Wiscon 28 report, finally

Going to House on the Rock before coming to Madison for Wiscon was a bit much. Maybe if I'd had a full day to rest in-between, it would have been okay. We drove to Spring Green on Wednesday, and stayed at a motel called the Usonian Inn. It was designed by one of Frank Lloyd Wright's students, and is still a going concern. Very simple, but in the Shaker sense rather than the cheap sense. It was very reasonably priced, and very convenient. The next morning, we got right on Hwy 23 and went to the House. It's a maze, it's an odd collection of everything under the sun, it's all those clichés and more. But the Carousel room was worth it. (Now I understand why Neil Gaiman set that scene there.) Don't go there expecting a museum with carefully labeled exhibits. More like your grand-aunt's house squared, no, cubed.

We stayed Thursday night at Aeona's; it was great to see her and her hot-tub. Went into Madison around noon, checked into the room, and I went off to the Gathering to read Tarot. That was a lot more exhausting than I'd remembered. Public readings, even of cool people, become a drain when you do them one after the other. Martin wandered around, bought more of Mary Anne's spice mixture, and an interesting shirt.

After dinner at Noodles & Co with a friend, we went to opening ceremonies, then to parties. I went to the Broad universe Rapid Fire Reading, which was great fun. The best parts were Lyda Morehouse reading the beginning of Apocalypse Array, and then Jennifer Pelland reading the beginning of her story about the Burning Bush, which was the funniest thing I heard all weekend, hell, in weeks, months. Got to an erotica reading, but was tired enough to only remember bits and pieces.

Saturday it was raining, so I didn't get to the Farmer's Market, just as well considering the state of my legs all weekend. I managed to get some breakfast in the con suite, but didn't make it to any panel that morning. We went to Stillwater's for lunch, and I had a grilled tuna steak sandwich that was excellent.

I had two panels in the afternoon. "Harlequins in Space" went the best of the three I was on. We got into a lively discussion of genre and crossover, and both of us had salient points. The moderator never showed, but we were able to self-moderate. The audience participated without overwhelming us. Then I attended the "Journals and Blogs" panel, which was interesting, but not about what I wanted to hear, which was writers using them, or abusing them, or avoiding them. Instead, the panel was about the function of blogs, and politics. Then it was time for the "Poly in SF panel", which I especially wanted to me on. Unfortunately, we may have done as much of that discussion as there is material for, until there are a lot more books which mention poly. At least it didn't turn into the Heinlein panel like it did a few years ago. But I felt like I could have done more homework; Jed certainly did.

I was in panels all afternoon, and never did get to the Tiptree Bake Sale. They sold out without my help. Maybe for next year, someone could come up with something to sell at the Bake Sale that doesn't involve calories, or at least very few. I don't think I got to any panels Saturday evening, but elisem's Haiku Earring Party was wonderful. I preferred it to the other end of the hall, where the Tor party had better food, but was too noisy and crowded. I wrote a number of poems, haiku and otherwise, got a second pair of earrings because I hung around until Elise wanted to close. The second pair was a green leaf bead that I had also seen in a bracelet, and really like.

Sunday morning I had to have breakfast, but the promised buffet was not very useful, so I went in the restaurant proper and ordered an omelet. Almost more than I could eat. I looked in the organized religion panel, but it seemed like it was going to be very doctrinaire and political, and too much for my brain in the morning, so I left. The bra panel later was hilarious and also useful. I have urls for a few sites I want to look at for bras. We also came up the with idea that what we really need are anti-grav nanobots to hold up our boobs. Failing that, we need better fabrics, made to order bras, using new imaging technology. I decided I could fit in a swim before I went to the Strange Horizons tea party. As it turned out, that was the only time I got in the hot tub. I went to the panel about what happened at the Wiscon Retreat. They want to avoid imploding like Minicon did. They also need more volunteer help to prevent burnout.

Martin and I went to dinner at Himul Chuli Sunday evening. It seemed like the first time we had together all weekend, though I know that's not true. Then we went to the chocolate shop and shared a dish of ice cream.

The GoH speeches that evening were excellent. Eleanor's speech was very political; she said we are living during WW III whether we know it or not. Then one last night of, you guessed it, parties. Got Lyda's new book and got it autographed. Talked to Jen Pelland at the BU party, and persuaded her to let me read the rest of the Burning Bush piece. I think she has a real future ahead of her in comic writing. The world needs to laugh more. Especially right now.

Monday morning was very stressful. I didn't know until I called around 8 am when we had to check out. It turned out we only had until noon, and I was on a panel at 10 am. I wasn't very prepared for my panel, (NOTE TO SELF: DO NOT GET ON MONDAY AM PANELS UNLESS YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY, SURE YOU ARE STAYING MONDAY NIGHT!!!) It was about alternative histories, and I had almost nothing to suggest, and I was brain dead anyway. Fortunately, the other three people carried things quite nicely. We got the car loaded by the skin of our teeth,

I have already posted about the delay in Menominee. Otherwise the drive home was actually fairly pleasant.