Odd Con Report

[michaeldthomas]

Odyssey Conis one of my favorite conventions. It’s very small and intimate, and yet it never feels light or inconsequential. Some amazing, fun, passionate people run it. They also get top-notch guests. In many ways their literary guests are more impressive than some of the larger SF cons. It probably doesn’t hurt them that Tor Senior Editor Jim Frenkel is a big supporter of the con.

The Guests of Honor this year were George R.R. Martin and Kage Baker. Both are amazing authors whose works I greatly enjoy and admire. grrm is a frickin’ genius and a living legend. I was really excited to meet him.

So anyway, I’ve looked forward to this con for months. It was something to focus on while dealing with my grandmother’s death. It really looked like I wasn’t going to be able to go once Caitlin got sick with that hellish stomach virus. Thankfully, my aunt and mother were able to watch the Cait even though she was still sick. I can’t thank them enough.

The first day of the con went quickly. We arrived just in time to catch the Shakespeare panel with our friend Jerome, Joan Vinge, Kage Baker, and truepenny. It was very impressive. truepenny was her usual brilliant self, and Kage Baker blew me away with her intelligence and humor.

After the panel, we went out to dinner a great little American contemporary restaurant called Bluephies with truepenny and mirrorthaw. On the way out, we ran into eeknight and chats_noirs. I ended up carting up boxes of archive material to our room from eeknight, truepenny, and matociquala. rarelylynne had been there for a couple of hours, and she already had a successful weekend.

Dinner was great. The food was delicious, I talked baseball with mirrorthaw, and rarelylynne and rarelylynne had fascinating conversations about literature and literary theory. It was nice to have an opportunity to get to know them better.

We pretty much crashed when we got back to the hotel. We did stop to catch up with our friend Pat Rothfuss. He was exhausted, but hilarious as ever.

The hotel itself is a comfortable little Radisson. Our room was nice, but they had one of those Sleep Number beds. I just couldn’t find my right number. I guess I’m just an old-fashioned kind of guy when it comes to mattresses.

The next day was one of the busiest panel days that I’ve ever done at con. The panels were 75 minutes long, and I was on 4 that day. The first one was the “Print Media Versus TV & Film” panel with grrm, Jim Frenkel, and Jerome. I was a little intimidated by being on a panel with George; I had no idea what to expect.

It turns out he’s a great guy. He entered the packed room, shook my hand, and said, “Hi. I’m George Martin.” Jim Frenkel was running late, so we joked about football for a few minutes. The panel itself was fantastic. George brought his US experiences, and I brought my UK knowledge. People seemed to enjoy it.

While I was at the panel, Lynne was meeting with Kage Baker. The wonderful news is that Kage is donating her archives to Northern Illinois University. She joins Sarah Monette, E.E. Knight, Elizabeth Bear, Jack McDevitt, and Donald Bingle. There are another 20 authors who have said yes but haven’t sent anything in yet. rarelylynne’s vision is really coming together.

After the panel, Lynne and I had lunch with the wonderful darkshiver. darkshiver works on the Flames Rising website and has done some RPG writing. She’s also at in similar place as I am as a writer. We had a great talk about writing and the industry while eating average Chinese food.

Lynne and I returned to do a Whedon panel with our friends Paul and Amanda. It was quite good. There was a bunch of squee girls in the audience who kept things lively.

In between things, we slipped in some hanging out time. Our friend torresroman was there. We were bummed that we couldn’t see him more, but he seemed to be having a good time.

My next panel was the “Pre-Industrial Entertainment & Prostitution” panel with truepenny, Pat, and Kage. I’m glad to say that I didn’t embarrass myself. The room that we were in was mighty crowded. The best moment was when Kage educated us about the Elizabethan sport of shin kicking. It’s pretty much what you would expect. Hell, it still beats most reality TV.

rarelylynne did a panel about how she became a fan, she wheeled and dealed some more, and then she did a panel called “Why Is Art Valuable?” with Kage Baker. It was a fascinating panel. It was up against grrm, there were only four of us in the audience for most of it, and a panelist didn’t show until the last five minutes. What it became was an intimate, fascinating dialogue between two brilliant women about books, art, and the nature of value. People missed a helluva discussion.

Next up I was on a panel called “How Magic Changes Things” with darkshiver, Pat Rothfuss, and authors Kathryn Sullivan and Alex Bledsoe. Pat ran a sweet panel where we all basically used what if questions to see how one goes about writing about magic in a smart and consistent way.

It was a fun panel until I brought the mood down at the end. The question was posed to the panelists about if they had a magic power, what would it be and at what cost. They listed the usual of mind control, flight, etc. I asked to be skipped. The audience pushed me for an answer, so I told them that I wanted the power to heal my daughter and was willing to give up years of my life. Never let it be said that geeks can’t show empathy.

That brought us to the midnight horror panel. rarelylynne and I finally got to see eeknight and chats_noirs. It was nice and raucous. My favorite part was darkshiver razzing rarelylynne about being such a chicken when it came to horror.

There was some sleeping on the crappy bed, and then we threw ourselves into day three.

The day started with a panel on multi-book storytelling with Kage, truepenny, Tolkien scholar David Berberick, and literary agent Jack Byrne. I can’t understate how important these panels are to me. I learn so much about process and the business.

Next up was the Doctor Who panel. Lots of fun was had with plenty of squeeing from the ladies. People are still very excited about the series and its spin-offs.

The last panel I was on was the “SF on TV” panel. It was another fun time. The weirdest part was when one of my fellow panelists called me the “professional” of the panel. I guess being the fourth author of a Doctor Who book about Doctor Who novels is a big deal in Madison.

After that, we hit the road for home. It was a tiring, but fun con.

I can’t wait until WisCon in a few weeks.