I probably should have done this in multiple posts, but that would have required me actually writing something directly after Worldcon, and…well, I didn’t. Bad me.
Chicon 8 was my second Worldcon, and like the weird little overachiever I am, I leaped head-first into staff. I was part of the Programming team that helped untangle the schedule. (It took a lot of people a lot of hours to make that thing work, and kudos to Nchanter for wrangling us all so well.)
After that, I had a bit of a break, in which I had two short story acceptances come in! One was for the anthology Hidden Villains: Arise, which will be launching a Kickstarter in the next couple of months. I’ll bother people about it. Probably in all of the places I am since, heh, I have no idea whether any non-bot entities are looking at this website right now. 🙂
The first half of November was a marathon of Things. I attended the World Fantasy Convention in New Orleans and worked as staff, getting experience for co-Chairing it in KC in 2023. It was a whirlwind of happenings, and I met so many people and attended so many delightful panels. Special shout-out to artist Iris Compiet, whom I Guest Liaised during the con.
After WFC, I went home for 3 days, then jetted right back off, this time to Salt Lake City for Dragonsteel Expo 2022. It was a freakin’ blast. I was on a couple of panels and attended yet more, got to hang with my fellow 17th Shard staff and Sanderson betas (those two groups are a Venn diagram), and generally had an awesome time.
I will say, though, getting recognized so widely at the con was a surreal experience. I do podcasting with 17th Shard (Shardcast, SpanReads, Diceborn), and so I kept having these moments of someone zooming up to me, squeaking out, “Are you Kaymyth?!” or, “Are you a Shardcaster?!” I’d say yes, and then they’d skitter off again, excited like they’d met some kind of celebrity. It was very strange, and left me wishing they’d stuck around to chat with me for a few minutes instead of running away like they thought they shouldn’t bother me or something. No! Come back! Talk to meeee!
There were also some seeds planting of potentially bigger things to come, but I won’t get into details there. No point in counting my ducklings before they’ve hatched.
DSX wrapped up my convention season, so I now have five (!) entire months to rest and write! My next thing will be JordanCon in April, where I somehow managed to land a guest spot, so expect to see me on panels, flouncing around in costume, and generally shananiganning my way around the place.