4/28/10

Conestoga 14

It's been a few days since I got back from Conestoga 14 in Tulsa. Now seems like a good time to put down my impressions of what I did and saw.

For some reason, I didn't get to as many other panels as I might have wanted. I missed one because I was taking a late afternoon nap Saturday. Looking over the list of panels from the pocket program, I think I just didn't find enough panels that I was passionate about getting to this year. Maybe it was me, or maybe the con just didn't have enough panels this year.

On the upside, I got to see several authors who I hadn't talked to since last year. It was nice that most recognized me. I tried to catch up with as many as I could. Oddly, even though I only had two panels to be at and a workshop class to run, I seemed to be pressed for time this year.

One thing that struck me was that this year the opening ceremonies at Conestoga were at 6 PM on Friday, instead of the usual 7 PM. The main programming room at opening ceremonies seemed to be half to two-thirds full; it seemed more packed the last two years I've gone. I don't know if this meant that attendance was down, or that more people can make the later time. I hope it's the latter.

On a personal writing note, I did get some work done at Conestoga. I edited down one story; did a little pondering about another; and decided to give up on a third. I also tinkered around with a potential third Lisa Herbert book. I actually spent an hour in the hotel business room, poking around Google Maps, trying to invent worlds for her to visit. That was fun; reminded me how much I still like maps.

The one downside for me was that I only sold one book the whole weekend. I think partly that was because I didn't have a signing and I didn't take part in "Speed-Date the Author." I missed out on those because I didn't have any new books out. Still, it would have been nice to have had a table in the dealers room to see how sales would have been.

Overall I had a good time. I look forward to going next year. My next con should be ConQuest 41 in Kansas City over Memorial Day weekend. Hope to see you there!

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