I attended my first real speculative fiction convention today: WorldCon, which is being held in Denver this year. I had a terrific time, though circumstances dictated that I could only stay for a few hours. Still, in that brief time I talked to (in order of appearance) Brandon Sanderson, Eric James Stone, Ken Scholes, Tina Connolly, Alethea Kontis, Nick Mamatas, Mary Robinette Kowal, John Scalzi, Lawrence M. Schoen, Dean Wesley Smith, and a number of other folks I’m just not recalling at the moment. I found everyone warm and friendly, and I suspect I might go to more cons.
As an added bonus, the aforementioned Mary won the Campbell Award for best new writer — a well-deserved honor that could not have gone to a better person. Or writer, I think. I’ve been using her work to teach students how to craft short fiction for a couple of years now. If you’ve not read one of her stories, do so at once. Then, when her first novel comes out (soon, if them publishin’ folks now anything at all), you can say you read her back when.
Congratulations, Mary!