Salt Lake Comic Con was gigantic.  Too much happened to really report on, but I will say that the best thing about these events continues to be people:

I ran into my best friend from sixth grade, David Young.  I haven’t seen him in decades.  Turns out we’re practically neighbors now.

I was hug-ambushed by my old friend Sean Brown.  I swear, he looks exactly the same as he did twenty years ago, except without the trench coat and nametag.  Meanwhile, my nephew assures me that I’m practically rotting where I stand.  Maybe this is the benefit of being blond.

I got to talk with my good friend J. Allen, with whom I have descended into the bowels of the earth in what seems like the spring of the world.

My high school friend Aaron Tracy couldn’t make it, so he sent his son over to my booth.

My friends Tyson Gibby and John Lundwall both stuck it out to the last dregs of the con to hear me rattle on about dystopias and Joseph Campbell.

I saw and spent time with all the Space Balrogs.  Platte Clark and I hung out in the green room.  I got to participate in panels or other events with Sarah E. Seeley, Paul Genesse, Carter Reid, Michael Collings, Michaelbrent Collings, and many other great friends and allies.  I saw lots of friends who are readers — Jaren Rencher, Laura Neu (+Logan +Logan).  People I didn’t remember walked up to me and told me they’d enjoyed a book I’d sold them last year.

So I don’t mind that my ankles feel like they’ve been pounded through railroad ties, and that I’ve put on five pounds from a weekend of bad eating, and that my ears are still ringing from the DJ booth I had to ask ten times to turn the volume down.  This weekend was awesome.

One more set of friends I want to mention: Kevin Anderson, Peter Wacks, and the rest of the team at Wordfire Press.  Exciting things are in the works with these guys — more details to come later.

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