back from Chicon

I got home yesterday evening from Chicago after a very smooth Virgin America flight. I'm glad I went to Worldcon, though it was tough going for me--I was pretty unwell a lot of the time, and the cavernous maze of the hotel (which has two towers and multiple levels of convention space, and the bit where you wanted to go wasn't always easily accessible depending on which level of which tower you were in) required a lot more walking than was comfortable for me. But the trip doesn't seem to have set me back healthwise, and tomorrow I go back to physical therapy.

Some highlights of my Chicon:

Readings by Gwenda Bond and Saladin Ahmed and Nnedi Okorafor.

A concert by Seanan McGuire (after which I could not get her creepy song "Dear Gina" out of my head).

Julia Rios's fun Kaffeeklatsche.

Finally getting to try French fries with poutine (and wow it was good!) during lunch at Houlihan's with Julia and Moss.

An uproarious live installment of the SF Squeecast (featuring Lynne M. Thomas, Seanan McGuire, Paul Cornell, Elizabeth Bear, Catherynne M. Valente, and special guest Jay Lake)...and later the same day, the Squeecast won a Hugo Award!

Attending The Hugo Awards for the first time. Congratulations to all the winners!

...Oh, and I read "The Pied Piper vs. the Sirens" (soon to appear in Mythic Delirium) at the Broad Universe Rapid-fire Reading, and my panel (Incorporating the Personal into Speculative Fiction, with Nick Mamatas, Cat Rambo, Bill Shunn, and Inanna Arthen/Vyrdolak) was a lot of fun.


I'm glad to be home, and looking forward to finishing up the Jo book draft (very soon!). And I still haven't seen the new Doctor Who...