I had a fabulous trip that included all of the ambivalencies of travel: fun! exhaustion! people I love to see! disorientation! great food! too much food! great surroundings! missing home! I'm so glad that I went to Seattle for the convention, and then to the Portland area for a visit with good friends, but after being back for two days it all seems like a dream that I had months ago.

You might not be able to believe how many books I bought. I actually don't know exactly how many myself, because I bought so many that I needed to have them shipped to me, with the help of the generous and delightful jens_fire. I spent an entire day at Powell's City of Books. I did not leave the store between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. And I had actually bought several books before the Powell's trip. *exquisite shudder*

This week I'll catch up on writing and various writing-related activities, including getting my thoughts and notes in order for my OddCon panels (you're going to OddCon, right?):

Saturday, 10 a.m., Room 202: Networking at Conventions: *Monroe, Frenkel, Rothfuss, Freitag. An SF con seems the perfect place to make connections if you are an author, artist, editor, agent or salesperson. What are good (and bad) ways to make contacts? How do you follow up?

Saturday, 1 p.m., Oakbrook III: Submitting Short Stories: *Bergmann, Monroe, Schepartz, Waltz. For new fiction writers, what is the proper format for submitting stories? What do you say in a cover letter? How to improve one's chances for acceptance by attention to the title, first paragraph, and details in the submission.

(* = moderator)

I've learned that I will also be on a couple of panels at WisCon! I'll post about those in May.