Well, Worldcon Seattle 2025 has come and gone. I went and I survived.
A few highlights. In the elevator of the Sheraton, I saw a woman wearing a badge, so I asked if she was a writer. She gave me a bookmark. Louisa Morgan. I introduced myself as Robin Hobb. And then, in a moment of surprise, I realized she was Louise Marley and I was Megan Lindholm and we were already great friends! So we had a 45 second reunion before the whirl of Worldcon separated us again.
In the hall, as I passed, I saw Astrid Bear and Frank Catalano. Again, a "Hi, I wish I could go to your panel on Literary Executors, but I have to go to a signing!" And again, the sweeping tides of Worldcon separated us.
There is a universal rule. If you go to a convention, big or small, the people you would most like to connect with and the panels you most wish to see will happen at exactly the same time as the panel you are committed to. If you are not on a panel, all four things you really want to do at the convention will happen simultaneously, and when you get to the one you chose, the door will have a 'room full' sign on it!
Convention food. Kat got a mocha from a coffee shop. It cost her $10. She observed, "There is not a remote possibility that there is $10 of pleasure in this cup."
In Seattle and perhaps everywhere, hotels and restaurants are watching their pennies. No tiny bars of soap in the hotel room. Instead pump dispensesrs that are securely fastened to the wall dispense a careful measure of soap or shampoo. In the hotel restaurant, if you ask for coffee with your meal, the staff will say, "An Americano?" And when you agree, you will get exactly one cup of coffee. If you want more, there will be no refills; you must order again. I am so old I recall that coffee was once free with your breakfast! The coffee service in our room had exactly two paper cups, and enough coffee pods for two cups of coffee. You'd like a cup of tea in the evening . . . I hope you saved that paper cup! Perhaps cruellest of all and so very Un-Seattle--- in our hotel, the Starbucks closed at 5 in the afternoon. How could they??!!
And of course, a lot of this is my own fault. I have packed for many a convention. I know I should bring instant coffee with me. I know I should have some granola bars when I miss a meal due to chatting with friends. But I am a bit out of practice at hotels and conventions; I attend far fewer than I used to, and I expect that trend to continue.
I am told Worldcon attendance was 6000, a respectable number. But I saw none of my 'foreign' writers and artists and editors. I like my US friends, I do. But overseas travel is getting harder for me, and I had hoped some of my old friends would come to me. Also, the greying of fandom, as we have called it for many a year, was very evident. I love my old old friends, I do. But I missed the element of excited teenaged readers adn writers stirred into the mix. Maybe I was looking in the wrong places, maybe I should have been checking the gaming and cosplay areas. I genuinely hope that is true.
Shining moments? Getting a few minutes to chat in person with George RR Martin as I have not for many a year. Signing many copies of the Seattle Worldcon Grimoire at the Grim Oak booth with Shawn Speakman. A dinner with David Moench, Terry Brooks and Wes Chu, with a drop by of Shanna Germaine and Peter V Brett. A brief and all too rare dip into that seething cauldron of wild talent that is the world of fantasy and SF writers. I wish I had more engergy to dare it more often!
But, "I grow old, I grow old, I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled." There are too many days when the desire for quiet is greater than my drive for conversation.
Oh, and if anyone wonders how I would have answered that final question that was asked of George RR Martin as the SFF Addicts Podcast? Upon my death or me being admitted to memory care, my very loyal daughters will torch any and all papers on my desk and filing cabinets. All files saved to the cloud will be deleted and accounts closed. Hard drives will be removed from computers and destroyed or wiped.
When I go, all my imaginary friends will go along with me.As they should.
And on that cheery note I will end my musings on Worldcon. I go to make blackberry jam. Then Plum jam. Then to salvage what I can of the apples that the deer knocked off my trees. Time to put summer in a jar to enjoy when the nights are long and dark.