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Belated World Fantasy Recap, Take Three

Day Three: Steampunk panel in the morning, where Ann, as always, positively radiated intelligence. Bickered with Tessa re:  tea vs. coffee. Caught breakfast with Selena, than did an interview with her for Strange Horizons. Molly went off to interview Garth Nix for Fantasy Magazine, so Selena and I caught up a bit more and wandered the dealer's room, where we talked a bit more with Neil Clarke and Sean Wallace. I signed some LDBH copies for Neil and when Jay Lake popped in to do the same I shook the hand of Herr Toastmaster. Before or after I also met Nick Mamatas, who's every bit as charming and nice an individual as one could hope to meet. Introduced myself to him and the likewise gentleman-like Laird Barron but realized I was late just as I was about to do the same with John Langan, and in retrospect running off before shaking his hand was probably the main regret of the con.

That night Molly, Selena, and myself grabbed drinks with Sally, Mary and Neil W, then Selena and I hustled to readings while Molly napped. First was Robert Jackson Bennett's reading from his debut Mr. Shivers, and the old boy did a killer job--really a great reading, aided both by his choice selection of passages and the bottle of Yukon Jack hobo booze he passed around in a brown paper bag. “The black sheep of Canadian liquors.” Then we scooted to the Lovecraft Unbound reading, where the aforementioned highy talented Amanda Downum, Nick Mamatas, Laird Barron, and Brian Evenson were joined by Michael Shea, Marc Laidlaw, and Anna Tambour. Not a bad reading in the bunch, with the end result being I bought the next copy of the book I came across, which ended up being at Borderlands days later. Ellen Datlow has yet again assembled a bar-raising antho, and I'm pleased I was able to personally thank her after the reading for all her work. Again, having only tipped my toes into the copy I purchased I feel confidant assuring readers as leery as I of modern Lovecraftian stories that this is something several cuts above.

Then the final night of socializing, but we were rather late to Gail Carriger’s party after the readings and popping down to the Hotel bar for drinks with the good people of Orbit. This was one of the rare relaxing times at the con, where we were able to sit back and enjoy ourselves with Alex, Dongwon, and Devi, three of the most awesome people you could hope to work or drink with. Jack Womack and Tim Holman were not about so we imbibed for them, too, and I made up for the fact that I don’t really work with Devi by drinking with her, and she introduced me to the perfectly charming Blake Charlton. Bullshitting with the two of them, Brent Weeks, people whose names I’ve lost, and fellow superstars Amanda and Robert was a grand time, as was talking Deadwood with Alex and gin with Donwong. What would have already been a perfect night if we’d capped it there was enhanced even more by our arrival to the 20^th floor and a late showing at Gail’s soiree.

• Cross-posted to LiveJournal