My Time at Context 22

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…but overall it was fun, fun, fun.

Day 1 – Fun in the Rain

2:30 P.M. – 4: P.M.: During my bus ride there, I get rained on…twice. Worse, all my pretty display books I had in my makeshift backpack ended up waterlogged. Fortunately, my books for the autograph signing were protected by the cardboard boxes I kept them in. While the boxes got a little wet around the edges, those books remained nice and dry.

7 P.M-11 P.M..: Opening ceremonies were cool. Clemmons is always a blast. Soon after eating some grub, I went immediately to my first of many panels for the weekend—Writing Fantasy, with Sandy Lender, Cinda Williams Chima, Tina Morgan, and Timothy Mulcahy. And yes, I’m using the booklet thingy to remember all the names again (for the most part). That panel went quite well, and yes, I brought along my Ancient Pagan Symbols by Elisabeth Goldsmith book (which didn’t get as wet as the others did) to make my usual points with, and pimped out The Silverblade Prophecy podcast novel.

After that, I went to listen to the Trusting Your Reader panel with Jason Sanford, Holly Sullivan McClure, Tina Morgan, Ty Schwamberger, and Michael D’Ambrosio. I’ve interviewed Ty before, but this is the first time we got to meet face-to-face. He’s even cooler a dude in person than he is online. I ran into Holly when I had first arrived, and we got to chat a bit before the convention started. We have three things in common: we’re both Christian, we both tend toward Gnosticism (just not the commonly known whacked out version of it), and we both know all about the NAU and Amero plans (Heh, and some people still say that’s “just a conspiracy theory”).

I also met Lucy Snyder before the convention and chatted a bit with Nick Winks and a couple other people.

Then I had my second panel for the night—What’s a Monster? with McClure, Lender, and um somebody with the last name of Arceneaux (the full name’s not in the booklet, and there’s a whole lotta’ Arceneaux’s on Google—ay, yi, yi, me and my poor little brain…). Naturally, during the panel, I gave out the definition of “Human” in Black’s Law Dictionary: “See ‘Monster’. Yeah, people got a kick out of it.

Then to the Apex Party….

I don’t remember a whole lot, but I do remember a couple things: I met a bunch of folk whose names completely escape me (you know who you are, so feel free to give a shout out in the comments section to help jog my shoddy memory) as well as hung out with Maurice Broaddus, Ty, and a few others. The party got broken up by security, so of course a few of us continued the party in other parts of the hotel. Ty’s girlfriend was nice enough to give me cigarettes.

And I don’t recall passing out three times. I only remember passing out once…and waking up on a floor in a hotel room with a hangover. Two guys who I also met at last year’s Context were nice enough to let me crash in their room. I’m trying to remember their names—WARNING, WARNING, BRAIN CELL OVERLOAD!!!—ugh, I hate my brain. Give a shout out, guys, you know who you are, and I do too…well, everything except the names. Man, I suck at names.

Day 2 – The Panel Marathon

A word to the wise: never ever do 6+ hours of back-to-back panels, readings, and autograph sessions with a hangover. It no feel good. Especially with eggs and bacon for breakfast.

I did my Best Books panel at 10 A.M. with Nick Winks, Mark Evans, and Dave Creek. I think I did well. I think…. After that was my reading. Alas, nobody showed. It might be a good thing, though, considering how reading with a hangover feels like.

Then came the two-hour autograph session. Alas, I didn’t sell one single book. However, later, Nick bought a copy off me and officially became my first autographee. And after he read my story, he started telling people how cool my story was. 🙂

Next came the 1 1/2 hour Education of a Writer panel. And no, I can’t remember who all I was with. There was, like, over twenty of us on it. Clemmons and the writer GOH’s were obviously there, as was Creek (I think), Lender, and Jackie Gamber. Way too many names for my poor wee brain to remember, even with a booklet thingy.

