Quick Thoughts - WisCon part 1

So maybe you're noticing that this is not up on Saturday morning. Trust me, I'm quite conscious on the fact, and having missed my regularly scheduled posting time there is a part of me that just wants to skip entirely. But WisCon is happening right now, the one convention that I go to, and I've been both quite busy and quite tired. Also I couldn't really write this up ahead of time because yesterday was the first real day of the Con. And wow, what a day. The morning was entirely bookstores. After registration, at least. It was going to A Room of One's Own Bookstore and still being so impressed with the variety of books. Not many places is there such a diversity of books and authors that I found four different books for next year's Bradford reading challenge. That's on top of the books that I paid full price for. And then it was down to Rainbow Bookstore so pet the cat and buy some more books.

And that was all before the Con really started. Because speaking of K. Tempest Bradford, she moderated the second panel that I attended on Misandry and Other Imaginary Creatures and it was SO GOOD. The panel before that on Harmful tropes was also very good but the Imaginary Creatures panel is everything that I like about WisCon. People having fun, people talking about reading and writing, and also hitting some very thorny issues in a way that is educational and very meaningful. It's just the thing to get one's creative juices flowing and it is great great great! Dinner was expensive but gave me and partner ample time to talk and relax. And we drank Bilbo Baggins (a black IPA on tap at The Cooper's Tavern). And we walked the dealer room and bought even more books and I think we might have a bit of a problem with book-buying but it's great. Then on to WisCon after dark and meeting Sigrid Ellis and hearing some hilarious stories while being schooled a bit about maybe not being so introverted all the time. Then closing the day out with Death to Love Triangles and getting to listen to Alaya Dawn Johnson talk about all my favorite parts of The Summer Prince (still my favorite read of 2015 so far).

So that is why these thoughts aren't up until now. Because I've been busy. A very loud cat kept us from sleeping well going into our first day at the con (also a bit too much to drink) but it's Saturday morning now and we slept pretty well and I'm hoping to have these Thoughts up by Sunday early with further tales of how cool WisCon is (eff it, I"m just posting this now and Part 2 will be up tomorrow or something). Even though I'm quite terrified of it all, it's so invigorating. It makes me was to write more, and write so much better than I do. It's this one time every year that I feel a bit connected to the field in the flesh. The one time that I really engage with it. Probably I should do more to be outgoing, but as it is I'm loving my time here. I'll let you know how the rest of the time goes.

All the best,

Charles Payseur