Reno: the Good, the Bad, and the Unhappy.: seanan

Reno: the Good, the Bad, and the Unhappy.

I am home from Reno! Finally. I think I may be half-dead, and I definitely need a lot more of a nap than I'm going to be getting in the near future. Here, then, is my extremely truncated and specialized convention report.

The Good.

* Joe's Diner! Kate, Victor, and I arrived early, and were able to wander around, running errands. This led us to discovering an awesome little diner, just far enough from the convention center to be inaccessible if you didn't have a car (and thus entirely uncrowded throughout the weekend). Cheap, delicious food, real malts, and a waitress who came to know us all by name as we returned again and again for delicious meals. Yay!

* Also during our running around, I found a hardcover copy of Hellspark, one of my favorite hard-to-find books. (Actually, Victor found it. But he is a loving Victor, and he gave it unto me.) I will love it always.

* I wound up in two hotel rooms, one shared with Kate (and connected via adjoining door to Victor), one shared with Wes, Mary, and Amy. Both rooms were awesome in different ways, and I couldn't have asked for better roommates.

* "Just A Minute," where I not only became the new champion, I got to do it while hanging out with awesome people (including two of my favorite people, Paul and Caroline). Betcha John regrets telling me that lists were legal...

* Lauren Beukes's sloth! I nearly stole that thing. I still want to.

* Delivering an impassioned verbal smackdown during the zombie panel.

* Interviewing Tricky Pixie, Bill Wellingham, and this year's COMPLETELY AWESOME Campbell nominees. All on different panels, but still. I could not have shared a stage with more delightful people.

* Kaja hugs.

* Having a signing line longer than George R.R. Martin. It was bizarre and confusing, and totally fantastic.

* Brunch with Daniel and Kelly.

* Breakfast with Sheila.

* Surprise DDR with Kate and Vixy and Lauren and Amy.

* Dinner with Mike and Marnie and the posse, during which I received my official Barfleet tags. They're orange and green! I am truly loved.

...honestly, there were a lot of amazing people at WorldCon this year, but if I try to list them all, someone will be left off, because I am exhausted, and then we will all be sad. So please believe that I love all my friends, and I am so excited to have seen them, and I would not have survived this convention without them. Seriously. I would be dead.

The Bad.

* The one day when I didn't have, basically, a team of people handling me, I was unable to get any food for eleven hours, was repeatedly grabbed by people I don't know, and was even followed into the bathroom stall. Not the bathroom. THE ACTUAL STALL. Needless to say, I was not left alone again, resulting in my friends feeling put-upon, my feeling like I had to hide in my hotel room to have any privacy, and everyone being tense. Being grabbed is bad. It scares me.

* Smoking is allowed indoors in Reno. We were in Reno. I am not as sensitive to smoke as some of my friends, but I still feel pretty lousy, even after being home for almost two full days.

* The convention center was almost a mile away from my hotel, resulting in lots of walking back and forth in the extreme heat. Also, if I managed to forget something at the room, it stayed gone until I went home in the afternoon. This decentralized layout prevented a single Barcon from coalescing, and I am hence still faintly sad.

* The decentralized layout also meant that I saw some people I really care about rarely, if at all. Kate put it best when she noted that if you weren't part of the amoeba, we barely saw you.

* Finding things was almost impossible. I didn't even figure out where open filk was until Friday night, when I was doing "Whose Line?" across from it (an 11pm to 1am panel, so no, I didn't join the circle afterward). I made it to the dealer's hall twice, both times for under twenty minutes.

The Unhappy.

So. The Hugos. That happened.

You're not supposed to talk about being sad that you lost; it's considered poor form. Unfortunately, in this internet age, it's impossible to avoid addressing it at least a little if you have any sort of decent web presence. Not only is it obvious that you're avoiding an elephant, people keep hijacking other posts and other threads to tell you how sorry they are. That's worse for my sanity than having a few people sigh meaningfully at me, so I'm going to talk about this once, and have done.

Yes, I lost.

Yes, I am very sad about that. I wanted to win. Everybody wants to win. Wanting to win is human nature, and if you don't want to win, you decline the nomination. End of story.

Yes, I am aware that I lost by a very narrow margin. This doesn't make it easier. If anything, it makes it harder; what could I have done to make my book just twenty votes better? Rationally, I know this isn't a quantifiable thing, but, well. Me and numbers. It's a thing.

Yes, I hope that I get another shot next year.

No, I will not be responding to comments directly relating to the Hugos. I hope you understand why not. Congratulations to all the winners, and huge, huge thanks to everyone who voted. I came in second. I beat Bujold in the voting. That's a damn big deal. Maybe next time, we can win.

That was WorldCon, and now it's not. See you next year, in Chicago.

fadedbluejeans

August 24 2011, 12:34:08 UTC 5 years ago

New comment

You had a signing line longer than George R. R. Martin? That is beyond cool. And totally deserved, because you are beyond awesome.

And, okay, you don't actually have complete control over the universe. But an incredible number of people love you, and love your work, and I am so proud of you in a way that, since I'm just a fan who doesn't actually know you, I probably have no right to be.

seanan_mcguire

September 9 2011, 15:46:14 UTC 5 years ago

Thank you. :) And I am always okay with pride.

beckyh2112

August 24 2011, 15:55:33 UTC 5 years ago

Worldcon is in Chicago next year? Wow, if Ravyn is still talking to me, I might see if I can coax her into going!

