the cold that ate madison, or my excuses

So, yes, I came down with the sentient cold pretty much as soon as we arrived in Madison, and managed to prop myself up through regular infusions of vitamin C and various fizzy dissolving substances and wine. But today, I'm just exhausted and this whole, lovely Wiscon is just a blur. Once again, I'm left with a list of people I only got to say hello to that I'd hoped to chat for at least the space of a drink with, but I've learned to accept that list as an inevitability of having too many people I only see a couple of times a year. Oddly, lots of the people I end up spending the most time with are the people I see or talk to more frequently, but maybe that's not so odd.

Anyway, I probably don't have to tell you of the sentient cold, because you, like half the people here, may already be coming down with it.

Christopher Rowe, Index Case of the Cold, just looked up at me from where he's napping and told me not to put any pictures of him sleeping on no web log. And I would if I could, but I have no way to violate this order. Hmmm...

So, instead of an actual rundown of the low down, a few little thoughts on highlighs of the past few days...

Things I've bought that you should too: All the new stuff from Small Beer Press, which includes, the new Lady Churchill's (including Vol. 2 of Dear Aunt Gwenda), Sean Stewart's PERFECT CIRCLE (which I started reading and is AMAZING), Jennifer Stevenson's TRASH SEX MAGIC (isn't that the best title ever?) and Richard Butner's beautiful, reads-even-better-than-it-looks chapbook "Horses Blow Up Dog City and Other Stories." You should purchase these things, and also the new issue of Flytrap and the new Rabid Transit chapbooks, both of which are only a google away from your hot little hands.

Getting to hear pieces of: John Kessel's new story, the science fiction convention portion of THE JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB being read by Karen Joy Fowler to a very appreciative audience (Karen's probably on her way to a town near you Right This Minute, so go look on her website and go out to hear her read), Richard Butner rocking his excellent story "Drifting," the beginning of Christopher's new novel.

Things I learned: Romance novels are like first contact novels (KJF copyright); Jim Munroe can rock a Destiny's Child song in karaoke ("Pay my bills!") and Benjamin Rosenbaum, who has more energy than you and me put together, can rock karaoke in German. (Christopher Barzak, however, remains the karaoke king.) The absolute best thing in the world to hear after your reading, from an editor, is do you have a contract? (The reading was great; Justine, Mr. Barzak and Scott all read most wonderfully and I managed to croak my way through my first chapter.)

The children of SF are well-behaved: This is true. They are all docile and cute as buttons.

I had no business on that blog panel: Lots of interesting things touched on at the blog panel, especially by Susan, on how much private life is too much, the dangers of instant reporting without instant verification, and Kathryn Cramer's firsthand account of what it was like to be threatened my nutheads who disagreed with her. (My comments consisted essentially of: blogging = fun, or I'd stop doing it; blogging = character, not plot; blogging = balance between disclosure and secrets keeping.)

And um, hmmm... if you're ever at the Concourse, spring for the Governor's Club room. We like the bartenders in the free drinks lounge. That's it.