BayCon was a thing! My younger son Daniel and I drove about 5000 miles through 14 states over 14 days to get there. It was an amazing road trip. And, at the end, we spent four glorious days at the Santa Clara Marriot enjoying BayCon.

As I’ve written, I’m rather introverted and I find attending conventions exhausting, so I prefer just sitting off in the corner and watching. And that’s what I did here: I spent most of my time in the Dealer Room selling Revin’s Heart. It was great! I got to meet hundreds of people, tell them about my books, and sell a goodly number — I sold all the ones I had anyway. I also sold books by other Water Dragon authors too.

And I finally got to meet a bunch of Water Dragon folks I had only interacted with online! What a nice bunch of people! Everyone was friendly and gracious. And lots of fun. I’m so grateful to have found this little community of charming, delightful, and eccentric people where I feel like I fit in and am accepted.

Daniel appeared to have a great time. He hooked up with Magic the Gathering folks, bid on several items in the art show (one of which he gifted to me!), and attended a bunch of panels. He would stop in to visit me in the dealer room periodically, but seemed to having a lot of fun. He did take one day off to drive down to Monterey to see the aquarium and, on my recommendation, to visit Point Lobos.

After I sold out of Revin’s Heart, I steeled myself and spent a day attending panels and presentations. They were all pretty good. I got to get to know some people I had previously only known by reputation, so it was all positive. And I just did some fun stuff too, like visiting the Art Show and watching the Lux Saber Corp put on a light saber demonstration.

When the convention finally came to an end, and we’d packed everything up, Daniel and I got a good night’s sleep and then headed home. Rather than driving, we abandoned the rental car at the airport and flew home in two legs. (Not very aerodynamic, legs. hur hur hur) We finally got home around 1am. But far better than another 5000 miles of driving.

As the conference wrapped up, someone told our publisher than his authors were conspiring to attend LOSCon. That sounds like a conspiracy I would interested in joining.