Jul 03 2009
Live from Westercon (FiestaCon)
As I write this it’s early Friday evening in Tempe, Arizona. The convention is definitely ramping up from yesterday, as more people arrive for the weekend.
Which is by no means to say that it’s been boring, far from it. So far I’ve had some great conversations with Stan Schmidt, editor of Analog; author Michael Stackpole; Tor editors Patrick and Theresa Neilson Hayden; and fellow Denver author Dave Boop. I’ve made a few interesting new contacts and met a fellow participant of the Kris and Dean workshop a couple of weeks ago. And the weekend is just getting started.
Of course there are also the costumers (and the cosplay), the gamers, the media fans, science panels (I’m heading off to a panel on the Lunar Reconaissance Orbiter in just a minute) and more. Great con. Giving me some ideas for MileHiCon this October, too. (Rose asked me to help out with science programming.)
If you’ve never been to a science fiction con (not to be confused with something like Comic-Con or StarFest), and you have any interest in reading fantasy or science fiction, you should find a local regional con and give it a try.
2 Responses to “Live from Westercon (FiestaCon)”
Wow, I’d have paid good money to be a fly on the wall during your conversations with Stan, and the Nielsen-Hayden duo.
Anything groundbreaking or otherwise revelatory?
I don’t know about groundbreaking. I did get the sense that Stan thinks I’m “getting close” with my Analog submissions, which certainly perked me up. From all of them I got further insights into the current state of both magazine and book publishing, which may not help me sell anything any faster, but will certainly help me figure out what’s going on when I do. 😉
And maybe some name recognition will help me get out of the slushpile a little faster. (Still has to be good writing to sell, of course.)