Last weekend I was a guest of Imaginarium, a new writers’ conference in Louisville, KY. To say I was pleased with how it turned out would be an understatement.

Full Disclosure: Imaginarium is the brainchild of Stephen Zimmer. Stephen Zimmer operates Seventh Star Press, the publisher of my collection Irredeemable.

I’ve been to several “first year” conventions over the years. All of them suffered birthing pains in one form or another: disorganization, poor venue choice, lack of interesting panels. Birthing pains are to be expected and I never hold them against a new convention. Imaginarium suffered from none of these problems. If you’re a genre writer or filmmaker, this is an ideal event for you. If you’re a fan of genre writing and films, then this is a great event for you.

The venue, while out in the middle of nowhere (nowhere to eat for miles except for the hotel restaurant), was the right size and had a great layout for a small literary convention. Most of the panels and workshops looked interesting. And the convention ran smoothly and was incredibly organized. The vendor hall had plenty of room for attendees to walk and browse.

The only thing Imaginarium lacked were attendees. Again, birthing pains. One hope I have of writing this post is that it encourages you to give Imaginarium a try next year. Stephen Zimmer and his team did a top notch job.

I did sell a whole bunch of copies of Irredeemable. Yay!

Despite the small attendance, outside of World Fantasy and World Con, this had to be one of the most successful professional networking conventions I’ve been to. I made a bunch of new friends, and I met at least a dozen people I knew only via Facebook or Twitter. I also discovered that playing Cards Against Humanity while *very* drunk is *very* fun.

Sadly, I failed to take many photos. In fact, I managed to take 3 pictures, all shared in this post. I’m doing Context this coming weekend (look for my schedule of events post tomorrow), and I promise to try and photo document the shenanigans better.