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So I had a chance to put my money where my mouth is and commit to actually using some of those introvert-success techniques at this event. So far, so good. Oddly, I think the fact that I know essentially no one at this event (and only a couple of social media acquaintances) is making things easier.

The one thing I was disappointed about regarding programming was that I wasn't scheduled for any of the readings, but a chance conversation with someone about that revealed that signing up for readings was done through the regular registration interface, and since I'd bypassed that as one of the featured guests, I'd never been given the chance to express an interest. (The programming questionnaire was separate.) So I took a chance and asked programming if there were any chance it was still possible to be added. As it happened, the answer was yes because there had been some last minute cancellations. While making notes for my panels, I also discovered that the program book had omitted listing half the panels in one time slot, so it was back to programming to mention that to them. (I think they may have started to dread my appearance, but I hope I was diplomatic about everything.) Anyway, here are my notes on panels, both as audience and participant.

1-2pm Book Recommendations - Panelists gave recommendations for their favorite books and authors and later opened up for audience recs. (There is a very high panel-to-attendance ratio, resulting in near parity in panel and audience numbers. This should improve somewhat as the true weekend approaches.) I confess the content of this panel raised my trepidation about whether I really fit in with the convention, having a very strong focus on erotic romance and an extremely heavy skew toward m/m. (In fact half the panelists explicitly said, "I only read m/m; I won't touch anything with vaginas." [direct quote] Which pretty much rolls both those presuppositions into one. BTW this opinion was expressed by women.) Fortunately this seems to have been an isolated aberration, at least in terms of how the skew was expressed. But I have run into a couple other occasions where people started off by saying, "I write LGBT fiction," and then clarified that they exclusively write m/m. But I'm saving my overall take on this topic until the convention is complete.

2-3pm I started out the hour by doing a turn through the dealers' room (which spills out into the hallways) but as far as I can tell all the books being sold are m/m exclusively, so I won't have to worry about suitcase room. This left me plenty of time to drop by the panel on crowd-funding. It was a good introduction to the basics, covering advantages and pitfalls.

3-4pm This was where they were able to fit me into one of the reading groups. It was a friendly group with quite a variety in content, so I didn't feel like I stuck out too badly. And the audience outnumbered us! Cool!

4-5pm I was on a panel entitled "Don't Quit Your Day Job" talking about what we do for a living when not writing, and how we fit writing in around our day jobs. Since there were only 2 audience to 4 panelists, it pretty much turned into a general discussion. Quite a variety of professions represented, and some interesting ways of interleaving writing with "down time".

5-6pm I went to the second half of a socializing session sponsored by the Queer Sci Fi facebook group, which I hadn't previously encountered. At first I felt a bit weird because it was people who already knew each other engaging in general chatting, but when I started asking questions about the group and what sorts of interests they covered, things got a bit livelier and it seems that it would be a reasonable fit for my interests. So when they mentioned a group dinner outing to the local Panera, I tagged along.

8-10pm The official opening ceremonies were the real test of my resolve. After the initial announcements and a presentation from the official convention charity (a local large cat rescue center), it was general open socializing. Urk. So I decided my gimmick would be going from table to table, sitting down, and announcing simply that I was planning to hit all the tables and meet everyone. This is where not really knowing anyone actually helped, because it let me turn off the "I'm making an idiot of myself" reflex. I ended up in several good conversations, and a few more where I learned a great deal about the people I met but they seemed to have very little return curiosity.

The late night programming is pretty much all on the "adult *wink* *nudge*" side, which I have no interest in, so I shouldn't have much problem getting to bed on time. Other than the part where I spend an hour online before turning in.

* * *

And on an entirely different note, I got an e-mail with my final Worldcon programming schedule and they were able to add me to a second panel. I'd also got asked to participate in the Writers Workshop programming as an "industry professional" (i.e., I get to provide feedback on advance-submitted writing samples). So when you add in a reading, signing session, and coffee klatch, I'm up to 6 programming items, which feels a lot more satisfying. I shall need to think of something I can use to bribe people to sign up for the coffee klatch.

Managed to sleep in a smidge and still hit the hotel's fitness center before my first panel. (For short vacations, I generally give myself time off from the gym. But for what's basically 2 weeks, that would be a lot of slacking.)

11am panel participant in "Foreshadowing, Red Herrings, and Chekhov's Gun" -- Nice lively discussion of the how and why. The purposes of foreshadowing and misdirection in different genres, the ways tropes can be used and subverted. I had a chance to do an illustrated demonstration of my "nailing the octopus to the wall" metaphor with sound effects and gestures. [Note: it is not quite as hilarious as my demonstration of squid screwing, but shares the presence of flailing tentacles.]

Light lunch (smoothie) since I'd just barely had breakfast. Found company for both by virtue of imposing myself on someone who was sitting alone.

1pm attended "Crossing Genres in Fiction" which covered examples of layered genres/categories and they ways they complicate marketing and reader expectations. Ran into one of those cultural gap things where one of the panelists asked, quite sincerely, "Are there any publishers that actually specialize in f/f fiction?" Somehow, I ended up contributing (from the audience) a brief social history of lesbian publishing.

I took a break after this to hang out in the lobby working on my laptop and had an interesting follow-up conversation to the lesbian publishing comment.

4pm panel participant for "Women in Fiction", which was reasonably attended despite having been one of several programming items inadvertently cut from the program book. The panel description was "Women in science fiction, fantasy, horror, romance, and other genres are oftentimes overshadowed by the men. Discuss how the landscape was, is, and how it's changing." which some panelists interpreted as talking about authors and some about characters, so we covered both. Opening remarks included pointing out that a false framing of a topic can reinforce myths: by presupposing that "women…are overshadowed by the men" it can be hard to escape a defensive position. I contributed some lists of "Yes, women have been writing sff/horror all along". We all talked about how tired we are of the phrase "strong female characters". There was a side discussion of how to create complex, "real" female characters in m/m fiction.

5pm I dropped by the Worldbuilding Workshop, but it looked like it was more of a "beginning worldbuilding" so I figured better to leave more room for others. Took in the rest of a set of readings.

I wasn't sure who else might be skipping the evening dinner-and-a-drag-show event and so hadn't made any dinner connections in advance. So I took a table in the cafe and nursed a cocktail for a while, making eye contact with everyone from the convention that came in. Alas, nothing in the way of company turned up, even when mine was the last table with open space, so I ate dinner alone and then retired to my room. (The evening programming is, once again, in the "adult" category, which isn't my thing.)