Another year and another ConVersion has come and gone. We touched base with old friends, nodded in passing to familiar faces and wondered about those who were absent. ConVersion twenty-five is the eleventh con Maureen and I have attended. We started with number fifteen back in 1998, way back when people were just beginning their pointless panic over something being dubbed as Y2K—talk about a wet firecracker.
This year we were back at the Metropolitan Center right in the heart of Calgary's downtown. Oddly enough it felt like we had come home. ConVersion had been here before and it always felt right to me. Perhaps because it’s all con people when we’re here. Not being a hotel we don’t have to share our space with norms, muggles, mundanes or whatever term you prefer for "the others."
Con people are what we are: comfortably different. Now go away, we’re in the middle of a really good book. At any time during the con people could be seen sitting around the lobby reading quietly, some in costume some not. For me it's always been the Dealer's Room where I can see all kinds of neat stuff and pick up some old Astounding or Analog magazines. This year I was able to fill in several gaps in my collection and help my favourite bookseller to keep coming back.
Terry Brooks and Robert Sawyer have both been Guests of Honour before and packed the rooms wherever they went. I managed to get Robert to sign my copy of Rollback, the only novel of his I didn’t already have signed. It’s a great read and I for one would love to trade places with the lead character. Enough said, go buy your own copy.
All in all, a great weekend was had by all and the only note of sadness is the long wait until next October and ConVersion XXVI.
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