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I am home!!! Whew!

Had a GREAT time. Michele and I landed in Hartford, Connecticut, rented a car and were off on our whilrwind tour of New England. We drove tree-lined back roads all the way to Saratoga Springs - the northwest part of Massachusetts was especially gorgeous - and arrived at the convention about 5:30 in the evening. After putzing around the con a bit - and taking a short break to tidy up and relax in the hotel room, I headed out for supper with a pile of my friends - Sue, Kris and Jeff. While at the restaurant, we ran into Catie Murphy and her husband Ted (who was exceptionally wonderful, lucky Catie!) and asked them to join us. So the six us of laughed and talked and were generally silly while we enjoyed wonderful italian food. THEN we went to an Ice Cream Social.

I swear, I ate my way through the convention.

Thursday night was the Zombies Need Brains 2007 party, where I got to chat with Patricia Bray and hang some more with Catie and Ted - I gave Catie the quilt I made for her months and months ago. Michele devised a grand scheme for attending parties which we immediately put into practice. We'd go in, work our way through the crowd to the far wall, Michele would touch said wall - mostly because I kept getting nabbed and drawn into conversations - then we'd work our way to the door - usually harder than working our way in - and go to the next party where we'd repeat the process. Using this method, we attended Every Single Party Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Fwiw, the TOR party was hugely crowded and crushingly loud, and the Apex and Zombie parties were the best. At least in my opinion.So there were parties. And books. And a lot of talking. And getting up the next day to do it again.

Friday started with buying a pile of books from NightShade Books, then lunch with Michele and Gay Haldeman (Joe Haldeman's better half) which was just grand. I adore Gay, she and Joe were among the first people I met at my first World Fantasy and they've become wonderful mentors and friends. Michele's known them for years from her work with ICON and Mindbridge - organizations Joe and Gay started when they lived in Iowa. Anyway, lunch was a blast and Gay was most helpful with some major aspects of my current writing problem.

Then it was back to the hotel to find my editor, then Michele and I went back out for tea - to the exact same restaurant no less - with Juliet and her assistant editor Josh. Again, a delightful time, and we had sweets instead of sandwiches. Juliet was lovely, as always, and Josh was just plain fun with a wicked sense of humor and a wonderful laugh. We talked about everything except my lack of new manuscript, which was a huge relief. Then it was back to the hotel and off to another tea in one of the party suites. It got kind of loud, so Michele and I soon begged off. We went back to the dealers' room for MORE books, then putzed around before heading out to supper with the Forward Motion crew - Sue, Kris, Andi and we dragged Jeff along. Had glorious Irish Pub food, were silly all the way back to the hotel. Then the Autograph Session, and more people, more parties, more talking... I'm seeing a theme here. ;)

Saturday started with lunch with Catie and Ted, then my panel on Victorian Era as Setting. I was half sick with con-crud, lack of sleep, and crowd overload, so I was not my usual perky self. But it was fun. The best part was when Kim Newman made connections between Victorian England and cowboys in the American West. Was definitely a 'duh' moment for me.

After that, Michele and I did some souvenir shopping, had a quiet supper just the two of us, then I dragged my zombie self back upstairs, drank a ton of OJ and took a nap. Felt MUCH better afterward. Good enough to hit the parties and the bar with Catie and Ted. Sunday, we got up, said our goodbyes, then headed out again, touristing across Vermont - gorgeous - and into New Hampshire - also gorgeous - where we met up with Bob, Val, and Batty for supper, lots of lovely conversation, and a beeeeeutiful necklace Bob made me. Sunday night we drove back to Hartford, passed out in the Ramada Inn then caught our plane home Monday.

I am freaking exhausted, spent waaaaaaaaay too much money on books - Rick and The Kid came scrambling to me to see what I'd bought for them - and strained my bad wrist carrying around the duffle bag filled with said books. I ate too much, laughed too much, and talked myself hoarse. But it was GREAT and it was so nice to see everyone, especially since I likely won't see any of them again for a very long time.

Posted: Tuesday - November 06, 2007 at 10:40 AM         |

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