As you read this (unless you’re reading it very late in the day), I’ll be participating on a panel and delivering the keynote speech at the Tarrant County College writer’s conference. And on Friday, I was at the Irving Club’s Tea in Lockhart speaking about being an author (I’m writing this on Thursday, but I’m sure I had a fabulous time).
For the most part, I love conferences, as the photographic evidence shows.
I can't remember what Chris Robertson was saying, but dang he was cracking me up. Although considering his hand placement, I can guess! Hopefully the audience was as amused as we were. (This is at Armadillocon, by the way.)
And here I am at DragonCon with SciFiChick Angela. What can I say? I actually like my hair in this shot.
What I don’t like about cons is the clothes factor. I just tried on half my wardrobe…and I hate everything. And stuff even fits, but I hate it. Which means that before RWA in July, I have to get new clothes. I mean, God forbid I go to a conference with thousands of women without a cute get-up!
So how about y’all? Love cons? Hate them? And why?
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
I love em especially since I just got back from one. Our annual Ontario Library Association conference just wrapped up this weekend. We got to attend lots of fascinating session, met tons of seasoned and up in coming authors and best of all got tons of free books (some of them even signed). This year was especially great since I had the pleasure of meeting Gordon Pinsent and Romeo Daillaire.
I enjoy conferences–love seeing everyone, going to new places, attending the publisher events. Biggest downside is being exhausted for a week after I get home.
You and Allie always look amazing, too.
I love conferences, both the writers’ and the academic ones. So far there has been only one conference where I felt very uncomfortable (and that was a German writers’ conference) (which tells you a lot about German writers ….). One of the best academic conferences I’ve attended was the disability studies conference in Manchester earlier this year. Despite the horrible weather (snowed in in the North of England!) I had the most fantastic time & nearly all of the papers were absolutely brilliant. The conference certainly was an eye-opener in regard to the depiction of disability in Western culture and how we deal with disability.
I love RWA conferences – I’ve made so many friends over the years, and there’s always such a positive buzz in the air. (Besides, it’s always fun to tell the immigration officers that I’m attending a conference consisting of 2000 women
) That said, I’m rather glad that I won’t be able to go this year – I haven’t got a book out any time soon (well, except for the dratted diss) and I don’t even have a publisher so I probably would have returned home depressed and thinking that I’m a failure. Instead of doing that, I’ll be in Toronto, teaching a graduate seminar at York U and checking out all the fabric stores in town. 
I’ll miss seeing you, Sandy. Toronto is a great city, though. Sounds like a fun summer!
I like cons, but don’t love them. It’s the only time I get to see friends (y’all), so that’s a bonus and is 90% of the reason I go. I do come back energized and full of ideas, but that’s because I usually take advantage of said friends and hit them up for plotting/character/story help. However, I don’t get too freaked out, because I spend a lot of time hiding in my room. Amazingly enough, this prevents much drama.
I hardly ever attend sessions, but I always get the CD’s because I like listening to talks when I need them.
And oh, yes, I usually don’t like the food. Except for the WRW conference where they had BBQ. I was tres impressed.
I second everything Sherri said. I always come home feeling inferior to everyone else. It’s just my nature. But it is so wonderful to see everyone, it somehow makes the inevitable rise in my insecurities worthwhile.
LOL, we make it sound more like torture, Dee. We’ll have to remind each other how fabulous we all are.
I love conferences because I get to see friends I don’t see on a regular basis, or make new friends. I met all my Whine Sisters at conferences. After hours, we have some great meals and good times. Lots of laughs. I do get energized by some conference topics. I almost always come home fired up to write more.
I hate conferences because I never feel like an expert in anything. We all write so differently, who I am to say how it is to be done? And people get up and talk about writing in weird ways and I wonder “Do you really collage your whole book by cutting pictures out of magazines before you write?” So I sometimes end up hearing things that make me wonder what I bring to the table, or why I waste my time, or how anyone gets anything but network opportunities out of conferences. And then there is the competition. The sisterhood/brotherhood/writerhood is a beautiful thing, with the “we’re all in this together” vibe. But there’s the ugly flipside of “My books sell better than yours” or “I’m sorry, who are you?” that just turns my stomach. And the clothes, and hair, and heels, and wondering if I look right? Do I fit in? OMG, this purse is so last year. That whole flipside that makes me want to crawl into a hole and the only thing that picks me up again is being with my friends. Kathleen and I always helped each other get out of that hole, or kept each other from falling in, and now she’s not here. And I’m dealing with that, too.
Sherri,
We’ll be there for you. Promise.
Aw, thanks. Julia London also helps me out of those holes. Just that I inevitably had more conference time with Kath because Julia is often in demand. And of course, I have gone to conferences where I don’t know a soul and have managed just fine, made new friends. Not as good at that as Kath was. She made friends everywhere, all the time, and you would swear she had known them for years, not just a few minutes.