ReaderCon, Well-Met!

I had a great time at ReaderCon this past weekend!

I saw a bunch of BCS authors, including Matt Kressel, Mike Allen, Marko Kloos, Raj Khanna, Maggie Ronald, and Mike DeLuca. I also met several BCS authors for the first time, including Ann Chatham and Seth Dickinson. And I saw many con acquaintances, like George Morgan and Amanda Downum, and drinking buddies, like Devin Poore, Claire Humphries, Chris Cevasco, and probably tons more that my delayed-flight-addled brain can’t remember.

I chatted with a bunch of other editors, including Matt Kressel (who also built the new BCS website), Mike Allen, Leah Bobet, and Sean Wallace, which I always enjoy. One of my favorite editors to chat with, Neil Clarke, had a heart attack at the con, which was a big shock, but he was recovering well at a hospital right down the street; excellent news. I started a get-well card for him, which tons of people signed, and a bunch of other people manned his dealers room table all weekend.

I met a bunch of new people, like fellow Viable Paradise grads Fran Wilde and A.C. Wise, Clarkesworld slushie and homebrewer Rebecca Wright, Patrick Swenson the editor of Talebones (a sole-proprietor editor and zine, which I always admire), agent Eddie Schneider of JABberwocky (I’ve met and been on panels with his boss Joshua Bilmes), Appalachian F/SF writer Andy Duncan (whose reading, from an upcoming cover story in F&SF, was awesome), novelist Daniel Abraham (who knew of BCS from my publishing our mutual pal Saladin Ahmed), his co-author Ty Franck (who I knew from fellow Odyssey grad Carrie Vaughn, and who had helped me get my GRRM science-fantasy anthologies signed by Mr. Martin for the BCS science-fantasy month giveaway), and many many more.

The Saturday panel I moderated on Genre Zines in the 21st Century had some great discussion about interesting aspects of current magazines, which made the panel fresh and different from the usual panels on that subject.  Among the cool nuggets that the audience seemed to enjoy was this one that I dropped in passing. My solo reading on Sunday had excerpts from four BCS stories, like “Ratcatcher” by Garth Upshaw that will be in Issue #100 next week and the new Lord Yamada story by Richard Parks that will be in the Fourth Anniversary Double-Issue in October, and was solidly attended by BCS writers and readers alike.

I had a great time; I bought way too many books; I had crates of awesome local beer and shared it with all who would have me. :)  All my criteria for a great con.  I’ll be back again next year!

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2 Responses to “ReaderCon, Well-Met!”

  1. Fran W Says:

    It was great meeting you too, Scott! (and Andy’s reading was *totally* awesome.)

  2. Scott H. Andrews Says:

    Yes! And ditto on the reading. I read the first scene of that out-loud at home last night–awesome.