I should probably add a few other notes on the con. Hmm...well, it was good, and exhausting. I overcommitted, and am resolved not to promise to host more then two events at a convention again -- which means that I'm pretty much committed to the SH tea party and probably the Broad Universe (possibly to be combined with Carl Brandon) rapid-fire reading and sherry hour for all conventions to come. Which is okay -- I should get pretty good at doing them. :-) (Current convention plans for this year include definitely WorldCon and World Fantasy, and just possibly ReaderCon, if I can get organized quickly enough to sneak it in there. More on that soon.)
Had an interesting conversation with Jim Frenkel of TOR where he expressed interest in seeing this adolescent fantasy novel when I finish it. Hmmm. More excitingly to me, Kate Elliot (who is a sweetheart of a woman in addition to writing fine fantasy novels available in your local bookstore) volunteered both herself and her fourteen-year-old daughter to read the draft. Very exciting, since she clearly knows what she's doing, and I really don't. :-) Makes me want to work on the novel. Soon.
Did throw good parties and had good panels pretty much straight through -- as a result, though, didn't have much time to breathe. And only slept three hours the night before the con (too excited?), so was on the verge of exhaustion pretty much the whole time I was there. Not good. Must avoid doing again.
Sold a few pieces of art! The Chicago poem and one of my new little books of poems both went to people who came up and told me they fell in love with them, which is always pleasing -- one of those people is Elise Matheson, whose own work I admire, which is even better. And Stone and Wave sold as well, along with four of my CD's. Very satisfying. I also got a lot of compliments on two of the new pieces, the spinny thing and the candle tree, so if I don't sell them from here (photos and prices soon), I imagine they'll go at some convention in the not-too-distant future. I might actually start calling myself an artist one of these days. The woman who bought the Chicago poem also asked for permission to adopt that style of glass collage for her own art -- I was so flattered!
Overall, much fun and many friends, but oh, so tiring. Glad to be home again. Spent yesterday evening hanging up my art (Kevin mostly approved the photos of people rather than the dragons, but he let me have one dragon. :-) (By my art, I mean the art I own, rather than the art I made, just to clarify.) Makes the place feel *much* more like my home, with images of friends hanging on the walls. Very nice. Sometime in the next day or two we'll go get bookshelves, and then I can get all my books out of the damn boxes and be done with unpacking, and it's just going to be wonderful. Can't wait.
I really ought to give you a driving report too, but I'll save that for a separate entry, assuming I have the energy. If I don't, you at least know the most important thing -- that I didn't manage to kill myself on the road. Yay, me!