*snugs for Seanan* It sounds like you had a very good time, unpleasantness aside. Was that a real sloth?

tiferet

August 24 2011, 18:31:15 UTC 5 years ago

I really need to stop identifying people by icon because my first thought upon reading this comment is I know nobody named Ravyn who spells it with a y.

September 9 2011, 14:59:04 UTC 5 years ago

No, plush sloth. But woooooooonderful.

September 9 2011, 20:34:51 UTC 5 years ago

Oh, the wonder of plushies. I went to my favorite booth in the Dragon*Con dealers' room this weekend, and I found a plush kiwi!

I adore him so.

5 years ago

Hey,

sffilk

August 24 2011, 18:05:41 UTC 5 years ago

at least you got to go to Worldcon this year. I've not been able to go to one since 2007. What made it worse this year is that it wasn't Labor Day weekend. What also made it worse is that we had a trial start the Monday before the convention, which put anything and everything, including life, on hold. The way things are going, I won't be able to get to another Worldcon until at least 2015 and more likely 2017 (provided we don't have a trial going the week before or the week after).

Re: Hey,

September 9 2011, 14:59:40 UTC 5 years ago

Since I'm not a particular fan of Worldcon, "at least you got to go" doesn't really hold much water. I'm very sorry you have been unable to attend them.

reedrover

August 24 2011, 20:39:00 UTC 5 years ago

* Having a signing line longer than George R.R. Martin. It was bizarre and confusing, and totally fantastic.

Ha! We win. I told you we would all be there in force...

September 9 2011, 14:34:24 UTC 5 years ago

It was AWESOME.

calico_reaction

August 24 2011, 22:43:29 UTC 5 years ago

Yes, I am aware that I lost by a very narrow margin.

WHAT???

Well, you may not respond to this, but I've read ALL the nominees except for the Bujold and the McDonald, and you TOTALLY GOT ROBBED. I've read the Willis, and I've loved Willis' work in the past, but it's my humble opinion that these two books were not her best work, even though they have some lovely moments, and these two books needed some severe editing. Nothing against Willis or those who love those two books to pieces, but I've read better by HER, let alone the fact that your book, in my mind, should've been the clear winner. I daresay Willis got a slight edge due to name recognition, which probably doesn't make you feel any better, but that's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

Seriously, you should've totally won.

September 13 2011, 16:13:52 UTC 5 years ago

Thank you.

Very much.

(And sadly, I do think you're right.)

geekgirl113

August 25 2011, 00:35:16 UTC 5 years ago

This may or may not just be a conincidence, but today I was at a comic book store and someone was talking about the exact same stuff at WorldCon...smoking being allowed indoors, being a mile from the covnetion center, having a signing line longer than George R.R. Martin...was that you? Again, it could just be a strange coincidence...there could be another blonde author out there with a signing line longer than George R.R. Martin's at WorldCon. :)

September 9 2011, 03:32:19 UTC 5 years ago

If you're a Flying Comics and Other Cool Stuff girl, that was me. :) I love that store so. Joe's been my comic guy since I was seven.

September 9 2011, 07:21:44 UTC 5 years ago

Yep! I am indeed a Flying Colors Comics and Other Cool Stuff girl. It's a great store. I'd spend more time there, but I fear for my paycheck. :)

yellowblackhaze

August 25 2011, 01:37:37 UTC 5 years ago

Two of my many highlights were meeting you and finding that you're every bit as gracious and amusing in real life as you are here on your LJ. The other was your amazing and funny performance in Just A Minute. Be afraid Scalzi, be very afraid! And our flight home was okay, aside from the screaming child on the last leg. Thank you for wishing us a nice journey home.

September 3 2011, 20:10:35 UTC 5 years ago

Next year's match will be EPIC in its terrifying cut-throatness. I truly expect blood upon the stage. I'm so glad you were able to come, and that your flight home was pleasant! My drive was, too.

hoppytoad79

August 25 2011, 07:11:55 UTC 5 years ago

Yay on having a fabulous time with lots of awesome people who are at least as crazy as you are, if not moreso. Sloths rock and if you want help stealing this one, let me know. It's been too long since my last caper.

It's totally understandable you'd be bummed about not getting the Hugo, and to lose by a small margin is incredibly, incredibly frustrating. You're being very cool, mature, respectful, and polite about it (publicly, at least, which is where it counts), and your response should be copied and passed around to everyone nominated for a major award as an example of how to handle losing.

I'll add my voice to the chorus of disbelief that someone followed you into the stall. That's just...wow. Did they give a reason for stepping over the line of decency in a pair of seven-league boots? Why would someone even *want* to do something like that? There are a lot of places I've been tempted to follow someone I'm starstruck over, but the bathroom (and definitely never a stall) isn't one of them.

September 9 2011, 03:30:54 UTC 5 years ago

No reason was given. It was just "oh, you're cool." And I'm like...no one is so cool you need to watch them pee, okay?

September 9 2011, 03:55:23 UTC 5 years ago

Everything you do is cool, didn't you know that? They probably wanted to see if a Real Author does their business any differently than the rest of us. ;p

kyburg

August 25 2011, 21:31:44 UTC 5 years ago

You were awfully quiet there. Just saying.

Still, very stubbornly, in the camp of 'you don't need handlers, people need MANNERS' - the buhing BUH?

(I mean, WTF is it with bathroom stalls anyway? They have doors. For a reason...and ask me about this sometime when it's possible to talk.)

Hope you found many street pennies, a few dice and other things too inconsequential - but fun and delightful - to mention in passing. You gotta sloth. I am green to here.