MiniCon 58 And What’s Happened Since
Minicon is done for this year! I got to panel with Patricia C. Wrede, Lois McMaster Bujold, Naomi Kritzer, Pat Murphy, Peg Kerr & many other cool folks! I survived all my panels plus 3 days of tabling in the hallway! There was good food! The new (old) hotel is better than the last one by leaps and bounds!
I even have exclamation points leftover!
Sorry to disappoint, but I am not going to provide an exhaustive event-by-event report. I just don’t have one in me. Here’s a link to the Minicon program book, which has details on all the panels, plus maps and info about a lot of other cool panels I was not on.
Hope Crow stickers & clings went home with folks, as did Drink Tea/Coffee stickers, and plenty of books. I also brought home new books for Spouseman to read, bought ebooks for myself, and found some shiny rocks. I even found a fabulous cat-related tee shirt. There’s a gallery of highlights at the end of this post.
It was a blast, and I want to go back again next year. That pretty much sums it up.
The trip home was more of a grind than the trip there. 4+ hours of moderate to heavy rain made for a slower, more stressful drive. I got the first 3 hours of rain & post-holiday congestion traffic, co-driver got the last rainy hour and all the Darkness Driving. There was much less truck traffic in the Twin Cities to Eau Claire congestion corridor compared to last year, though, for which I am entirely grateful. And we got home safe before the second band of super-heavy rain and high winds hit, so, yeah. All good.
I’ll crunch numbers to be sure, but I suspect next Minicon I’ll be taking the air travel option. The moving date for Easter pushes it into snow travel season, the hotel has a free airport shuttle, and the book stock for a con this small easily fits in a checked suitcase. Minneapolis is at the distance where the cost of flying or taking the train is right on the edge of being the same as driving. (I’d really like to take the train, except that it only goes to St. Paul, which is a hella long, expensive taxi ride. Note to self, look into it anyway. Later.)
Sunday night, Pippin stayed glued to my side no matter what I did, so I kept waking up when I ran into him. But I could’t bring myself to kick him off the bed. He kept purring. Poor kitty missed me, I guess. (There are Pippin pics down at the end if those are why you’re here.)
Monday was a mostly rest day. Con inventory, putting things away, and laundry. And a nice stroll around the yard & neighborhood to admire all the plants that sprouted over the last four days. And I baked ginger apple cake, because it was easy and I wanted something homemade after a weekend of processed foods.
My energy is still looooow. Today, Spouseman and I had a Luncheon Learning Thing at the Field Museum. Not sure what Past Me was thinking, scheduling a day trip so soon after con, but it was a good time. Only one smol tiredness-related anxiety freakout over finding myself alone in a big space, and Spouseman took care of that really well. And the food was quite good. That’s never a given, with catered events.
I’m pleased to report I did not fall asleep while the presenters were talking OR during my work shift at the ‘brar afterwards. We caught the best possible train outbound, so I got in a short break between All The Doings. That helped.
We arrived early enough to tour through the Cats exhibit before lunch, which was a ton of fun. Lots of taxidermied cats, lots of informative infographics and exhibits, and some fantastic short films about various aspects of feline life. Plus an adorable little tuxedo cat mascot.
And I now have a new hoodie, because no trip to a museum is complete without hitting the gift store. Did I need a supersoft blue sweatshirt with a Raven Moon graphic on it? Yes. Yes, I did. One of my oldest hoodies just got a hole in it. So the hoodie population will stay stable.
So. Excitement is done, and it’s back to the usual routines. It’s good to shake things up, it’s even nicer to get back to calm and quiet.
Tomorrow will be “The Rest Of The Laundry” day before my library shift, and I think I’ll do more baking. Because that’s where my energy is. Slowly rebounding, but not really ready to focus yet, mentally.
But Thursday, I’ll dive back into the writing.
And now, the best part of any post: the pics! First a gallery of images: clockwise from the top left: the mandatory “view from the hotel room picture of sunset the first night from the 17th floor, A wide shot of the table all with me & my partner in vending’s merch all spread out to fill more space than anticipated, pics of the panels my hotel room buddy attended, and 3 pics of the merchandise haul: Pat Murphy’s new book, The Adventures Of Mary Darling, a tee shirt with a cat knocking over a cup in front of a rainbow captioned, “I do what I want, skeins of yarn — I did not uy those, only admired and got the spinner’s revelry contact info — and a quartzite gravestone inscribed with “Here Lies My Last Fuck.” Not pictured: the paperback copy of Language Of Roses I picked up for Spouseman, and the super amazing double-cabochon cut palmstone made of something I’ve forgotten the name of already. I think it’s purple Labradorite? ANYway. Cool stuff!
(The gravestone came from www.mystichealingstones.com. They ship. Just saying.)
And I wouldn’t deprive you of Pippin pics! Spouseman took good care of him while I was gone. Plenty of sunny naps.
There was catnapping in the chair atop the quilts & blankets…
There was catnapping on the pillow in front of the window…
And of course there was catnapping on the couch.
Okay, that it until later.
What’s on your bookshelf?
This is the part where I talk about my books.
Relics From A Traveling Show
The newest of the new! A collection of all my short fictions in one handy volume, available now from your favorite booksite or local shop.
Or! OR! if you like your local library, you could request a purchase. Free for you, sale for me, everyone wins.
Most libraries need the following info for ordering print books:
Title: Relics From A Traveling Show
Author: K. M. Herkes
ISBN: 9781945745201 (paperback)
Every library system does things a little differently, but most want their collections to serve their communities, so most of them are very responsive to patron requests.
If you like novels more than short stories, I recommend my series The Rollover Files for hopepunk tales of about an alternate world where moms with midlife crisis superpowers have been saving the world and making the military nervous since 1943.
I also have a completed, quirky slow-burn science fiction thriller duology with a romance chaser: The Stories Of The Restoration.
All my titles are available from Amazon, Apple, Kobo, Hoopla, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org, Overdrive and many other fine booksellers.
Support your favorite independent bookseller! Find a local shop via Indiebound
Be a potato.
" Fear is strange soil. Mainly it grows obedience like corn, which grows in rows and makes weeding easy. But sometimes it grows the potatoes of defiance, which flourish underground."
Terry Pratchett (Small Gods)