensive beer. Sitting across from Janet and me was a woman who had come all the way from Stüttgart to attend the convention, and next to her was Grace Dugan, who organized Clarion South in Australia and will be attending Clarion East next week.

After dinner, we went back to the hotel and watched the comedy stylings of Ellen Klages as she hosted the Tiptree auction. They raised a lot of money for the Tiptree Award by auctioning off things like rare books and jewelry, as well as a sign that Ursula K. Le Guin signed at last year's WisCon and the chance to host a smackdown between three of this year's Campbell finalists: Jay Lake, Tim Pratt and David Levine. Ellen did a really great job as auctioneer and comedian.

Party time. Up to the sixth floor for snacks at the Tor party, and we chatted with Andrew Nicolle, who's from Australia and went through very similar immigration crap that Janet went through. We also talked to Tempest. Then it was across the hall for the Ratbastards Karaoke Dancetime Spectacular. Lena played DJ all night as people requested songs and occasionally hit the right note. Ben Rosenbaum failed to hit a single note in "I Will Survive," but his gestures and dance moves made up for it. (Later, during the dance portion of the evening, he took off his shoes and performed moves I didn't think were physically possible.) I got to talk quite a bit to Jenn, Greg, SarahP, Heather and Tim, and found out that Heather and Tim will be traveling to our neck of the woods later this year.

Kristin Livdahl brought the huge bottle of champagne that she and Alan got as a wedding present, and toasted Janet and I on our recent nuptials. Unfortunately, the champagne combined with an earlier glass of wine proved to much for my little Asian snowflake, and she spent the rest of the evening sick. We headed down to the room at around 2:30 a.m.

Sunday morning I got up to attend the "Teaching F&SF" panel and let Janet sleep. I brought the iBook down and took notes. SarahP was one of the panelists and had some insightful things to say about teaching college courses in SF lit. I also noticed that my wireless internet connection was back up (the server in our room was down before). After the panel, I met up with Janet, Lena, Brendan, Celia and Hannah, and we walked back downtown for lunch. Janet informed me that Kelly Link at the Clarion panel had volunteered me to help gather testimonials to help save Clarion, and when Kelly Link asks you to help save Clarion, you do it. The sushi place we were headed for was closed, so we stopped at a sub shop and talked about pets. Then we hurried back to the hotel for the Campbell Smackdown, which was originally supposed to be full-contact rock-paper-scissors and ended up turning into gladitorial combat with giant foam tubes:

fig. 4
David Levine is triumphant, Tim Pratt is sad, Jay Lake is colorful

I took a peek at the "Movements and Manifestoes" panel, and upon seeing a sparse crowd, joined Janet and Lena at the "Scene" panel. After that, Janet and I went to the "Social Issues in Food" panel, which was really interesting and informative, even though it had nothing to do with fiction; I'm much more tempted now not to shop at the big chain supermarkets. Barth Anderson moderated the panel, and I got to introduce myself afterward; unfortunately, we didn't get to talk much, and I didn't see him for the rest of the con. At that point, we went up to the Strange Horizons tea party and had Earl Grey and biscuits while talking to a bunch of cool people. We got there after it had started, and missed Susan's announcement that Janet was doing the next membership card, but people congratulated her once we got there. We went upstairs briefly so that Janet could check her email in the room (where the wi-fi was now working again), then joined Greg, Jenn, Susan, Karen Meisner, David Moles, Jay, Heather, Tim, Susan and her boyfriend for dinner. We stopped at a pub, and Tim and Heather headed off to the Nepalese restaurant. The conversation was witty and funny, with discussions about alternate Arab history, superheroes and sneaker waves. Even though a woman was smoking next to us, it was a really nice dinner with great company.

Upon returning to the hotel, Janet and I went up to the room and relaxed for a bit, forgoing the Dessert Salon (which we hadn't gotten tickets for, though I could've sworn I'd purchased them), the Guest of Honor speeches and the Tiptree ceremony. We did make it up to the Governor's Club for dessert and coffee, then it was back down to the sixth floor again for parties. The "Fancy Dress" party had a pirate motif, and upon entering the door, Leslie What plunked a hat on my head. Nina Kiriki Hoffman made me pose with a piratical Hello Kitty pillow and Janet also got this shot:

fig. 5
Yarrr and meow

We wandered through the 2005 World Fantasy party, the LiveJournal party, and the Diversicon party before calling it a night around 10:30. We were both exhausted. Plus, I wanted to get up early the next morning for Tim's reading.

