It was so lovely to be back at WisCon! I felt, most of the time, as if I had never been away, only to be taken aback a couple of times to be reminded that I wasn't. It's a strange time and place of its own, WisCon.

I roomed with daedala and pointoforigin - visit pointoforigin's LJ today for her awesome haiku earring party haiku! It was great to spend time with both of them; I had several meals with pointoforigin in particular, as we discussed the state of our writing careers. I had dinner with oursin and breakfast followed by a tour of the Wisconsin capital building with 1crowdedhour and coffee and later a drink with jenwrites. i also got to have dinner with gwynnega. Several people I saw in passing and had brief chats with. I was having trouble sleeping, so skipped all the parties in favor of going to bed early, which meant I missed a lot of people I would have loved to see.

The only book I bought was a copy of jenwrites first novel, Machine, but I looked at many. At A Room of One's Own, there was the usual table of books by WisCon guests, most of which I already owned. I circled around to the opposite side of the table and it took me a few seconds to realize some of the books were mine! About ten minutes later, I realized I was supposed to offer to sign them, so I did that, and the "signed by author" stickers were duly applied.

I was on five panels, moderating two of them. Three of the panels I'd suggested had made it onto the schedule, and one of them, which I wasn't on, apparently had a jam-packed room, so that made me happy! The addiction in fiction panel turned out to be really interesting, and I think I now have some more focused ideas on that topic to suggest for next year. The last one I moderated, one I'd suggested, didn't turn out at all like I had expected, which frustrated me a little, but that's the thing about panels; they are living things, and sometimes they go a different way than you expect. I learned something from each one, which pleased me.

I also talked to three people I respect about my current project, and got some encouragement. The 100 pages I have are nowhere near ready for critique, but a little encouragement goes a long, long way. I was able to do the same for a couple of other writer friends. It's that sort of thing that makes it worth it to travel all the way to a convention!