It’s Monday morning and LosCon 45, The 45th Los Angeles Area Science-Fiction Convention, has receded into history. While attendance this year seemed lower, it fluctuates from year to year; personally the convention was a success. I reconnected with several friends that I only see at this convention, attended fun and interesting panels, pretty much splitting my panels this year between informative and entertainment, and popped in a few parties and actually socialized with people. In addition to that usual convention activities, I also managed to do a revision edit to a short story that I think brought the entire piece to another level. All in all the weekend hit all the marks I wanted it to pan on.

Of course because of the nature of my day-job I missed the first day of programming. Getting the Friday after Thanksgiving off at my employer is a matter of seniority and it takes a very long time to work up enough to be considered. One of my teammates just scored Black Friday off and he has worked here 18 years. However considering the stability, the compensation, and the Union representation, I am perfectly happy to trade away some convention days for this job.

I also received inspiration during the convention that helped break through a couple of future stories. Sometimes it is just a simple word or phrase uttered by a panelist that breaks a logjam and allows a story to start unfolding.

It is sad that the convention is over and I am back at my day-job but there are more conventions in the coming and year and I smile for the future.