I guess the first thing to say is that it was not quite as large a con as I'd expected, especially for a DSC. It was maybe a third to half the size of MidSouthCon or Chattacon, and that being a DSC. Nashville fandom has evidently shrunk since I was last involved in it. Having said that, they are enthusiastic in their fandom, and they put on a good con.
I stayed offsite this year, and I think next year if they want me back, I may get a room in the hotel. There was a TON of road construction occurring all around the area on the interstates and that was just a pain in the nether regions. Especially at 12:30am on a Saturday morning when the interstate suddenly turns into a one-lane parking lot and you've had one drink 3 hours before, followed by several bottles of water, and didn't make a restroom break before hitting the road. NOT fun. My half-hour commute to the folks' house turned into an hour and fifteen minutes. O_o
I made some good connections:
I met H. David Blalock, who is organizing a southeastern writers' booksigning tour, and wants me involved. He even bought me a drink, which was very nice of him. I spent some time explaining the world of e-books to him, and he was excited to discover that as a writer much of the process of creating an e-book is transparent to him.
I am not sure what city the bid was from because they went by their organization's acronym name (note, guys, let us KNOW where you're FROM!), but I got the attention of a WorldCon bid group, and they had me sign their banner right alongside people like David Weber, Timothy Zahn, and Mike Resnick. I think they were interested in having me if they win the bid.
Dallas got the DSC 2011 bid, and they seemed interested in a rocket scientist/writer as a guest, too.
I talked to people in charge of programming for DragonCon in Atlanta, and with the NASFiC 2010 Raleigh bid. Both of them talked to me straight about getting in there and getting attention. I was told I'm a "triple threat": 1) a writer, 2) a rocket scientist, 3) a woman. And intelligent, literate, and well-spoken, to boot. So I am a potential guest at both cons.
I talked with several media arts types about the possibility of creating what appears to be the next big thing in book promos: book trailers. Just like movie trailers, but for books. Gonna see what hubby Darrell can do first, then I have a friend who's dying to get into the business and is a pretty good short filmmaker.
My old friend (and husband Darrell's older friend) Bob Embler, who runs the famous (or infamous, as the case may be! ;-) OutsideCon invited me to come this year (September) and be their Author GoH. It involves camping of one sort or another though, and while I have camped (in the Oregon Cascade Range near Bend - no bugs) Darrell isn't into it at all. So I'm not sure yet what's gonna happen there.
I had fans tracking me down at the con. There was also a writeup in one of the Nashville papers, in which the writer indicated that my panels were among the ones he was most looking forward to. My panels (2, plus a booksigning, but no book reading though I'd requested one) were well attended, with the one I helmed alone filling the room. One guy actually swiped one of my book posters at the end of the con and requested I sign it, which I did. It was only going to get thrown away anyway.
In general it was a successful con, I'd say. I'm happy with it, anyway. :-)
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