While I do laundry and nurse my (mild) con crud, here is a con report...
Despite many rapt browsing sessions in the dealer room, I managed to buy only three books:
Portable Childhoods by Ellen Klages,
My Death by Lisa Tuttle, and
On Joanna Russ, edited by Farah Mendlesohn.
Apparently I lost weight at Wiscon, which makes no sense at all, what with the butterscotch pudding with raspberry sauce and fleur de sel oatmeal cookies from Concourse room service (which I had TWICE), the gelato (the chocolate coconut curry flavor was especially good), the cherry pie a la mode at Nick's after burgers and fries, and the creme brulee and chocolate raspberry cheesecake at the Dessert Salon. Does fannish squee burn calories?
Other food highlights included an excellent lunch at Cafe Costa Rica and spectacular bangers and mash at Brocach Irish Pub. Food regrets: we didn't make it back to the Brazilian sandwich place, and I still haven't managed to eat at the famed Place With the World's Best Grilled Cheese Sandwiches. I also didn't get around to eating any fried cheese curds this time.
Panel highlights included a fantastic
vidding panel, a Dollhouse panel that wasn't as hate-filled as I had expected but yielded some good insights, a Joanna Russ panel that featured two contributors to the aforementioned Russ book of essays (plus Farah Mendlesohn in the audience), and a vampire panel that featured the marvelous Suzy McKee Charnas (whose novel
The Vampire Tapestry is a long-time favorite of mine).
I wasn't on any panels, but I read a couple of poems ("Allison Gross Speaks of the Worm" and "Famous Monsters of Filmland") at the Broad Universe Rapid Fire Reading, which featured some excellent and varied work. The reading overlapped with the
s00j-
yuki_onna concert/reading, so I had to duck out of that early to get to the RFR.
The Tiptree Auction, presided over by Ellen Klages (with guest auctioneer Geoff Ryman) was possibly even more hilarious and uproarious than in previous years. Klages's Guest of Honor speech was so personal and heartfelt and amazing. I hope it gets posted online.
I had such a good time hanging out with
nwhepcat all weekend. I finally got to meet and spend time with my delightful agent
dianafox. I also enjoyed hanging out with/breakfasting and/or lunching and/or dining with
oracne,
huzzlewhat,
general_jinjur,
cofax7,
veejane, Mary Anne Mohanraj, and others. Oh, and Hepcat and Huzzlewhat and I went to the Star Trek movie, where there was much squee. It's a testiment to how much I enjoyed the film that, even though the theater was so packed we had to sit in the front row, after the first half hour I forgot to be uncomfortable and neck-crane-y.
As usual, there just wasn't time enough to do everything or attend every panel I wanted to see. But it was a wonderful time.