Wow, wow, wow. So it’s taken me so long to write about the stuff I did in March/early April that the first question is probably just — why even bother at this point? (Eh.)

In March I went to Rainforest Writers Village (Session 2) and Fogcon 2. Fogcon was unfortunately followed a week later by Norwescon 35. I learned my lesson as I dragged through Norwescon and subsequently spent the rest of April being an anti-social little troll. Or something. Never do cons two weekends in a row unless I can take the week in between off. (Yes, I’m a wimp.)

Fogcon was a fun convention, though the hotel construction was a bit of a bummer. However, the bartenders made my favorite kind of screwdriver — the sort that is only very faintly yellow-orange and makes your face go numb. I forgive hotel bar prices if the drink is 90% vodka.

I’m not sure how I feel about the panel lengths at Fogcon. I’m apparently rather used to conventions in which the panels are 45-50 minutes so even super interesting panels longer than that feel like they’re dragging a bit. Although, the Body Image 201 panel was a nice exception. It’s always good to end panels feeling like there’s more to say.

I’m sadly unsure of whether or not I’ll make it back to Fogcon, unfortunately. It’s just at a terrible time of year for me — there’s a six week run in late winter / early spring that covers 6-7 other events I’d like to possibly attend (many of which are local), as well as my birthday. I think I’ve spent my birthday at home twice in the past 15 years, and one of those was spent frantically vomiting up words for a cheap freelance assignment.

Norwescon also went well. I was pretty busy, especially on Friday. In addition to programming through the weekend, I gave four critiques as a pro for the Fairwood workshop.

It’s still weird to me to critique as a pro even though I also did so in 2011. While I technically meet the loose definition of what passes for professional in SF writing (SFWA member, sold some stories, burned through my Campbell eligibility), I don’t feel particularly advanced compared to the people I meet on the other side of the table.

The panels I was on went well enough, including the two I was most concerned about: Transphobia 101 — which is a gigantic topic, and LGBTQ speculative fiction — which I read and write of course, but I often don’t remember to keep a running tally of which books had which queer characters.

And, as last year, I was completely spoiled for my reading. Full room again, despite the fact that I was reading at 9:30pm and it was an unpublished story that really isn’t very genre-like at all, except if you look at the title and then squint extremely hard at the rest of it. And nobody walked out when I said it wasn’t going to be spec fic! Woo!

Despite being reasonably well received, I subjected the story to another round of revisions to cut out 600 more words. So now I’m fucking around, wondering if I want to mail it out or Get More Readers Who Know Stuff About Outside Of SF/F. Procrastination. Gotta love it.

Coming up, I’m going to Wiscon, the Locus Awards, and PAX. I might be at Foolscap or Orycon, BUT… for various reasons, I have to stop spending money on cons.

And, I love cons. Love, love, love, them. But… I have to finish this novel. And some short stories. As it is right now, I like being at cons, but I’ve been feeling more and more like a faker over the past two years of this productivity slump. Ugh. I even hate typing that.

If only I could get paid for Twitter. >_>