This was my first year attending Convolution, but I’m hoping to continue this tradition as I had a wonderful, exhausting, illuminating, and energizing time. Yes, I know some of those appear contradictory, but trust me, they’re not.

I thought the programming staff did a great job offering something, or several somethings, for everyone at every hour. The con staff made sure people who needed help got it. The hotel had its oddities but overall was a nice location, and where there were issues, every effort was made to correct them. The pocket program was one of the major successes to my mind because it contained both the program blurb along with the who, where, and when, and a small map. I missed a couple things simply because I struggle with military time so misread them as 4 when they were 14 for example, but it was great to have everything in my hand when I had a moment to decide where I wanted to be.

Readings

My reading was happily received, and I won myself some new readers who I hope will enjoy the whole of Secrets and other books as much as they did the short piece I read.

I shared my reading time with Amy Sterling Casil, Lillian Csernica (who shares a TOC with me), Matt Maxwell, and Christopher Villa, each of whom provided a good bit of entertainment.
We had some scheduling snafus and some late arrivals, but none of that disrupted the reading. I was impressed at how smoothly we all coordinated our reads with everyone getting the time they needed and supporting the other readings. We had a variety of genres represented as well as poetry, short stories, and novels, so there was not a central theme, but that didn’t seem to bother anyone. For my first novel reading, I couldn’t have asked for a better group of authors or readers, so thank you to all who attended.

Nor was my reading the only one I managed to catch. I had hoped to attend several, but with my own schedule, hallway chats with various folks, and the strange need to eat at regular intervals, I missed all but the one including Juliette Wade, Setsu Uzume, Deborah Ross, and Helen Stringer. Helen was the only author brand new to me, but I enjoyed all four readings, and between the two events, have a long list of new authors to pick up, a list which includes some of the panelists I saw or paneled with.

The Writing Room

This is a pluses/minuses write-up. I had a fun moment when I invited Tanya Huff and Michael Stackpole to join us when they poked their head in the door of the first one, but they were too busy to stay. I only managed to drop in on two of the three sessions (one I was “moderating,” but I had hoped to make some progress every day and succeeded twice).

I think it suffered from a lack of understanding. People didn’t seem to get what the purpose was or that it was open to everyone, but those that did managed to make some progress. I, myself, wrote one scene on Trainee and almost finished editing a short story (not as much as I’d hoped for, but more than I’ve accomplished at any con before). I also know of a couple people who planned to show up and ended up working in the time slot but elsewhere. Who knows if they would have had they not mentally set aside the time for working.

I’m not sure whether this attempt will be seen as a growth process or a complete failure, but at least an attempt was made, and there’s the chance that it can be made stronger instead of dropped.

The Programming

I didn’t get to go to as many panels as I would have liked for a few reasons. Obviously my own schedule nixed some interesting ones as it always does, my issues with military time turned me around on occasion for “pick-up” panels, and that food thing I mentioned before. But often I missed things I was interested in because I was interested in two or three things in the same time slot.

I’ve learned the last will always be the case, and when food or a good conversation will happen cannot be predicted. Beyond my assigned panels, I try not to work too hard on establishing a schedule because flexibility is the key. It’s better to enjoy what you do manage rather than regretting what you couldn’t. In a smorgasbord of interesting possibilities, you must make a choice or become overwhelmed.

So, Friday was the two readings with both the meet the guests and some time scoping out the dealers room for possibilities. We (my husband Colin was a guest as well) also ran into some friends and chatted quite a bit.

Saturday was my busy day with my first panel at 10am. This was the How To on artists’ and authors’ publishing paths with Jeff Sturgeon, Matt Maxwell (who I’d met at my reading), and Mike Rhodes. Jeff was the artist guest of honor and also agreed to moderate. As a sign of how much fun we were having, he’d planned to leave after the first hour because of a prior commitment and ended up staying the whole time. We talked about the changing world with three main options for writers of traditional, small press, and self-publishing, and also looked at how those changes were affecting artists who made their living from cover art. Those who came to the panel offered a good variety of questions pulling us from whether it’s still necessary to respect simultaneous submission restrictions to what the various benefits are for each path. If nothing else, I think everyone walked away from the panel with things to ponder.

