(Apologies for this being late – wouldn’t upload yesterday for some strange reason. Anyway, this is the report on Friday, the post below it is the Saturday post).
I think I might put some imagination today into a better title for con report posts – while this one is very accurate, it’s dead boring.
Anyhoo, the first day of Conflux (apart from some extended boredom in the afternoon) was all things nice and wonderful. The first workshop on tax was looking to be a bust because the tax guy didn’t show, but then those attending got together and had a chat and we all managed to teach each other something (mine was the personal service income aspect of being a writer).
Then I had a nice chat with Alisa Krasnostein about life in general, in which we solved all the world’s problems IF ONLY THEY WOULD LISTEN TO US! Uh-um. This has been one of the best aspects of the con so far – catching up with and having great chats with folks you generally don’t see except at conventions. Onto the sword fighting workshop, which I’ve been dying to do since I first organised it with Chris Barnes for Conflux 4, but I’ve been too busy in the past (ah, the joy of committee membership). It was everything sensational that I’d hoped it would be – apart from the fact that I quite fancy myself as a swordswoman :) But it did give me a real insight into fighting with swords, and what’s involved and while it won’t impact on Balance of Power, the novel-I-had-to-put-down Battle for Odana does contain sword scenes, and it’s already proven invaluable for that. So thanks to Chris and his teacher, Andrew.
Then came the boring bit – people were in panels, or having naps, or had disappeared for lunch, or hadn’t arrived yet, and I did some work on the ghost romance poem, and then wandered a bit. Rob Hood and Cat Sparks arrived and finally I decided it was time for a glass of wine, and to sit and catch up with them, and Alisa, and Chris, and Nick Stathopolous and I met the amazing Paul Haines and Alan Baxter. As a result of all that conversing, I missed dinner and was surprised when we were hurried into the opening ceremony.
Is it just me, or is Mark McBride a bit of a hunk? Yum… Oh, sorry. Drifted a bit there. The opening ceremony was the outrageous Richard Harland at his best, and he brought along some actors who first masqueraded as security guards sniffing out secrets in the crowd, and then one became one of the best aliens I’ve ever seen – I really hope people got pics.
After it was CSFG celebration time. Unfortunately, the Romance Gauntlet didn’t work out – the Canberra Romance writers had to pull out. But we had some good readings, including a couple from some Queenslanders. The standout by far was Simon Petrie’s zombie romance. Honestly, the man had a fine touch with humour. Can’t wait to see that story in print somewhere. I did the ghost romance poem, which I decided was a bad move – should have read a scene from my book. Silly, silly author. But still, it went down pretty well, and apparently the kids liked it, so there’s a win.
Cake, chips and dips. in the midst of this, I managed to share a plate of wedges with Donna Maree Hanson so that ended up being dinner – ah, that Conflux food curse appears to still be going, even if the committee work isn’t.
So today, I’m not going in until lunch – novel is screaming at me. But then I have a few hours on the CSFG desk, so hopefully will get to chat to and catch up with more people. My editor should be there today, so it will be good to see her and tonight, the fabulous banquet organised by Gillian Polack.