ConDFW notes

As opposed to traveling by air to Colorado Springs the previous weekend, getting to ConDFW only takes me a two hours drive from my home in East Texas. I got there Saturday morning in time for my signing at 10 a.m. Martha Wells and I shared the table. I reminded Martha I first met here at the first ConDFW I ever attended, in 2003 (which was the first con I ever attended). She said she remembered.

Then I had a reading at noon, with the hour slot shared with Paul Black and Chris Donahue. Despite cramming three authors in only an hour, it went well. Each of us had a very different type of story; Paul's was somewhat cyberpunk, Chris' was s-f horror, and I read the 12 pages of the story I started at GalaxyFest, "On a Spiritual Plain".

At 2 p.m. I was on the panel, moderated by Jo Walton, on alternate history. Jayme Blaschke was also on that one We were a very learned bunch to address that subject, and the many members of the audience got a very good pile of information and anecdotes.

I visited the con suite and dealers room later in the afternoon, but then - as I noted in  a previous post - traveled to Cedar Hill and visited with an old friend who was on hospice (she passed away early Wednesday morning.) I lived in Cedar Hill from 1988 to 2001 - the longest I ever lived in one city - and I frequented some of the old haunts. I ate dinner Saturday night at the Dairy Queen and had breakfast Sunday morning at the Burgers 'n More Cafe. I stayed at the Ramada Limited motel overnight.

My two panels Sunday were one after another. We had tons of fun at the Interstellar Archeology panel at 1 p.m. which had a full crew with Moderator Mel White, Jayme Blaschke, S. Boyd Taylor, Rick Gonyo, and Gloria Oliver. I think the highlight for me - maybe for everyone - was when my interpretation of an alien artifact was that it was a trombone and I stood up and played what I think was a fairly respectable rendition of Tommy Dorsey's "I'm Getting Sentimental Over You".

I was the moderator for the 4 Stars Stories panel at 2, which had a full complement of authors - Rhonda Eudaly, William Ledbetter, Ethan Nahte, Gloria Oliver, Selina Rosen - as well as David and Mary Gray. That panel also went very well, and although at that point the audience was dwindling, everyone had a great time.

I was back on the road by 5 p.m. and back in Mount Pleasant by 7 p.m. That was my last convention or conference until the DFW Writers Conference in May.