Conestoga has never been this much fun before. Don’t get me wrong, it’s always a great con, but this year has been the best one I’ve ever attended. I’ve been in panels in the big rooms that were packed and standing room only. There are more big-name published authors here than ever before. Lots of my old friends are here (although Craig Wolf is sadly MIA). It’s been the new and semi-new friends who have really made it an outstanding con, though.

Elspeth went way above and beyond this year. She made small color copies of the attending authors’ books and made little pins out of them to hang on our name tags. That must have taken hours and hours, and everyone appreciated it. The green room and con suite were both stocked with goodies all the time and, as always, the con staff has done an amazing job of scheduling, coordinating and still being in a great humor when the event actually arrives.

Melissa Marr, Jeaniene Frost and everyone else involved in the Fangs, Fur & Fey programming con-within-a-con … I don’t even know what to say. That programming track has been a huge hit and everyone FFF drew in has been super nice. The speed dating event tonight — well, last night now — was one of the best con events I’ve ever been part of. It was incredible fun and I met dozens of nice people, if only briefly.

For the speed dating I was paired with Carrie Jones (not the British porn star). I have to buy Carrie’s books now. She is so funny and such a nice person. Her books are Tips on Having a Gay (ex)Boyfriend and Love: And Other Uses for Duct Tape.  They’re young adult novels. She has an urban fantasy called Need coming soon, plust a whole lot of other books scheduled. You should buy her books, too, and help support a really nice gal who lives close to somebody named Stephen King. This is her first convention. She brought Grover. Yeah, from Seseme Street. Go read her blog and (maybe) you’ll figure it out.

The bad thing about these recaps is that you can never name all the people you should. I’ve gotta mention Brian and Diane Kell, who came down from Ohio. Great people! They hung out with me and Carrie after the speed dating, along with others who came and went, like Jeri Ready-Smith, Angie Hawkes and her college boy lover Chris Fulbright. I’m tired. If read just wrong, it sounds like Chris is a lover of college boys … and that’s just too funny to change.

Some of the other folks I just have to mention are Brad and Sue Sinor, Michelle from OKC, who came in with three of my books she’d already bought and read (I still want to clone you!), J. Kathleen Cheney, who I hear scored some awesome artwork during one of her readings, Bev Hale (we talked much shop), and the always gracious Rachel Vincent. And Rachel Caine. And Mark Henry, Mark Del Franco, Deb LeBlanc (who did a great presentation of thinking outside the box in selling and marketing your work, and did an excellent reading). And … Lots of others.

In short (yeah, right), it’s been a helluva lot of fun so far. I only have one event tomorrow. The writers in this event will read a right scene from some piece of work and the … Crap! Forgot their name. Anyway, a local group that does sword fighing will act it out to see if the writer has created a plausable scene. I’m going to read from The Puppet King.

I’m rooming with Adrian Simmons, and have learned a lot more about my Oklahoma Speculative Fiction Syndicate partner. Mike Rowe needs to come hang out with Adrian on his dirty job. It’s 2:16 a.m. now and Adrian just wandered back from a room party with his travel bar.

Time for bed.