WorldCon in Pictures

I'm back from WorldCon, and wow, what a great con. My panels were all a lot of fun - including the "Develop Your Story Idea" one, in which we started off with a group improv story based on elements suggested by the audience.  I'd been a bit nervous about that one, since I don't think well on my feet, but it turned out to be a blast!  I got to meet some author-friends for the first time, like Teresa Frohock, Mazarkis Williams, Anne Lyle, E. J. Swift, and Doug Hulick - all of which were even more awesome in person than they are online.  Others, I was delighted to reunite with (folks like Kameron Hurley, Stina Leicht, Brad Beaulieu, Katy Stauber and her husband Chet Hoster, Martha Wells, Ian Tregillis, Corry Lee, my wonderful roommate Karen Bovenmyer - and my brother Matt Hilliard, book blogger and Strange Horizons reviewer extraordinare, who was attending his very first Worldcon).

The Night Bazaar party was a hit - we must've had something like 100 books to give away between the lot of us.  We stuck to last year's giveaway plan: "Eat a bug, get a book."  Enough intrepid folks chowed down on cheddar crickets and sour cream-n-onion worms to carry off every single one of those books by the night's end.  (Nobody was brave enough to try the scorpion taffy, though, to our amusement.)  My editor Jeremy Lassen even brought a few hot-off-the-press final copies of The Tainted City for me to give away!  A few lucky bug-chomping partygoers managed to pry those from my hands, once I finished bouncing up and down and admiring them.  Sometime later this week I might try to make a more coherent con report, but with the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers' conference coming up this weekend and a ton of catching up at work and home to do before then, right now I'll stick to showing off pictures.  Sadly, I don't have nearly as many pics as I'd like - I was too busy talking instead of picture-snapping! - but here's a few postcards from WorldCon:

Part of the Night Bazaar & Authorpalooza gang - back row: Katy Stauber, Brad Beaulieu, Teresa Frohock, Stina Leicht, Doug Hulick.  Front row: Anne Lyle, Martha Wells, Courtney Schafer, and half of E.J. Swift.  (Not at all in view: Betsy Dornbusch, Mazarkis Williams)

Bugs on the left, Scotch on the right: Chet Hoster sets up the bar for the Night Bazaar party

Jeremy Lassen (in his inimitable sartorial style) and I show off copies of The Tainted City 

Kameron Hurley (center) and E. J. Swift (right), chatting to a few early partygoers

Partygoers Don Hunt and Josh Vogt - Josh was one of the original reviewers for The Whitefire Crossing, which he liked enough to chow down on a bug to get one of our few precious copies of The Tainted City. What a guy!

E. J. Swift (author of Osiris) and me, hanging out on the party couch

Teresa Frohock and the elusive Mazarkis Williams, captured on film for the very first time

Me and Dave Palumbo, the cover artist for both The Whitefire Crossing and The Tainted City

Doug Hulick and Brad Beaulieu (and Mazarkis Williams, horning in on the picture...what a camera hog! :)

Jeremy Lassen using his sales skills to convince innocent partygoers to snarf bugs in exchange for books

Corry Lee and I snuck out for a little rock climbing at a gym near the hotel.  We soon discovered that Chicago routesetters are on crack and humidity makes chalk-coated holds quite slimy (ew!), but we had fun nevertheless!

Me playing on the rock wall - felt good to get off my butt after a few days of sitting on panels!

Jeremy Lassen at the "Forthcoming from Night Shade" panel

Filing into the ballroom for the Hugo awards

And look what was waiting for me when I came home:

A happy three-year-old and a box of author copies: yay!!!