Back from St. Louis, where I attended NASFic/Archon and did some writerly research as well. I got to hang out with my old writer’s group, the Alternate Historians (Thomas Drennan, Laurell Hamilton, Deborah Millitello, Mark Sumner, Marella Sands, and Sharon Shinn) for the first time in ages and ages; and chattted with old college friend
bryan314 and new lj friend
kaitiana and defictionalized
ecbatan after years of our knowing each other online; and visited with my former coworkers at Washington U. I also got to thank Les Haven and Michelle Zellich for patiently keeping me on Archon’s invite list for a decade and a half until I finally made my way back. 🙂 (Through many years of my saying, “Not this year, but maybe next,” during which I kept wanting to return, but couldn’t quite seem to make it work.)
I lived in St. Louis for eight years (four as a student), and Archon was one of my home cons for the last three–and also the first con I attended as a pro. When I moved to Tucson, I made it back once just a couple years after leaving, and then twelve years somehow managed to go by before this year, finally, I made it back again. I’m still not quite sure how that happened.
Anyway, I’ve said before that the people are the main thing I miss about St. Louis, and I found that still very much true. 🙂