Monday was the day my flight left and it left at a time that meant I couldn’t stay for the dead dog party nor really do much more at the con. If I ever make it to another Worldcon I will try to make sure that I can stay longer and have more fun.

The Hodges and Figgis stall, showing the self published books they had agreed to stock. Seen here Gods of the Deep, Lurking Miscellany and Out of this World Alphas.

However, I did manage to wander round the dealer’s room a bit and pick up the unsold books I had left in the competent care of Hodges and Figgis. Unfortunately, this turned out to be all of them but I did swap one with F.D Lee in exchange for hers. I now need to read the one she gave me and do a review. Once I finish all the other books I need to read…

In the course of wandering the dealer’s room I found out I had actually won a Hugo. It was the Hugo for ‘best panel moderated by me’ and it was hotly contested this year. Luckily, I managed to beat myself to win this prestigious, non-existent award. Thank you to the #holdahugo team for voting for me to win this.

I also explored the freebie table which was mostly populated with leaflets and fanzines but did have some interesting stuff. For example, I picked up a copy of Ninefox Gambit (unfortunately too late to get it signed) to read on the plane and a curious bottle of ‘Pastor Oat’s Holy Water’ which was a nice little idea from the Discworld universe.

Finally, I got to actually meet the rest of the literature team – the ones who I had been working with online for months to bring to fruition many of the Programme items that had just been played out over the past few days. We had a nice lunch in a restaurant nearby and we all got paid in strange Cthuloid coinage…

In all, my first Worldcon was a fun one, if somewhat busy in places. I got to do a lot of things that were great but also didn’t get to do some other things that I really wanted to do. I guess it all balanced out, though. I am unlikely to make another Worldcon any time soon – New Zealand is beyond my budget to travel to, as are any future US ones – but I am actively working to help bring about a Worldcon in Glasgow in 2024 by foolishly volunteering to help out.

I flew home tired but happy, looking forward to the next event I will be attending – Eastercon in Birmingham 2020…