There and Back...
So the first part of the tour’s all wrapped up, and I’m back in Edmonton. We always end up back where we started, right? One way or another, though hopefully a little wiser each time.
Speaking of which, my interview with Megan Clark of CKUA radio’s ArtBeat just went up the other day. (Thanks Megan!) It was recorded two days before I headed out for the tour but wasn’t aired until five days after I got back. (And now it’s also available as a podcast here.) And thus, ouroboros-like, the tour swallows its own tail. Neat, eh? Loving the time-dilation there. Lots of that going on lately, it seems.
But okay, the SF part of the tour. I’ll try to summarize in just one post, with the explicit caveat that great swathes of awesome are being omitted here.
First, there was the reading at ChiSeries Toronto, with Hugh A.D. Spencer and Dale Sproule. (Unfortunately, Tony Burgess couldn’t make it.) And holy crap, that was a lot of fun. Amazing turnout, numbers-wise, a great, enthusiastic audience, and I loved the (Round) venue. (And of course, I mustn’t forget the music, by Peter Chiykowski and Kari Maaren. Also great fun.)
Thanks so much to Sandra Kasturi (and Brett Savory) of ChiZine Publications for inviting me! (See how I did that Brett? Great to meet you at the reading.) ChiSeries actually happens all over the country, not just (monthly) in Toronto but also with incarnations in Ottawa, Winnipeg, and Vancouver. So if you ever have a chance to check it out, I would highly recommend it.
Anyway, I don’t think I realized how many people I know have ended up in Toronto, and as always I found myself wishing I had more time to catch up with everyone. Not to mention more time to talk more with all of the new people I met. Like I said, it was a great crowd. As it was, most people had to head out fairly quickly due to day-jobs and the like, and I probably should have gone home too, but I couldn’t resist the chance to go for post-reading drinks with the old UNB thesis-writing group. (Thanks Craig and Erin for that! It was great to catch up a bit. Another time-warp. In a good way.) Then it was back to my sister’s place for two hours of sleep before heading out to catch my early morning flight to Madison for WisCon…
…which was of course amazing. And this is where I’m tempted to go on at ridiculous length. Talk about time-dilation. Like all cons—or, more commonly for me, conferences, as this was my first international SF convention, per se—the whole thing seemed both to go on forever and to race by at breakneck speed. How to summarize?
You know what? I lied. Clearly, this is going to take a second post. And since this post-tour-karmic-payback-for-too-much-amazing-and-not-enough-sleep cold is still kind of kicking my ass, I think I’m going to sign off there for now. More soon.
-g