In a hotel with really bad Starsucks coffee next to my laptop – but it’s coffee! And I’m at a con! There are friends here, and new people who aren’t friends yet, and panels, and fun. It’s good. It’s all good.

P-Con is the first annual event of it’s name. Which is an allusion to the pecan if you were thinking something else! Granted, like all cons it seems a little chaotic, but for a small gathering of geeks run entirely by volunteers it’s delightfully effective in toto. It’s when you get much, much larger that you need the impeccable organization, and frankly this is more fun and relaxed. The con organizers say they would like this to remain a small con – like LibertyCon – and I hope they succeed. Friday was a light day for me – only one panel – but I shall be working the rest of the weekend, with four and five panels respectively.

However, all Three Moms of the Apocalypse (being myself, CV Walter, and Jonna Hayden) are present at this convention, and we are running the last open call Postcard challenge. You should ask for an image. Then write a little story for us. It would make us very happy if you did.

In honor of making a convention, finally, I was able to release a short story. The Groundskeeper: The Hoodoo that You Do appeared in a shorter version in an anthology more than a year ago. I wrote a longer ending after realizing (with Drak’s help) that I’d constrained the story due to wordcount limits, and there was more to the tale. It went live yesterday, as I started the con.

It’s good to be at a convention. I’ve been pestering my poor husband checking in with him, making sure he’s all right, and eating. Weird to be apart from him, and I don’t like it. But I do have my son along, as he volunteered to help with tech for the con. Yesterday I saw him from time to time, in his Hawaiian shirt, eyes intent, lugging stuff or just darting from place to place on errands. I’ve been given good report of his endeavours, and I’m so happy to see him being helpful.

I’ll wrap this up with a thought. Wherever you are, there’s unlikely to be a convention close enough that you want to attend. I’ve lived in places like that most of my life. This one being two hours from home is as close as I’m going to get. For most of us, it’s not going to be a financial ROI to attend a con. I know this one won’t show as a gain in the books. However, there’s a lot more to a con than making money. It’s about community, and connections, and getting to hug a friend so the cyber hugs feel more real. Mutual support, for the times you aren’t able to be in-person. That’s important, in these disconnected times, and it would be a mistake to discount the value to gathering in like-minded groups.

If you don’t have a con, see if gathering for a meal is practical, once every so often. Meet up at a game store and play in their back room. Find a park with a picnic area. Many ways to get your geek on, and if that evolves, well, how do you think a con is born?

Now, I’m off to see if anyone else is awake at this hour.