Conference Day 1 was pretty great. It’s a tiny conference, so all the speakers and panelists are very accessible. There were some good sessions, though I couldn’t help but think that for most of them I could’ve done as well as the panelists. My years of speaking at technology conferences would give me an edge on most of these youngsters. But part of the plan is to just get my head back in the writing space, not necessarily learn a lot. And yesterday definitely accomplished that.

I met a couple of potential editors for the book, and a couple of potential small press publishers. It seems the hierarchy these days is indie publishing (pretty much Amazon Kindle), then small press, then traditional publishing houses, in ascending order of difficulty and stature. For indie and small press, no agents required. I kind of like the small press option, as online sales are always an option in any publishing mode.

The cosplay crowd at the conference was pretty amusing. They’re different, by definition. I can’t imagine getting dressed up to specifically attract attention – that’s the introvert speaking, and I would *hate* that. It’s actually an effort for me to speak to and meet new people – my inclination is to just observe and move on.

Tough start for today, however – rough night (not) sleeping. Quite a bit rattling around in my head after a day of meeting people, thinking about writing, and making plans to do some things differently.

I missed a lot of fun rainstorms yesterday. I could hear the thunder in the session rooms, and at breaks I went out to see the downpour. These were cloudbursts; so much rain coming down that you’re soaked in a second. Very cool to see after months and months of dry in Socal.

Anyway, off to Day 2. Today I *will* get over my reluctance and strike up some real conversations with folks I may want in my network.