Diversicon Report
Quite low-key, quite fun. Kelly was guest of honor so it was good to see her and Gavin, as well as Mark and Martha. Bryan Thao Worra was the Special Guest, and he gave a really amazing multimedia talk about Laos and its attendant folklore. (Check out a PDF ebook of his speculative poetry here.) The auction (although it did drag a bit long) is also rather nice in that the opening bids are rather low. Kelly, in particular, gave a great birthday present through one of these bids–and sit down in preparedness for the geekiness of this–a slew of 1st and 2nd edition AD&D hardcovers. About 9-10 of them: Monster Manual I and II, Wildnerness Survival Guide, Dungeoneer’s Survival Guide, Legends and Lore, etc. etc. It’s this weird nexus of collectibility and browsability and nostalgia-crack that made me really excited about this. So, thanks, Kelly! (The geek quotient of our house just went up a few notches, so I’m not sure how Kristin feels about this.) Another highlight of the weekend was catching up with Eleanor Arnason, who has been a great mentor to me throughout the years…so it was good chatting about writing, the writing life, and other things with her.
As a side note, one of my friends from work dog-sitted for Gambit, and he seemed to be pretty good throughout the weekend. They have a beagle named Max who is on the same wavelength, energy-wise, with Gambit. So the weekend for him seemed to be the Max and Gambit Show, starring Max and Gambit. They had fun.
All in all a good weekend.
