Readercon Report! Neil Gaiman! Heatwave!

[ajodasso]

Last year, I ended up at Readercon by accident: I was newly back in the United States, severely depressed, and sovay said, hey, there's this thing, you should come. So I did, and I was invited to take part in the Mythic Poetry Group Reading at the last minute, and it was awesome. Which is why I resolved not only to attend this year's Readercon, but also become part of the programming, but something peculiar happened where the website's system ate my application, and I didn't get an invite around February-time like my Strange Horizons co-editors did. There was a lot of panicking and scrambling around, but, in the end, I was told the program was already too full to fit me in. I did, however, end up being added to the Mythic Poetry Group Reading again this year, and got to read alongside samhenderson, domparisien, and rose_lemberg (amongst many, many others; I believe around twenty poets read), all of whom I'd been wanting to meet for ages. I read my two Rhysling-nominated poems for this year, "Parallax" and "The Still Point of the Turning World." I got to see alankria, with whom I had grown accustomed to hanging out while I lived in London, and rinue to boot (both of whom also read).

My friend eldanis was visiting from out of town, and she had a long-standing wish to see Neil Gaiman read and get stuff signed by him, so I had procured tickets to his Saturday, July 13th reading, which necessitated leaving Readercon almost immediately after the Group Reading and missing that evening's festivities. Neil's always a pleasure, though; I loved hearing him read, but the venue (First Parish Church in Cambridge) did not have air conditioning. We toughed it out and, all in all, had fun.

PLEASE ALSO SEE: Rhysling Update & PSA from cafenowhere.