Tomorrow morning I’m off to my favorite con, the World Fantasy Convention, being held this year in San Jose, California. (Yes, you can start humming the song now. ) Pandemonium is up for Best Novel, and my goal, when I lose, is to smile manfully in such a way that people buy me consolation drinks. I have to make this pay somehow.

I’ll be appearing at the panel “Contemporary Rural Fantasy” at Sunday  10:00 AM. Everybody’s heard of urban fantasy — these days, that mostly means chicks in leather pants killing vampires — but this panel asks if there is such a thing as rural fantasy. I doubt the panel will answer that question — con panels don’t have a reputation for resolving much of anything — but we can always hope for controversy, right? I shall make the case for Suburban Fantasy being the most important genre of our field, and then storm out in anger.

World Fantasy is my favorite because it’s small (capped by its bylaws, a wonderful thing), it’s professional (mostly writers and editors and agents, with no costumes allowed), and the number of great people this con attracts  is pretty stunning. I’ll be seeing my editor there, hanging out with people I admire, and trying not to say anything -too- stupid.

But what I’m most looking forward to is reconnecting with some good friends, and finally meeting in person some people who I’ve only talked to through teh internets. And if this is like any previous year at WFC, I’ll be meeting one or two strangers who will turn out to be lifelong friends.

Gotta pack!