August 2026

I opened a discord channel.  The current invitation is bookworm at the gym .  It expires every thirty days, but I think you can search for it on discord if you are interested.  It's new and I'm fairly new to discord, but please feel free to help me get it going.

I'm currently at World Con.  This year, a lot of the events are available online with registration.  It was kind of nice to be able to go back to the room and attend the panels as I am.  I even attended one in my pajamas.  

I arrived on Thursday, early morning, after a delayed flight with blasting air conditioning.  Thankfully, our flight attendant who was very overly caffeinated was great.  She was entertaining.  We were waiting for maintenance to replace a computer screen in the cockpit.  45 minutes of being chilled to the bone turned into a quick flight without further issues.  I was able to finish a book on the flight, at least.

I arrived at the hotel about an hour later than I wanted to, but it was ok.  I went to lunch with friends.  I was supposed to go to a panel at noon, but I went back to the room to grab my bag and my tablet and found that one of my bottles opened in my suitcase and I stopped to clean it up and unpack a bit.  Thankfully, I had packed everything into ziploc bags so cleanup wasn't too bad.

I went to a virtual panel on surviving a con as an introvert.  I do not believe that I am an introvert at all, but I can totally empathize with them.  It had a lot of good advice.  It also gave me time to work on my schedule for the next day and to sign up for a couple of panels that had limited participation. Then I attended a tea party for one of the attendees at the conference.  It was nice to be able to sit and chat for a few minutes.  Then my friend ran a panel about running bookclubs and she asked me to attend.  She did tell people that the reason our bookclub runs well is that we have difference strengths and we work together to get everything scheduled.  Another friend was in attendance but I didn't know he was there until he started heckling our friend good naturedly.  I tried to go to opening ceremonies, but once I found out that it was offered online, I left because it was too crowded.  I got into PJs and watched on my laptop and then went to bed as it ended.  I found out that I got into both of the events that I had requested for the next day.  

I also got into the next book I will finish.  I hope to finish it soon.

I was up early to go to a panel about Mel Brooks and the SciFi fantasy of his works.  It was so much fun!  He's such a talented man.  I checked out the merchandise/dealers room and picked up fliers, business cards and pins.  I got some ribbons for my badge and signed up for some newsletters.  

I went to a panel on found families.  I loved that one of the panelists talked about his found family and said that his found family is still his family even though its members aren't authors or readers, so it's awkward.  I totally understood that.  It's sometimes difficult to talk to people who aren't reading the same things as I am.  Also, it can be awkward if they don't have the same interests as me.

I had gone to Seattle earlier this year for Norwescon and found out that T.Kingfisher would be at this event.  I was lucky to get to attend a table event with her.  I forgot to bring anything for her to autograph, but I was able to get a picture with her.

After the table talk, I went to a class on braiding.  If I had been running it, I would have done things so very differently.  We were supposed to have brought a brush.  No one told us.  Also, we were supposed to be working on someone else's hair.  That was a little too intimate for most of us.  If we had been working with mannequins or ribbon or floss, I would have done much better.  I'll go on YouTube later to find out how to actually do some of them.

 After that, I went to Walgreens to get contact solution, a Tide stick and some snacks.  I had dinner with a friend of a friend at PF Chang's.  I haven't been there for years.  The mai tai hit the spot, as did the vegetarian lettuce wraps.  Yum!

Then another early night with my Kindle.  My friend asked if I wanted to go to any of the parties.  I told her that I would go if they were pajama parties.  They were not.

This morning, I was up and out early to grab a quick breakfast and attend a 9am panel on older women as protagonists.  It went hand in hand with the panel I attended at noon that was about characters with life experience.

In between these two panels, I went to one on the future of libraries and how they are so much more than just book loaners.  We are so lucky to have so many free resources available in libraries.  

I went back to the room to relax and attend a panel on Fandom.  Then a nap and a panel on Debut novels.  The authors talk about their books and how they became reality.  

I will be going to dinner at Jazz kitchen in downtown Disney and do a little window shopping while I'm out and about.