Preparing for Readercon

I leave for Readercon the day after tomorrow and I feel like I have a lot to do between now and then. The biggest challenge, however, is finishing the first draft of this novelette that I’ve been working on. I promised myself I’d have the draft done before I got on the plane. I did pretty good last week getting through about 4,300 words late last week. But Sunday was spent on the most recent Vacation in the Golden Age post, and yesterday, my writing time was consumed by the need to console the Little Man as a whopper of a thunderstorm passed through just as he was going to bed.

So, I plan on doing a lot of fiction-writing between now and 10am on Thursday. And I am still hopeful that I will have a completed draft done by the time I get on the plane. Of course, that will be just a first draft. The draft will go through my critique group, and at least one other early reader, and then I’ll get started on the second draft, which is always my favorite part of story-writing. I’ll save why for another post.

I will be blogging at Readercon, of course, though likely only once each day. I have pretty full days. I remember last time I was worn out by 9pm, but that won’t due this time. My first panel is Thursday evening at 8pm, and my second is Friday night at 9pm–and that’s the one I’m running. When I’m not on panels, I’m attending them, or chatting with friends, or checking out stuffin the dealer room, or networking.

Incidentally, I’m only taking the iPad and the keyboard with me. No laptop.

But back to preparations. In addition to the writing, I have some reading to do, both for writing group critiques and my usual Golden Age reading. And tomorrow evening I’ll be participating in the SF Signal Podcast, the topic of which is a good one, and timely at that.

I’m curious: is anyone else who reads this blog that will be there for some or all of the convention? It would be great to see you if you’re there.