There were only 27 entries and two didn’t show up. That was a surprise. The masquerade at the much smaller Archon in St Louis last year was the first I’ve ever gone to, and I guess there must be an unusually big costuming group in St L, because there were probably twice as many entries there, and a lot more at higher levels than novice. This masquerade here was kind of a disappointment. Though some of the costumes were excellent. My brother’s friend Mike had a fantastic camera, so when I get home, I’ll ask him to send me a couple and then post them here. My personal favorite was this ice-queen-like Lady in the Lake costume in the master category . . . never mind, I’ll wait till I have pictures.
Saturday was overall a much calmer day for me. Lots of time where there wasn’t a panel that really interested me, so I spent a lot of time in the dealer’s room and (I’m sure this will amaze you) bought a lot of books. Steven Brust’s latest is out, TIASSA. I really enjoyed the one that came out last year, whichever that was — the one with the lawyer and legal system entanglements. And I got the second Abigail Adams mystery by Barbara “Hamilton”, which I’d been thinking of for a while but kept forgetting to actually get. And Dan Wells has a new one out! I didn’t realize. THE HOLLOW CITY. The protagonist is a shizophrenic? If anybody can pull this off, it’ll be Wells. And I picked up some used books. I’ll have to unpack them later and see what all is in the pile.
Oh, and I’ll be picking up a few of those unique non-book items you sometimes find at cons, too. I’ve already grabbed a calendar for next year, one of the ones by Daio, tiger unicorns and stuff like this:
Staying with my brother gives me this possibly dangerous feeling that of course I can spend money, look how much I’m saving by not staying at the hotel.
I really will have stuff to say about my panels later! Because they were all interesting and they all went well and they were all blessed by having good moderators! And I will have to tie it in to my recent reading, because I have now met all kinds of people whose books I read in the last week or so, since I knew they’d be on one panel or another with me. So I will tell you about their books at the same time. One of those is definitely on my Top Ten list for 2012, no question, and then I and the author, Martha Wells, turn out to be, like, seperated at birth — we write in a very similar manner, it turns out.
Anyway, more about that later, probably tomorrow while I’m waiting for rush hour traffic to thin out before leaving. Right now, again, gotta get ready to zip back downtown.
Oh! Newsflash! Downtown Chicago has polluted air! My eyes keep tearing whenever I’m outside. I guess if I lived here I’d adjust? But I will be glad to be back in the country tomorrow evening.
Please Feel Free to Share:
Since you asked (and assuming the comment system can handle Flickr’s embedded picture links):
I guess it can’t. :-) Feel free to delete the above. (The Lady of the Lake picture itself is at http://www.flickr.com/photos/infinitepixels/7918556266/in/set-72157631377634390 )