At 4 P.M. I went and got some grub at the Chinese restaurant across the street. Alas, poor airhead me was unable to find the Consuite with all the free grub until the third day. I then went and checked out the Editors, Publishers, and Agents… panel with Jason Sizemore, Lucy A. Snyder, Lawrence C. Connolly, Michael Knost, Dave Creek, and Mike Resnick. Resnick was his usual curmudgeony self, but dang, that guy knows his stuff!

At 5, I was on the Why Write About Freedom? panel with, Marian Allen, Sara Deuerell, Dennise Verrico, and Dan Gamber. Um, actually, Tobias Buckell was supposed to be on the panel, too, but he got sick and had to leave. The only name that’s familiar to me is Gamber, I thought the female was actually Lender, and there was this older guy (a Libertarian, like me) whose name currently escapes me. Overall, it was a cool panel, and I got to coin the phrase “Freedom is spelled G.U.N.S. Ampersand A.M.M.O”.

Sigh. Now, if only I could have that on a coin—preferably a gold or silver one.

Immediately after that panel, I managed to crawl over and participate on Putting the Science in Science Fiction with Santora, Catherine Asaro, Creek, D’Ambrosio, and Mulcahy. What with all those degrees around me and me being a high school dropout, I was bursting brain cells just to try not to sound stupid. I think I managed. Asaro, being both a hotty and a Quantum Physicist pretty much rocked that panel.

Of course, someone just had to ask us what education and degrees we had. Figures….

After that panel, I went and got some grub at the Mexican restaraunt. Oh boy, their hot sauce is HOT! Worse, it’s even hotter coming out than it was going in.

Ugh! Certain parts of my body still burn just from the memory.

Then I did my 8 PM panel, The Prose of Gaming, with James Daniel Ross. What with the combination of a hangover, queasy stomach, super-paneling brain drain, bursted brain cells, and hot sauce trauma, I was more than happy to let Ross do most of the talking to our one guest. Besides, he’s a good orator.

I skipped the 9 P.M. panels and went straight to the Meadowhawk Press and Shroud parties. And no, I did not get drunk this time! I ingeniously figured out the perfect caffeine-to-alchohol ratio in order to consume mass quantities of both caffeine and alchohol while remaining completely sober.

And, no, I did not fall on my arse trying to break dance; my Evil Twin tripped me.

That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it!

Day 3 – A Sun, Sunny Day

I managed to wake up in time to do my 10 A. M. panel, Keeping The Faith, with Jason Sanford, Aceneaux, Creek, Asaro (a.k.a. Hottie Quantum Physicist), Wyatt, and S. A. Swann. I was definitely in my element on that panel and also flashed the handy-dandy Ancient Pagan Symbols book. What can I say? I love that book. It’s a major eye-opener when it comes to symbolic literacy.

Then I was on to Since When Can I Understand the Troll Speaking? with Stephen Zimmer and Sandy Lender. That panel was small enough to turn into a round-table discussion, and Linda Winks was there with one or two others. It’s also officially the first panel I ever moderated (Yay!). Naturally, since a troll appears in The Silverblade Prophecy, I got to plug the podcast novel yet again (Yippee!).

At Noon I got to listen in on Gender Issues in Writing and Publishing and did my last panel at 1 P.M.: Translations, with Maura Heaphy and Stephen Zimmer, which was all about translating books into movies, music into stories, etc. Eventually, Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen popped up in the discussion which allowed me the opportunity to coin yet another new phrase: “Jesus Christ Has Chrome!!!”

Erm, in order to understand that, you’ll have to see the movie. I’ll give you three hints, though: Optimus Prime, the “Three Kings”, and a certain “star” in the east. 😉

Seriously, all that is in the movie.

Tended the closing ceremonies, got applauded for doing the most number of panels at this year’s Context, met new folks, made new friends (even if I can’t remember all their names), and ate out at a bar & grill with the fine folks at Meadowhawk Press and Shroud Publishing.

All-in-all, it was fun—despite the water-logged books.

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