My Life is Complete

Today started out kind of shitty. I woke up earlier than expected, so not only was I tired, but I had several hours with nothing to do, because I had to be quiet so as not to wake up my housemates. Then, Alice's parents were coming into town, so we ended up getting delayed about three hours while we waited for them to show up. When we finally left, we drove thirty five minutes to the wrong hotel. Wasted more time looking up the right location on Alice's Ipod touch, drove across town, through a huge detour and traffic because it was OSU game day, and then to a hotel that was under renovations and looked like crap. By this time, I was getting a headache from lack of food.

We found seats in the guest lounge. And then suddenly, things started looking up.

Context is not a large sci-fi connection. But boy do they know how to take care of the attendees.

I've been to several conventions, most notably, Ohayocon. They treat you like crap there, at least the last time I went they did.

At Context, however, there was free food. That in and of itself was fantastic--I'm like most men in that the way to my heart is through my stomach. Give me free food and I'll love you forever.

Give me a job opportunity and great networking, and I'm at your feet. Alice and I were both asked to submit portfolios and writing samples to a sci-fi magazine by one of the people in charge of the writing submissions--what's more, it actually pays!

So we're in a pretty good mood by this point, right? Enjoying ourselves. In addition to the finger foods, they brought out things like popcorn, candy, and some sandwiches. My blood sugar went back to where it's supposed to be.

And then, I looked up. And I saw blond hair and a "Special Guest" name tag.

Tanya Huff.

If you don't read Sci-fi or fantasy, you can just walk away now. If you do, and you haven't read her books, go to the library right now and look her up. I highly recommend the Blood Books. For everyone else, you can join me in a massive squee:

SQUEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!



If ever you were afraid that one of your favorite authors would be mean and nasty if you met them in person, fear not. Tanya is awesome! She was very tolerant of my shy hovering and obsessive gushing, and loved my Coreen costume (she even said that my boots were better than the ones that Gina Holden wore in the series!!!). She signed my book and one of Alice's, and ended up spending about half an hour in the lounge talking to us. She's great. The only thing that could possibly have made it better would be if Kyle, Dylan, and Christina were there, or Mercedes Lackey, who is a friend of Tanya's (!!). Of course, then, I might have just exploded and then they'd have been covered in goo, and that's not a great first impression.