I actually still have the event app on my phone so I can even REMEMBER what I was doing on these days.
Sunday I had an interesting panel, “Fantasies of Irish emigration,” about why so much fantasy–especially urban fantasy–seems to get written ABOUT Ireland without much of it being set IN Ireland. I called out RF Long as somebody who’s written UF both in and about Ireland, and I think there were a couple others I could think of, but it was a really fun panel (and my friend Deirdre was on it with me!) and I thought we did pretty well for the Sunday of a 5 day con. :)
I spent a lot of the day chasing Ursula Vernon around so she could sign a couple of books for, and become Pokefriends with, Young Indiana, and he was COMPLETELY THRILLED by that. (I love Ursula and Kevin so much. They’re honestly terrific people.) I also had a meeting with Laura Anne, in which we talked about some Very Interesting Business Ideas which would have been Very Interesting ANYWAY, but were especially so because the quite specific and exact topic that she wanted to broach with me had also come up in *another* conversation over the weekend, suggesting that it’s a thing ripening for the happening.
AT SOME POINT during the weekend–it might have been Friday? IDK anymore? I came out of a panel and my friend Kris called, “OMG, it’s CE Murphy, famous author!” and then we went to lunch together, which was really honestly wonderful. I know Kris kind of through a mutual friend of ours (who, sadly, got sick on like day 2 of the con and mostly wasn’t there :( ) and sitting down for lunch was really kind of the first time I’ve ever *really* gotten to talk to her in real life for more than a minute or two, and I enjoyed that so very immensely. Also *laughs*
So the first time I met her in real life–and six other people–was when I went to San Diego Comic Con in like 2008. I was staying with them, and I got into the hotel at midnight, and they said “here, you’re sleeping in this bed,” and so I got into bed with a strange man I’d never met and went to sleep. And this came up at lunch, and Kris said that had been her arranging sleeping, er, arrangements, and that about two years after the fact she thought “oh god that might have been a really awful traumatizing thing to do to somebody and I may have made a HUGE MISTAKE with that,” and that periodically the thought arises and kind of sends her into a cold sweat, whereas I’ve spent the last decade thinking it was really funny. Like, I can totally see where for some people that might have been VERY UNCOMFORTABLE, but I really truly just figured this was a safe space among friends and it didn’t bother me at all, and it’s a very funny way to tell a story. So I reassured her on that topic and relieved her of a worry that’s been occasionally haunting her for many years now, and that was altogether funny and great too. :) Anyway, I’m really sad I didn’t get to see more of our mutual friend, but it was *so* lovely to hang out with Kris.
(And then after that I was heading back to the convention centre and that was when I first saw Kevin and Ursula; I was walking past the tram and a deep male American voice bellowed, “Catie!” and so I got to hang out with them for a few minutes before we all parted ways. The whole con was like that. :))
ANYWAY back to the Sunday
I was on the Tribute to Anne McCaffrey panel, which was…I mean, of all the panels I was on at the convention, that was the one we really could have used a 4 hour window for. But we had people in tears (including some of the panelists), so clearly we did our job (tbf, people came in primed for tears). One of the questions was about experiencing fandom in relation to Anne’s works, and I said, “Well, I grew up in Alaska, so fandom just wasn’t a thing. It’s too big, too far apart, and too sparsely populated. But when I was about 12, she came to Fairbanks, Alaska, which was about 500 miles north of where *I* lived, and it was this agonizing period of time where I knew ANNE MCCAFFREY was AS CLOSE TO ME AS SHE WAS EVER GOING TO BE, and I COULDN’T GET THERE!” and everyone obligingly went “awww!”
But I did eventually meet her, so it all turned out okay and had a happy ending. :)
(Another question was ‘How were you introduced to Anne’s works?’ and my answer was “I stole a copy of DRAGONSONG from my cousin _and never gave it back_,” which also got a lot of appreciation. ♥ :))
Sunday night I stole my friend Juliet away from the con entirely and we went to one of Ted’s and my favourite restaurants in Dublin, The Cedar Tree, which is a Lebanese place with SO MUCH food and all of it is SO GOOD, and we just talked business and personal stuff and everything for about two hours straight. Except for the bit where the 3 people at the table next to us leaned over and said “Do you mind if we ask what you ordered, because it looks SO GOOD!” and we told them and also assured them that what we had ordered, although it claims to be for 2, would certainly be enough for all three of them. We were right, too. :) Like, I hadn’t eaten since about 11:30 that morning and we went to dinner at half six and I was perishing of the hunger and still unable to make a significant dent in the actual entree, after the SIXTEEN TAPAS PLATES OF APPETIZERS. (Honestly, Cedar Tree is brilliant.) Anyway, it was really nice to get away from the con a little bit to have a long chat with Juliet, and I think it was probably good for both of us emotionally to be able to let down our hair a little.
And then, once more, I came home and failed to go to bed at a sensible hour, but still, I slept. :)