Thursday, January 29, 2009

Vericon: Harvard on the Lhûn

I just got back from my first Vericon, Harvard's annual SF/F con, organized by the Harvard-Radcliff Science Fiction Association. It was a great con: smart, relaxed, intimate, thoughtful. I saw some friends from previous cons, including the wonderul writers Sarah Smith and Greer Gilman, and had lunch with Kaitlin Heller, my wonderful Del Rey editor, and her partner Steven (an editor at Tor).

The informal conversations are always the best part of a con for me. But I also enjoyed the keynote talk on global warming and activism by guest of honor Kim Stanley Robinson (pictured; he also noted that the invention of agriculture was bad for our species' sex life), the reading by Catherynne Valente (exquisite, strange and poetic), the good local beer, my own reading, and the marvelous panel discussions, led by:

Elizabeth Bear

Yvonne Carts-Powell

Paul di Filippo (who also gave a great unscheduled reading during the semi-official milk/cookies/Chewbacca-doll pajama-party reading event [yes we were all confused] on Saturday night)

Don D'Ammassa (whose mind is an astonishing SF database)

Allen Steele

Marie Brennan (whose Midnight Never Come has got to go on my shortlist of books to read)

the aforementioned Kaitlin Heller (who is also a HRSFA alum)

... and yours truly.

Many thanks to Jason Brodsky, John Bestoso, Kirby Haugland and the entire volunteer staff for taking such good care of us all. I wish I'd gotten to know these mysterious, hard-working people--do they write, what do they read, where are they going with their SF/F enthusiasm?--but they were too busy helping everyone to stop and chat. What a team.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

It was excellent to meet you (introduced by Sarah Smith) - I look forward to reading the Red Wolf Conspiracy!

Robert said...

Great to meet you, too, Shira! Keep in touch and keep writing!

Best, RVSR