This is a 4 day conference: Thur - Sun. I drove out on Thursday and got to my hotel in time to register, look around, chat and find dinner.

On Friday I was on four panels, starting at 10:00 AM discussing how to fine-tune your dialog with Elizabeth Moon, Brenda Clough, and Greg Frost. All well known SF writers. Luckily, I was the moderator on this panel, so all I had to do was ask questions and get out of the way. (which I mostly did).

I finished the day discussing how to write bawdy songs, mostly talking to folks who know more bawdy songs than I do.

One of the editors who's bought a few of my stories attended this convention and made it a point to seek me out to get a meal together. It ended up being a fast meal because he had other meetings to work around, but it's like being a Real Author (tm) to meet your editor just to chat about life, the universe and what you're working on.

He does an anthology every couple years, and I've sold a story about the same character to him for each of the last three issues. He mentioned that he appreciates that because having a continuing character makes his anthologies a series instead of just another collection of stories.

I assured him that I had a new story ready for him as soon as he opens the next submission.

I also got a chance to chat with an editor who has rejected 4 or 5 of my stories so far. I got a preview of the themes for his next anthologies, so I can start working on stories for him to reject sooner, rather than later.

I met another writer who's written a program to help you write. His is an outlining/concept mapping tool, not a editing/cleanup tool like Editomat.

One of the other editors I met is hoping to do an anthology of stories about scoundrels. I'm looking forward to him starting that one, since I love writing about scoundrels. I could probably fill his anthology with just the scoundrel stories I've already had rejected.