A Whirlwind Weekend

 On Friday morning, Jack and I packed up and headed to Balticon, a SF con in Baltimore, MD. Interestingly, there was a death metal festival being held in the city nearby. You couldn't tell if people were cosplaying or just enjoying the music. People at both gatherings were among the most wonderful people we've met along the way.

The guest list for Balticon was impressive, including some of my favorite people and my favorite authors. I stopped in to visit many of them in the dealers room ahead of time and bought books for signing. We went to lunch around the corner at a delightful friendly tavern called Peter's Pour House, where we sat and chatted a while with a group of metalheads from Germany, and I had the best French dip I've ever tasted. Ever. We got back to the con for panels on revision, the use of gore, and handling critique before heading to bed.

I got up earlier than Jack, so I headed down to the restaurant for a cup of coffee. I saw Nancy Springer sitting at her breakfast. Now, let me preface by telling you, at the Millennium Philcon, I was privileged to moderate a panel on the education track with great YA authors, including Nancy Springer. I was a fangirl, and I was too overcome with amazement at my good fortune to talk to her. (I know I've mentioned how little I knew about the writing world, right?) When I saw her seated alone, I had to approach her and say, "Nancy, I'm sure you don't remember me but--" and she said, "Oh, you're Ef Deal. I know you from Twitter." I then spent a wonderful hour chatting about the writing world, sharing triumphs and woes alike. I had planned to attend a few of her panels, but I was even more fortunate to be able to meet up with her across the day and talk some more. Such a gracious woman. 

I attended a few panels featuring Wendy Van Camp. I thought I had met Wendy at a previous con, but I realized that no, she was a featured reader for Strong Women ~ Strange Worlds and I had not only watched the reading but edited the videos. She was very happy to get the link to her solo reading.

Jack and I also chatted with Glenn Hauman and heard hilarious stories from him and from David Gerrold. We bought many books. We went back to Peter's Pour House for lunch, and a trio of metalheads thought we were the coolest people they ever met. "You're, like, old but you're living the dream!" They were absolutely adorable guys, so much fun to listen to.

That night we went to Nancy's reading at 7, and oddly the programmers had put the reading room across the hall from the concert room, so poor Nancy had to compete with a power singer. But then, around 7:30, she was nearly drowned out by sirens right outside our window on the street below (we were on the 6th floor). The sirens continued for more than the remainder of the reading. We learned the following morning there had been a deadly shooting, right there on the sidewalk in front of the Renaissance entrance. And the shooter was still at large.

Jack and I hadn't planned on attending Sunday, but when we learned we had the day free, I tried to get a room for Saturday night. I ended up booking at a the Red Roof Inn Northwestern. It was the most disgusting experience I've ever had. Our "nonsmoking" room reeked of tobacco and the smoke detector was taped over. The blankets were filthy, but we didn't need them because the AC didn't work. The walls were rotted out at the floor, and there were no baseboards. Just rot. We were so exhausted we just said, "what the heck, we'll sleep and leave a bad review." Well, I didn't sleep because of the stench, and when I got up at 5 to go the bathroom, I turned on the light to find a swarm of roaches on the floor. We boogied out of there without even "packing" so much as stuffing our things into the cases and running.

We got back to the Renaissance and had breakfast at IHOP, then went back to the con for a panel on maintaining tension in writing, featuring not only Nancy, but also Erika Hammond (fan girl squee) and my own publisher and amazing writer and editor Danielle Ackley-McPhail. Such a wonderful way to close out our con.

Jack and I caught lunch at the Irish restaurant across from the hotel at the Inner Harbor (Tir Na nOg) and had a great tour of the Constellation (more research for book 4) before heading home. The Inner Harbor is an absolutely charming place. Pirate ships all over the place! Yargh! 

When we got home, I slept for 12 hours. In a clean bed and no roaches!