Okay, just a quick wrap-up here so I can remember all the fun odds and ends from this past weekend's con. Indulge me. For some reason there is a 2-hour gap in my memory from late Saturday night/early Sunday morning, which I'll blame on the pink stuff. Oy. Speaking of indulgences... Ouch.

Lunch at Jaleo on Saturday was fun, and I got to meet Nathan Ballingrud and others, ate lots of crazy tapas including octopus (chewy and room temperature), buffalo, duck, squid, and other weird appetizers. This was set up by John Klima of Electric Velocipede, and also in attendance was his wife Shai, William Shunn (who ordered blood sausage, which was good stuff!), Jay Lake, Jim Minz and his wife, a couple who I didn't get to meet, and Laura Resnick. A good time, and I'm really glad John invited me, even if he never seems to smile.

I sat next to Jay and Nathan, and having really liked Nathan's story at Sci Fiction a while back, I can tell he's a writer to watch. I'm glad I got to chat and drink sangria with him.

That afternoon I went to Strange Horizons tea party, which was packed, chatted with Aynjel Kaye about erotica and bus pirates and got to meet Gwenda Bond (I'd met Christopher Rowe earlier that day, at some point), talked briefly to Dora Goss about things interstitial (after the very interesting panel that afternoon with her and Greg Frost and Ben R. and Chris Barzak), and chatted with the very talented Carrie Vaughn (Carrie and I commiserated about selling stories in nice places but not having luck with our novels, not yet, not yet...). Susan announced that SH is going to 5 cents a word in January, which was cool, as that's when she takes over as editor in chief.

After the tea party was over, I realized I needed to eat something, so Jenn, Aynjel, John, and I trekked over to Kelly's, a cool Irish pub with cheap eats and Guinness, and on the way I ran into my Clarion classmate Rosie Smith, who is friends already with Jenn and John. Small world. So we had a really fun time at dinner, and I made it back to start setting up for the party about half an hour late.

The party was pretty fun, if really really packed. I'd let Stephen Jones and his friends use the suite beforehand, and they left us almost 10 bottles of champagne along with that "pink stuff" I mentioned earlier. I think it was mostly vodka. I've had some bad vodka experiences, dating back to the last night of Clarion... It tasted GOOD, though.

At the party, people did some readings from the various books for sale, including a reading from Jay and his Greek chorus and a kick-ass three-way reading by the attending Ratbastards. Jason, Christopher Rowe, and Lawrence Schoen also read stuff. It was quite cool, even if not a lot of books were sold. I was glad to see so many people interested in small presses and reading good fiction.

Afterwards, there was more of the pink stuff, and then we went back to raise hell at the Tor party, lamps were almost broken, and then we ended up at the bar, where I got to autograph my first chest. It was a hairier chest than I'd expected it to be, but hey, Nick Kaufman asked me to sign his chest, and I didn't want to let the man down!

Sunday I slept late, cleaned up the party suite, checked out of the rooms, checked my bags, had a huge early lunch with Jason and Jenn, took a walk down by Union Station and got some water and Gatorade from a kiosk, got lost near Georgetown law school, made it back in time to go to Nina Kiriki Hoffman's reading, hung out a bit more, went to the WFC awards, was pleased to see who won (go Jeff Ford! And Night Shade Books!), and then it was off to catch the train. I always get stressed about being someplace on time when I'm not driving, so I almost ran there, nearly killing Jason who was lugging 50 pounds of books behind me. I'm wound a bit too tightly, I know. I hate being late!

I ended up not lugging home as many books as planned. I didn't keep any of the free books, and Deb Layne hooked me up with a great deal for the three new Wheatland Press books: POLYPHONY 3, GREETINGS FROM LAKE WU, and the Howard Waldrop collection. I also snagged CONJUNCTIONS 39, Holly Black's TITHE, and the beautiful new ARGOSY. The Jeff Ford story in ARGOSY is awesome. I love his work.

And that's where things stand with me. I plan on reading Jeff Ford's collection and Fowler's SARAH CANARY and continue work on the SF novel, but in the back of my mind, I'm thinking insterstitially. I'm thinking of ways to break new ground with my writing. Ways to not be so damn traditional. I want people to finish reading something by me, a story or a novel, and feel the way I felt after reading "A Night in the Tropics" by Jeffrey Ford -- inspired, in awe, and grinning from ear to ear because the story was so damn good.

That's not too much to ask, is it?