Quick DeepSouthCon Report
I've got a million things to do and less than a million thing-sized time-slices in which to do them, so I'll make this brief. DeepSouthCon 50 was wonderful. Julie, Toni, and Linda put on a fine event. I don't think I've ever been to a better-run convention. One of their go-to folks, Regina, who ran the Con Suite, pointed out that the success of the shindig was due in large part to the fact that Toni reached out to every convention-staff expert she could get her hands on, and put these people in charge of various areas where they had historically demonstrated mad competence.
Yes, I had a great time. Sandra and I both had fun.
I spent a lot of time in conversation, which I love. Many of those conversations were spent with Lou Anders. I tried not to let on how much I was learning from him, since I may have given him the impression at some point that I know what I'm doing.
John Picacio gently fired one across my bow early Friday simply by saying "you're the Artist Guest of Honor." This reminded me that regardless of how I feel about my art, regardless of whether or not I'm suffering from a bit of what we like to call "Imposter Syndrome," when I'm the GoH I'm on display, and I need to get out there and Be The Dancing Monkey. So I took it to heart, shook off the exhaustion, the fear, and the introversion, and put on a good show. John, the convention owes you a hearty thanks for lighting a fire under their Dancing Monkey.
I had some great panels, and may have come up with an alien invasion story worth actually collaborating on with Travis "Doc" Taylor, Stephanie Osborne, and an anonymous neurochemist working for DARPA. "The Great Sushi Conspiracy" is not a fantastic working title, but it sounds tasty.
Late Sunday night I had a moment with Sandra and with Toni Weisskopf that I dubbed a "Troy & Abed Pillow Fight" moment. We were having a fun conversation, and in spite of being drop-dead tired I kept it alive because I realized that the moment that conversation ended, the convention was officially over. Fans of "Community" will know what I'm talking about. Everybody else is in the dark until they repent and become fans of "Community."
Finally, a piece of happy news for Schlockers in the South East: sales were good enough that Glennis LeBlanc of "The Missing Volume" agreed to conspire with me on arranging more appearances in the future. Not the immediate future, mind you, but in coming years you can expect to find me at more events in that part of the country.