Ah, cons. How I’ve missed thee. With World Fantasy being my most recent convention appearance (at the beginning of November), it had been quite a while since I’d immersed myself in the realm of fandom, and it was good to get back to it at Lunacon this weekend.

Lunacon was once again held at the Rye Town Hilton in Rye, New York, otherwise known as "the Escher Hilton" due to its funky floor plan that makes you feel as if you’re trapped in an M.C. Escher painting. For example, if you step off the elevator on the fourth floor and walk down a certain hallway (which slopes downward at a slight angle), you end up on the seventh floor; so in fact instead of going down a bit as you might imagine from the slight decline, you in fact somehow climb three floors with nary a slope in sight. In other words, the perfect place for an SF convention.

I drove up a day early to hang out with pal Rob Bland. We had dinner and chatted enough that I got a bit hoarse before the con even started, and then hung out in the room playing Guitar Hero, which I brought with me despite the Rye Town Hilton telling me over the phone that doing so was forbidden (because, one presumes, they have their $10/hour video game rental service). I figured there was no way they’d actually know I brought my illicit PS2 into the hotel so long as I hid it from the maid, so I went for it. And it worked. In case it didn’t, and since I was driving to the con, I brought a small TV with me so shredding would not be denied. Yes, I realize that’s a pretty geeky thing to do. But so is going to an SF convention.

Spent most of the con hanging out with Rob, Doug Cohen, Chris Cevasco, and Andrea Kail–pretty much the usual suspects, except for Rob, who was a new addition. When we went to lunch on Saturday, however, in a surprising act of sociability, we invited a young woman named Luce who would have otherwise be dining alone to join us. Her name badge bore a bright yellow ribbon proclaiming her to be a first-time con-goer (or a "con virgin" as we later put it), so we proceeded to show her the ropes a bit, and sort of performed for her four or five bonus panels during the course of our conversation–not on purpose, of course, but because we’re geeks and it’s just what we naturally do. After lunch, we all (Luce included) headed for the Jacqueline Carey reading. The reading and the subsequent Q&A session was entertaining, but ran long, unfortunately, so I had to cut out ahead of the rest of the audience in order to make it to my post-apocalyptic panel on time. We lost track of Luce at this point, as Rob followed me to my panel, and Chris and Andrea ran off somewhere. (If you’re reading this, Luce, sorry about that–we weren’t trying to ditch you!) It was nice to have a newcomer join the posse for even a short time.

Saturday night, after searching in vain for parties, several of us went up to the room to play Guitar Hero, whereupon I showcased my mad shredding skilz, destroying all challengers who sought to wrest from me the title of Guitar Legend. Well, except when we played face-offs and I played on hard while the other played on easy. Chris managed to beat me at least twice that I can think of in that way. (But hey, I was using all *five* buttons, and he was only using *three* so doesn’t count!)

Throughout the con, I only attended a few panels, plus the three that I was on, but the few things I saw were pretty interesting for the most part. Chris moderated a great panel on religion in SF/fantasy, and I caught about half of an interesting panel Andrea was on about television. Most disappointing this year was Lunacon’s annual "How to Get Laid at a Con" panel, which is usually a source of great amusement. This year, they changed it to "How NOT to Get Laid at a Con," which somehow stripped it of all its charm. In lieu of the traditional sex in SF panel, we attended one called "Geeks Like Kinky Sex," thinking it would be entertaining–and it was, to a degree but it didn’t quite live up to expectations.

In other disappointing news, no one in the dealer’s room seemed to have copies of Wastelands on hand, despite my best efforts to ensure that it would be available. Alas. I did, however, put out some of my Wastelands postcards, and those seemed to go pretty quickly.

Lunacon’s a con that features a number of…let’s say "characters," many of which you’ll find there every year. This year was no exception, as posse favorites Dolphin-Boy, Rape-Man, Spark-Plug, and Napoleon Rugburn were all in attendance–all of whom earned their nicknames by their rather…um, unusual comments at the various sex panels. As for what exactly it was that earned them these appellations, you’ll just have to use your imagination…or perhaps attend Lunacon next year and puzzle it out for yourself. :)