Okay, I'm back from Readercon and if I don't sum it up now, I will procrastinate and never get to it, like when I was at the Council of Nicea the first time and had that really cool interview with the emperor Constantine where he admitted to having a peculiar fetish involving ham sandwiches, but which I never got around to posting. So here it is (Readercon, not the council).

It was fun. I got to read Gay, Bejeweled Nazi Bikers of Gor to an appreciative audience, and gave out copies to all there since we ran out of time and the modalities needed muchly to be completed; the book was also the prize for winning(?) the Kirk Poland bad writing contest, which we, the audience, won for what I think is the first time in history; this meant that everyone there gets to go and read it online and then scrub out their brains with steel wool (and yes, the multiple use of semicolons is a feature of John Norman's writing style, such as it is).

As to panels, the one on how to make money with your writing was, as always, helpful and informative, and the recollections about Joanna Russ were very nice, though I do wish that Suzy Charnas could have made it to that one. The panel on capturing the hidden history of SF was interesting in that it discussed the importance of biography when doing history, though it seems to me we mustn't look past the fact that all biographies are impacted by the broader social world in which the person lived.

I also got to enjoy the reading by sovay and then the one by rushthatspeaks, both of which were delightful. I went to many more panels, but things are a blur right now due to the strange pink cloud that settled over the hotel and changed everyone into giant avacados, so I'll have to process my impressions another time.

As to my own panels, apart from my reading, there were two. The panel on Why We Love Bad Writing was most interesting, and was my first time ever as leader, so I hope I acquitted myself well and gave everyone a chance to speak. They had many interesting comments, as did the audience. It's nice when you emerge from a panel having learned something. (Which way did they go? How fast were they going? I must hurry and catch up with the others, for I AM THEIR LEADER!)

And finally, at the Tinfoil Hat Open Mike, I was able to explain my brilliant theory that the pyramids were built by giant intergalactic space doughnuts to an audience other than my hapless students. Since audiovisual aids were not allowed, however, I was not able to present my photographic proof, which I would have included here instead, but Livejournal wouldn't let me upload the picture (clearly there is a conspiracy afoot to hide the sugar-glazed truth). So instead I have posted it in its minute glory as my userpic. Suffice to say that the image dispels all doubt, and now you may all bow down before my scholarly genius and award me that massive research grant (and they all said I was mad! MAD! HA!).

My thanks to all at the con, and especially the con committee for not having me hauled away in a wraparound jacket.