My second panel was the one that came to characterize Convolution for me, though the trend had started the previous night in a hallway conversation.

The title of the panel is Storytelling the Old Fashioned Way and it is M. Todd Gallowglas’s brain child. Along with Chris Garcia, Mike Rhodes (who was on the publishing panel with me as well), and myself, we told a variety of tales and jokes, looked at what storytelling had been and was becoming, and explored how studying storytelling can improve writing. Judging from the smiles and laughter coming from the members attending, there’s no question people found much to enjoy and perhaps learned something as well. I know I did, so much so, that I ended up continuing the discussion with Mike and his wife, then segued into another interesting chat which is when the plan to go to other panels went out the window.

I’d like to pause in the panel recounting for a moment though to explain what I meant by characterizing the con. I have to thank M. Todd for making this so clear to me.

My father’s birthday fell on the same weekend, so we celebrated Thursday since my sisters and I were all present and because of this, my father was very much on my mind. If I had to trace where my own storytelling comes from, I don’t have to go much farther than David McGaffey. From early childhood, he regaled us with tales of dragons in Lake Michigan or read from Kipling when I was too young to connect the book in his hand with the source of the tale he told.

As far back as I can remember, kids and adults have come to me for stories because I can tell them with the cadence and rhythm that puts people inside the narrative, whether to terrify or amuse, a skill I learned at the knee of one who kissed the actual Blarney Stone…or at least told a grand tale of doing so ;).

But as both M. Todd and Chris pointed out in the panel, storytelling is not all about telling and being in the spotlight. It’s as much about listening to other people’s tales and engaging in the cultural narrative. I heard some wonderful tales this weekend, some fiction and many fact, about life, the people that are important to us, and unique ways to respond to events we all have experienced. Sometimes the hallway conversations at cons are political, religious, or scientific discussions. This time, they were all the sharing of stories, the pieces of our narratives that make up who we are whether it’s a tale experienced by our families and friends or one of our own accounting. Being a storyteller down to my bones, the wonderful conjunction of tales and my father’s birthday, plus the panel where we explored what’s so marvelous about sharing and experiencing stories from others was all that more precious.

I ended up going to the Women of Their Time panel with Kay Tracy, Wanda Kurtcu, Tory Parker, and Heidi Stauffer to catch up with some friends. While it might not have gone the direction planned, it ended up being a good discussion on the barriers women face going into STEM careers and what are some methods to reduce those barriers, including the psychological/social one brought on by the rarity of examples to follow.

On Sunday, I’ll admit I slept in later than planned because of a fun party I went to the previous night to help a friend celebrate. I didn’t drink anything (I rarely do), but I feasted on the hilarity and great stories there as well a good deal of punishment that still has me sensitive to unintentional punning days later.

The last day of a con is always a hard one. People have to check out of the hotel, get organized, and get ready to return to their normal lives. What with getting packed out, visiting the dealers and art room, and other miscellany, I missed the morning panels, but if there’s one con tip I can give attending folks, I’d have to say if you can, stay for the final panels. You’re more likely to get an intimate discussion where you drive the topic then because so many people have already shipped off.

That was definitely the case with my last panel which was about finding writing time and space as you deal with the needs of others, especially small children. Leslie Light agreed to moderate for Maya Bohnhoff and myself, leading our few attendees in a ninety minute discussion filled with stories, often humorous ones, to illustrate some risk or method to help organize your space, patterns, or life to both include the special people who share your journey and establish boundaries so you can get some work done.

In Con-clusion

As I’ve mentioned above, I ended up in a number of fascinating conversations, met interesting people, caught up with friends, and had a truly wonderful time. Thanks go to Susie Rodriguez and Sally Rose Robinson for inviting me and matching me up with so many talented and lovely people so Convolution was a grand experience and one I’d be happy to repeat.

P.S. I came back to same 1,300 emails and a bunch of things to catch up on, so I’ll be busy for a bit, but I did finish the short story edit and get it off before the market deadline.