That all ended around ten or eleven when a guy laughing at his own jokes started screaming about the tungsten in lightbulbs being radioactive. Resnick left to do some writing and Toby and I only tolerated a bit more of it before returning to the room. Garry must've felt the same way, because he followed seconds later and hung out with us in our room until about twelve-thirty or so. It was a good time, a lot more relaxed even than the CFG suite.

After Garry left, Toby discovered that the toilet wouldn't flush. We called the front desk for a plunger and talked as we waited for it. A half-hour later, we called again, and kept talking. Then around two o'clock, Toby got tired of waiting and, well, you can ask him what he did. I called the front desk for the fourth time that night and said we didn't need a plunger anymore.

I woke up early and read a few stories from the recent Writers of the Future anthology, including Toby's story, told him what I thought of it when he was conscious.

The only panels I was interested in on Sunday were later in the day, and I needed to pick up my fiance in Dayton by one. So in the morning Toby and I took our time getting ready to go and talked more about life, the craft, and experiences in networking. And we took off shortly after that.

Thanks to Toby for being my guide most of the weekend. Though this was a small convention, I think it was worth going to. I learned what I expected to learn: whether I could profit by going to conventions at this time. The short answer is yes and no. I'll probably try to make either Context or Marcon (both in Columbus), and I'm talking to my fiance about Worldcon. All in all, I think networking can help me grow as a marketer as well as a craftsman, but in the end output is more important than networking--and output is a much more serious problem that needs addressing. And if I can't remedy this problem, then there's no point in networking, or otherwise pretending that I'm a serious writer.

So we'll see.

Filed under Con Reports, Journal, Vanity Smurf

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