What Kind of Bee Am I?

So– lots o’ random tonight, and, alas, not many great pictures for it.  I didn’t realize until I sat down to write that A. My shitty pictures are still shitty, and B. I haven’t taken any.  The picture of Andrew Grey and Poppy Denison here was like my first–and one of my best–and I bless Queen Andrew and Princess Poppy for posing for it.  (And for coming up with that caption too!)  It’s one of the few I have this year.


I’m not sure why that is… I love having pictures to put on the blog, but I’m horrible at taking them, but I think it’s more than that.  I think that I’ve gotten better at being in the moment when I’m at these things and part of being in the moment is not hanging out behind the camera.  So, sorry for the scanty pictures– but that doesn’t mean I’m not having a fantastic time.

Some highlights from this GRL 2014– not all of them actually at the convention, mind you– are as follows:

*  I told Zoomboy that the hotel was built on hexagons.  He responded, “Hexagons?  What kind of bee does that make you?  A worker?  A drone?  Or a queen?”

“A drone?”

“The drones have sex with the queens, Mom.”

“Definitely a queen.”

*  I had a blast at the Riptide dinner on Thursday, but I came back to my room and suddenly felt… uhm… Not great.  Now, people have been coming to my room to jammie (yes, it’s a verb, so what?) pretty much all con, and that night my incredible mess hosted Andrew Grey, Nessa Warin, Shannon Shell, Jessie Potts, Jaime Samms, and the lovely Mary Calmes.  I asked everybody– very casually– if they had any Tums on hand, and in three minutes…

Andrew had called his husband and Dominic showed up with tums and an antacid, Mary went out and got me tea, water, and pretzels, and everyone else just made room and let me lay down and get better.

For the record?

I love my friends!

*  This morning I attended the panel to see Rhys Ford, Andrew Grey, and Eden Winters, who were all amazing.  However, Rhys…

Again– I love my friends.

There I was, knitting quietly, listening to her talk, because she’s brilliant, and she stops and says, “Seriously, Amy Lane, what in the fuck are you knitting?  It looks like a sweater for a snake!”

“Uhm… fingerless mitts.”

“Jesus– that’s not what it looks like.”

I’m not sure what I replied then… something, uhm, well, more funny than gracious.  Anyway, she proceeded with her Q&A and somebody asked her about who she was going to kill next, and how she’d better not kill off some of her most beloved secondary characters.  To which she said, “You know who I’m not going kill off?  The damned dog.  I’m not going to kill the damned dog.  Unlike, say, Amy “Fuck the Horse” Lane!”

Thanks, Rhys.  I love you too.  (The funniest part of this was that Chicken was sending me texts saying, “Rhys!  Tell Rhys Hi!  Give her hugs!  I miss her!”  I was like, “Wench!”)

So, still love my friends!

*  I had a panel with the incomparable Deanna Wadsworth and Jet Mykles on World Building– I’m not sure how much wisdom I imparted about world building, but I do know that everybody laughed a whole lot, and Deanna and Jet’s Bad-Libs were the absolute awesomest!

*  We also did an author lounge thingy, which sort of turned into a mini signing– but it was a chance to interact with readers– and you know what?  When someone tells me that my knitting books gave them knitting–and then knitting gave them their sanity through a really rough time in their lives?  That makes me unutterably proud.  Knit, guys. Crochet.  Go out into the world and craft your hearts out.  Creating something out of good will and hard work is never a bad thing.

*  Speaking of knitting (and other things…)  I’d like to say thank you.  A variety of amazing readers gifted me with some sort of awesome, quirky, fun and adorable things.  The picture is posted above, and I’d like to thank Karrie Jax who made the lovely meme posters, Kate and Andrea for the Al-pack-a bag, Rhae Camden for the SQUIRREL! Mary my Mary for the knitting accessory bag featuring Batman and Robin kissing, Sherri Mt. Snow for the gorgeous yarn, Caroline (I think! Sorry!) for the gorgeous dragon pin, Dani Elle Maas for the German chocolate, and Vicki Thompson for the Whidbey Island chocolate (not pictured) and my glorious bracelet featuring my crown as the Queen of Angst (right above the chocolate 😉 Also of note is the Chain Mail Scarf that Alex Whitehall made me–it’s not the pattern of the scarf, because she didn’t have it yet, but the idea of it, the chain mail, the protection, the comfort?  That’s what the scarf is all about, and she made it for me, and it made me cry.

So thank you everybody– I’m so glad I moved your hearts, because you certainly moved mine, and not just the folks with the presents.  Everyone who shared a story of their own with me has paid me back for my own stories in spades, so thank you, all.

I’ve loved sharing time with you all 🙂

*  And I’ll leave you with Mary, packing up the DSP table– the book seller’s room was a great place to be this week, because, well, books, and also because I met new people too.  One of them was Hans Hirschi, who runs his own publishing company with his own books, and he has been just awesome to talk to– and he came all the way from Sweden to be here.  I hope he had fun, because I know we all loved him!

And now, it’s almost 2 a.m., and I’m going to be downstairs around nine.

Time to go to bed–but believe me, tonight (even though I missed the masquerade!) I’m definitely counting my blessings.