I woke at 7:30 Monday morning, ate, and headed down to hear Tim and Jay read. They and the other two readers did a great job. Tim read "My Night With Aphrodite" because of my enthusiastic comments to it at the Ratbastards party, though he often reads that one since it's a crowd-pleaser. We briefly talked in the hall with Ben Rosenbaum (the man still talked at nine-thousand miles an hour that early in the morning), then I saw Janet walking to meet me, and I helped her take down her display at the art show. She didn't sell any paintings, but she did win the award for Most Politically Incorrect for "Trouble is Brewing." We went back in the reading room to hear Kelly Link, Christopher Rowe, and another guy who I should probably know but don't. Christopher read "Bourbon Queens" and the first chapter of his novel, which shares the same universe as his very cool story "The Volunteer State." Kelly read a hot-off-the-press new story called "A Zombie Contingency Plan," which was hilarious and wonderful and made me happy to be there to hear it for the first time.

By now, it was nearing time to check out and leave, so we went in the dealer's room to settle up at the SLF table and found out we sold four chapbooks (yay!), then went upstairs, finished packing, went down to the lobby and checked out. We had to wait about twenty minutes for the shuttle to take us to the airport, so we sat on a bench in the lobby and read. I was a little sad that I didn't get to say goodbye to everyone, but that's sometimes the nature of these whirlwind conventions: people drift in and out of your sphere, and you don't always get to see everyone. Luckily, David Moles was also leaving at the same time, though his flight would leave a few hours after ours, so we got to chat in the shuttle and then in the terminal while we waited to board the plane. Ben Rosenbaum came rushing in at one point, and it turns out he was on our flight. The plane from Madison to Detroit was a nightmare; it was the most turbulent flight I have ever been on, including the one from Tokyo to Singapore that physically lifted me out of my seat. But the one from Detroit to Raleigh was bump-free.

I had an absolutely fantastic time at WisCon, and I definitely want to go back next year. I'm tired now. Wow, this was a really long entry. I thank you if you made it all the way to the end. There were a ton of people I talked to over the weekend, and I apologize if I forgot to mention you in the report. Following is (I believe) a list of the cool people I got to hang out with:

Namedrop (in no particular order): Lena DeTar, Celia Marsh, Hannah Wolf Bowen, Brendan Day, Tempest Bradford, Amelia Beamer, Lister Matheson, Mary Sheridan, Amy Thomson, Trent Walters, Andrew Nicolle, Jay Lake, David Levine, Sarah Prineas, Greg van Eekhout, Jenn Reese, Tim Pratt, Heather Shaw, Gwenda Bond, Christopher Rowe, Richard Butner, Barb Gilly, Kelly Link, Gavin Grant, John Kessel, Karen Joy Fowler, Leslie What, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Laurel Winter, Alan DeNiro, Kristin Livdahl, Christopher Barzak, Barth Anderson, John Trey, David Moles, Susan Marie Groppi, Mary Anne Mohanraj, Jed Hartman, Karen Meisner, Diana Sherman, Ben Rosenbaum.

SWAG: Rabid Transit 3: Petting Zoo, Kiss Machine no. 8, Say... no. 4, Flytrap no. 2, Alchemy no. 1, Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet no. 14, Wintering Away by Heather Shaw and Tim Pratt, The Orange Cat Club by Catherine Dybiec Holm, The I Hate George W. Bush Reader edited by Clint Willis, The Salt Roads by Nalo Hopkinson, Heaven by Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen, Dark Matter: Reading the Bones edited by Sheree R. Thomas, Olympic Games by Leslie What, Horses Blow Up Dog City & Other Stories by Richard Butner, Perfect Circle by Sean Stewart, Trash Sex Magic by Jennifer Stevenson.

Now Reading:
Steering the Craft by Ursula K. Le Guin

Stories Out to Publishers:
10

Books Read This Year:
31

Zines/Chapbooks/Fiction Mags Read This Year:
12