I’ve been back from LunaCon for several days now, although it feels a lot longer. Work will do that to you.

It was a great convention despite some interesting issues with double-booking and a programming team scrambling to keep from getting too behind (apparently they lost their programming database 2 months before the convention – OUCH!) as well as a lack of mobile bodies doing duty as convention minions. Some people were booked for 15 or more panels over the course of the weekend, and one or two tried valiantly to actually be at every last one of them.

Friday highlights:
– The lady running the SoHo Host Club has the right idea – surround yourself with polite, attractive, well-groomed young men. It makes quite the impression!
– Meet the Pros party chatting with Heidi Hooper (aka the dryer lint art lady), Michael Ventrella and assorted others. Somewhere the conversation got onto vegetarian vampires, the chocolate fountain ran out and desperate souls trailed the waiter out of the room grabbing as much of the rapidly solidifying chocolate as they could.

Saturday highlights:
– chatting with Esther Friesner between Cheeblemancy readings
– Dracula vs Undead Porn panel with KT Pinto which turned into a free-ranging discussion about the vampire mythos, the inadvisability of vampire sparkles, and when urban fantasy becomes undead porn. Naturally I wore my “Dracula Never Sparkled” badge.
– Catching up with Mike Kabongo and Leo Champion between panels and parties.

Sunday highlights:
– People hanging off the railings near the hotel pool for the World Building panel with Esther Friesner, Russ Handleman, Pauline Alama and Paul Calhoun. That one was actually scheduled for a good-sized room, but the room was the one that was showing movies all convention so we ended up down by the pool in a space meant for maybe 5 people. It was a fun panel, with some interesting insights into what shapes culture.

Monday I took things easy and drove home after a good night’s sleep, and I’ve been in post-convention recovery ever since (aka exhausted and brain-dead). But I’m paid up for next year, and in about a month I’ll ping the programming email to get myself on next year’s programming.

(cross-posted to Mad Genius Club)