No, not Icon. I speak of Eyecon. While in all actuality this was Lunacon 50, I shall forever after remember this this as the Eyecon (details to follow later).

The con got off to an interesting start, because it marked the first time I've driven though a snowstorm to reach one. I passed two separate accidents on the way and talking to others coming from farther away, some people passed as many six accidents. Honestly, I think most of these accidents were people who refused to drive slower, because it wasn't that hard to drive so long as you kept it to nothing more than 40 mph. Finding the spot was another story. The hotel was on 699 Westchester Avenue, so when the numbers ran higher than 699 the logical assumption was to turn around and start driving in the other direction. Only 699 wasn't in that direction either. I had to go higher than 1000 (maybe 2000) before the numbers took a sudden and drastic dip that brought me to 699. Madness.

The hotel itself was really nice, but the layout was kind of wacky, making it difficult to navigate smoothly. But these details aside, it was a fun con. The whole con posse was there, comprising, authors David Barr Kirtley and Amy Tibbetts, recent Writers of the Future winner Andrea Kail, and editors John Joseph Adams & Christopher Cevasco. Also in attendance were regular con posse cameo peeps Amy Goldschlager, Elizabeth Glover, Barbara Campbell, Lawrence Schoen, Ian Randall Strock, Carol Pinchefsky & her husband Peter, and Jeff Lyman & his fiance (name is escaping me--doh!). Jenny Rappaport, my agent, was supposed to be there, but proved a no-show. Alas.

What else? I wasn't scheduled to do any panels on Friday, but Amy G. & one other panelist were unable to make it because of the weather, so because I'm working on an Arthurian novel and I've fished an Arthurian story out of the slush (first slush survivor ever), I ended up filling in. Including this one, I did six panels this weekend. A little much, especially as I'm starting to find myself doing some of the same panels, answering the same questions. So I think I'll be scaling back in the future. But the most interesting panels I participated in this weekend were The Art of the Rewrite, in which a mixture of editors and authors discussed the topic in question, and the other fun one was (surprisingly) Escaping the Slush. Again, the topic is rather self-explanatory and it's the kind of stuff I've discussed a lot by now, but this time was different because along with short fiction editors, the panel also had three book editors, including the lovely Liz Gorinsky of Tor, Paul Stevens (sp?) of Tor, and former Ace editor, Peter Heck. JJA was on the panel too, helping represent the short editors. Overall it was really interesting to compare experiences with everyone. And it's also fun meeting new editors. Of the aforementioned, the only ones I knew were JJA & Liz. I also did a pair of panels with Anne Sowards, another lovely editor, this time from Roc, so it was nice meeting her as well. Met John Douglas too, and I think that covers all the editors I didn't know.

But the coolest editor to sit on a panel was the one and only Jeanne Cavelos. I've mentioned her name a couple of time in the past. She's the director of the Odyssey Fantasy & Science Fiction Writing Workshop, which I attended in 2000, and she has been one of my biggest influences as both a writer and an editor. To actually sit on not one but two panels with my teacher was, well, it was freaking cool. I loved it.

One other cool experience for me was going to Elizabeth Glover's reading of "MetaPhysics." As many of you know, Elizabeth marks my most recent slush survivor with Realms of Fantasy, and "MetaPhysics" marks her first sale. And this marked the first time I attended a reading in an editorial capacity to show support for an author and her story. And I'm happy to say that it was a full house and everyone laughed in the right places.

Let me also add a brief rant: no names shall be named, but I hate doing panels with panelists that prove to be nitwits. One nitwit is something you just have to put up with, two is enough to make a panel suck. And when the moderator of the panel is the nitwit in question ...sigh. Doomed before it starts. That's all I'll say. Just needed to complain a bit.

As to why this shall forever be remembered as Eyecon ...

I ended up sharing a room with Chris Cevasco & David Barr Kirtley. All of us were wearing contact lenses. On Saturday morning, I had just finished showering and Dave went in next. I went to the nightstand to get my contacts and happened to notice an identical case right next to what I thought was mine.

Uh-oh.

So I knocked on the bathroom door and Dave came out. When I explained the situation to him and how I wanted to make sure which case belonged to me, he said, "Oh, one of these is yours?"

"Um, yeah."

"I just assumed both of them were mine. I brought about five of these cases with me."

D'oh! "So how do we figure out whose is whose?" I asked.

"I don't know," Dave said. "Mine don't feel any different."

"So you're already wearing a pair?"

"Yeah."

D'oh! To make a long story a little shorter, after a bit of experimentation it was determined Dave had put in my contacts, but they hardly felt any different to him, both in fit and in vision. So the contacts were returned to me and after a thorough rinsing were placed in the home of their rightful owner. Come that breakfast, I happened to be telling everyone about the incident, and described it as sharing "Dave's eyejuice." This became a running joke through the weekend, and somehow eyejuice became Eyecon, a pun on the convention Icon (to those unaware). Not sure how funny this story is to relate on a blog, but it was definitely funny if you were there.

So those were the highlights. At the end of the con we all helped each other shovel our cars free of the parking lot. Dave broke JJA's shovel. :)

Next con for me: the Nebulas in NYC this May.

Later all.