FOGcon In San Francisco
I'm beginning to understand Cons. It's not about the panels. It's not about the books, even. It's all about the people. FOGcon is wonderful that way. We're two days into it. Tomorrow it ends.
I met so many people I don't often see, especially my Clarion-friend Justin Whitney. (I was hoping Julie Andrews would make it, but no such luck...) There was a contingent of Clarion 2010ers who I met for the first time, and they were great, too. All the Californians who don't often make it to San Francisco. Codex people. I got to join a number of them for lunch. And of course there are the Guests of Honor: Pat Murphy, and Jeff and Ann Vandermeer. For the squee! factor.
I've been running the FOGcon Dealers' Room, with lots of help of course since (a) I've never run one before and (b) I had to take a two-week break shortly before the Con as I was traveling. So I'd like to tip my metaphorical hat to Zed Lopez, who picked up the slack, and to Steve Schwartz who in addition to lots of other Con-running, took the time to plan the layout of the Dealer's room. I wasn't sure how we'd fit in the 20 tables we needed, but he did, and it looks great. We have a lovely selection of dealers, too: books, lots of books, art, jewelry -- and a chair massage. It's been remarkably smooth, except for the wi-fi in going down several times today. That's a pain because some dealers need it for credit cards. But everyone's been understanding and I hope they'e doing great.
The theme of this Con is The City, so there's been a lot of discussion of urban planning, power, class-structures, and iconic cities. This evening I attended "Why London?" -- why is so much urban fantasy set in London? The answers: It's the center of everything in the UK: the government; finance; the arts; theater; publishing. In the US, Washington's the political center, New York the financial center, Los Angeles is the film center. Also, there's a greater sense of equality, that any city is as worthy of being a setting as any other.
The downside of Dealer Liaison is that I didn't get to very many panels or readings. The ones I did attend were lively and tended to go on till the last possible moment. Even with that caveat, I'm finding a lot to love about this con. It's even more compact than Wiscon, which means it's *really* easy to pop into a panel discussion or a reading -- you don't have to trek long distances to get there. The Con Committee has been really a pleasure to work with (Vylar Kaftan, pictured above opening the Con yesterday, is the chair).
Corie Ralston is running a well-stocked and comfortable Con Suite. And: She brews beer. There were special brews in honor of the Guests. More of that in the next post...