Hello from Dublin

I’m writing this in my halls of residence at Trinity College Dublin which is the closest I ever got to attending a decent university.  I’m feeling absolutely exhausted right now it has been a long couple of days.  

Yesterday was all about the travel and the accompanying anxiety of going to new places on one’s own and figuring everything out myself. I also got caught in the mother of all downpours with my luggage as I was doing the final trek to the dorm and briefly felt like a drowned rat. Things vastly improved after a change of clothes and dinner with some friends at a lovely Japanese noodle place. I had an early night all the better to deal with Con today.

Unicorns, I was not prepared for today.

I expected to queue but oh my word it took a few goes until I hit my rhythm and was able to get into panels and even then not always.  The ear Wyrm talk was beset with technical issues that the presenter could not have foreseen.  I think all the tech people were trying something at one point and we missed bits as we ran out of time.  I need to go and talk about music with people.

I also attended world building because Emma Newman was on the panel with Tanya De Pass and a man I’m not sure I should name and shame but he talked over the women panel members a lot and generally was very arrogant.  I will not be seeking out his books. 

I also hit the dealers room quite hard today.

I’m quite excited about Mary Robinette Kowal’s The Calculating Stars and Arkady Martine’s A Memory Called Empire.  I also went to the launch of The  Resurrectionist of Caligo by Wendy Trimboli and Alicia Zaloga.  This novel is victorian gothic with added grave robbers and murder mystery.

Highlights from today include book tempting several strangers with Sol from http://www.themiddleshelf.org. Finally meeting Lisa from https://deargeekplace.com whom I’ve known on the twitter for years but it was lovely to finally meet.  I got introduced to Hugo nominated Alasdair Stuart and we chatted about my podcast (eep)

Tomorrow, I am attempting to use my on-the-fly rig I have to chat with F D Lee. Wish me luck and long battery life.