Three days after Mo*Con, I’m beginning to feel halfway to normal once more. This means my usual surly, unsocial nature has returned, replacing the exhaustion caused by having to be nice and polite for three days.

Even though this was my fifth spin through Mo*Con, I would venture to say that it was the best one I’ve attended thus far (I missed the first two, alas).  Mary Robinette Kowal was the featured author guest of honor. Certainly, this warped my perception of the weekend because I hadn’t seen Mary in nearly two years and having that drought broken made me happy. John Edward Lawson is someone I hadn’t seen in six years. I’d never met Nate Southard or Mary SanGiovanni. Good folks all around.

The food this year… oh the food… in particular the Saturday evening feast of Indian food. The vegetarian korma was insane. The chicken vindaloo was spicy and tasty. The lamb was divine.

Mary performed a shadow puppet show. She held a seminar about how to do effective author readings. Maurice Broaddus read “The Cracker Trap” (soon to be appearing in Shroud Magazine).

On top of all this, the nice people of Mo*Con gave me the Sara J. Larson award of appreciation for running Apex Publications. That it was named after Sarah made this extra special (Sara passed away recently after a long battle with breast cancer. She organized the first six Mo*Cons). The little Maurice head that adorns the certificate was an unnecessary bonus. 🙂

(The two missing signatures on the certificate were eventually supplied)