And Now It's All Over.

So Worldcon/Aussiecon has come to an end. And some questions remain.

Who was Dave, and why did he have his own ribbon?

What did I have to do to get more ribbons? (I only had one)

Who is the mysterious financier behind the London bid that allows them to have parties with so many free drinks?

How could I spend 5 days in the building, and yet only bump into an old friend as I was literally walking out the door?

How did some people ever get onto a panel?

When is the next Worldcon to be held in Australia? (Roughly every 10-12 years, it seems)

Anyway, it was fabulous and now I'm tired and back at work.It was great to catch up with heaps of people I knew and great to finally meet people I'd only had been in contact with by email. I got to meet Shaun Tan and Robert Silverberg (two of my favourites) as well as a bunch of people I'd never heard of but impressed me greatly. I guess I could compile a list of names, but I'm afraid it would look like namedropping.

Thanks to the organisers, volunteers, and all those who made it work.

Number Two Down - And Plenty More To Come.

So the weekend was spent in the city in fellowship with others of a like mind. Well done and congratulations to the organisers, volunteers and chairs.

It was great to either meet for the first time or catch up with Felicity Dowker (various short stories) Narrelle M. Harris (The Opposite of Life ), Paul Haines (A Slice of Life), Christian Tamblyn (Dragon of the Second Moon) and many, many others.


Cat Sparks was there too, and I was able to spend a lot of time talking to her. She was even lovelier in person than I had expected her to be and she offered me lots of fantastic advice on writing. I can't speak for other genres, but in speculative fiction it's wonderful that writers of all abilities and levels of success celebrate, share and support each other. Speaking of which, congratulations to Cat on finding an agent and the impending publication of your collected short stories.

My friend came along with me, solely as a result of conversations we had shortly after Continuum 5. This was his first con, and on the way he confessed some misgivings. He was concerned that he was there under false pretences, as he's more of a 'horror' fan than a 'Sci-Fi' fan. How did he cope? Well, he's gone and signed up for both Continuum 7 and Worldcon (Aussiecon 4) - which is great news for me as I've just saved some money on booking hotel accomodations by sharing with him.

And then to top it all off, I came home to some great writing news.  Nothing I can share yet, but something that's re-energised me and my words just when I needed it.

So, I'll see you at Aussiecon, right?