As I noted before, AwesomeCon is much bigger this year. I forgot my camera and didn’t want to just use my phone, so I’ll take pictures tomorrow; but I found myself looking around the dealer hall in disbelief. That room alone would convince anyone who didn’t know better that this was an established con, and not something in its second year. The staff and other volunteers were doing a top-notch job, and the convention center staff were extremely helpful to everyone.

Also, I was amused to hear one of the screens playing “Everything is Awesome” (from The LEGO Movie) on continuous loop in the library. Despite its ultimate meaning in the movie, I was still appreciative!

My “Worldbuilding and Magic” panel went very well, and I got compliments from the other panelists regarding my ability to herd cats (aka keep authors from going on tangents). This will no doubt surprise anyone who knows how easily I get off on tangents myself, but there’s a trick to it: if you’re the moderator, never answer your own questions. Granted, I kind of broke that rule twice, but one was with just a single sentence, and the other was on the subject of minorities (being one myself, namely handicapped, I felt like I should point out a couple things about accurate portrayals of “the other”). Still, we got through one more question than I expected, so I was pleased.

I was there with my sister-in-law, who also had my niece and nephew (and one of the niece’s friends) in tow. It’s their first convention outside of BrickFair, and they had rolling geek-outs in the dealer hall. At one point, Adam (9) was having trouble deciding whether to get the 10th Doctor’s sonic screwdriver, or the 11th’s; as he starred at them in indecision, I joked that I probably had some dice still in my backpack, which meant he could settle this dilemma in true geek fashion. This was more for his mother’s and the dealer’s benefit, and they laughed, but Adam just nodded and said “Sure. Let’s do the dice.” So I pulled it out, he rolled, and he got the 10th’s sonic.

Meanwhile, Emily (13) observed this, and exclaimed “Oh, right! I wanted to check out the dice!” And off she zoomed to the dice booth. She also spent time chatting up adults about BrickFair, which many of them hadn’t heard of. She even managed to get a couple good deals on Lego from one of the booths.

Somewhere there, my friend Alicia was in the crowd; I didn’t know she was there until when I was leaving and looking at Facebook on my phone. I’d known she was coming, but I thought she was getting a 2-day pass. She was going around in her vampire Jubilee (X-Men) cosplay.

I also ran into Ron and Janine Garner, owners of the small press Silence in the Library. They recognized me and talked about work stuff for a bit. They also publish Janine’s books (under Janine Spendlove), particularly her War of the Seasons; I’ve read book one, and keep meaning to review it.

Tomorrow, I’m planning on lugging in a few Timothy Zahn books to see if I can get them autographed. My sister-in-law will be there again, along with my brother (who will probably be bringing in the same books from his own collection).

For now, it’s just about time for sleep . . . after I double-check my presentation notes for Sunday, as I probably won’t have time to do that tomorrow.