x-post from LJ: Con Report

Last week, carrie_ryanand I were fortunate enough to stumble upon the fact that ConCarolinas, which we discovered the week after it happened last year, was scheduled for this very weekend just about 15 minutes from our house. I had never been to a con before, and I always wanted to, but honestly I've been a little nervous about them. I am not so much the how-you-say social animal, though I am the how-you-say extreme dork, so there was some conflict (con-flict. Get it?) there. Fortunately, with ConCarolinas nearby, we could easily go together and sample without committing to the whole thing. And this is what we did.

We didn’t make Friday, mostly on account of work (though we were both pretty upset to learn that we missed a panel on authors discussing thirteen ways the apocalypse could happen). Saturday, we mosied down for an 11 o’clock panel on novel writing (good stuff), stayed for a panel on the opening scene of your book (very good stuff), hit up a “first five-pages” workshop (could have used some work, but a few gems), did lunch and general con-stuff till 4, and then, the undoubted highlight, became zombies.

Yes, zombies. Who doesn’t love zombification? Clearly not us at the Davis-Ryan household. So when we saw the Bringing Out Your Inner Zombie panel, complete with zombie make-over, we knew we had found Our People. And yes, we have pictures (taken post-facto, unfortunately):

Unfortunately, we did not get pictures of the mini-zombie walk which followed the panel, but suffice it to say that from now on I cannot ever say that I have never shambled around a crowded convention center pretending to be a member of the living dead. It was a proud moment for us all. Looking forward to the big walk in October!

So over all con impressions: we had a great time. I gather it was fairly small by con standards, but there were still plenty of people there and lots of fun to be had. I also got to meet the illustrious Mike Resnick, celebrated author and editor at Baen’s Universe (speaking of which, check out the table of contents for this month’s issue. Lower. Lower. Under Introducing. Right there, that’s it! John Parke Davis-- ayup, that’s me! More on this later.), if only briefly. I am now a con-vert (yes, the puns can keep going), though I don’t think I would have had nearly as good a time alone, and I don’t know if I’m totally ready for one that took up the entire weekend-- it was nice to be able to pop in for most of Saturday then pop out and go home when we were ready.

Oh, and did I mention Zombie Board/Card Games? Yes, we bought those. Lots of them. If you’re ever at our house, you will be forced to play them. Because zombies are awesome!