This is the far more disorganized and fan-girly addendum to my post, in which I like to think I maintained some air of professionalism or at least dignity.

For those of you who don’t know, I attended the Conestoga convention in Tulsa this weekend.

Be forewarned, my opinion of the convention is highly colored by the glee of getting to meet Tessa () in person and finding that she is just as entertaining and articulate face-to-face as she is in print, as well as by the fact that she put up with me talking incessantly (seriously, I could not shut up). And I had the added bonus of meeting , who accompanied Tessa to Oklahoma and is a whole lot of fun in her own right.

Highlights:

The author community hosted their own con-within-a-con and had their own dedicated programming track. As the community has grown rapidly (108 members!), it’s become my go-to site when it comes to finding speculative fiction written by highly talented authors.

mdhenry read from his upcoming sequel to Happy Hour of the Damned, which, if you like social savagery and the undead (as I do), is a must-have for all zombie aficionados. Or really just anyone who has a sick, snarky sense of humor and doesn’t mind a little (a lot) of gore and bodily fluids. Mark Henry’s next book Road Trip of the Living Dead is due out in March, and based on the fact that during his reading, I was laughing so hard I was almost crying, it’s going to be dynamite.

I also got to hear children’s author Dean Lorey read from the first book in his Nightmare Academy series. With voices! It reminded me of how much fun it is to be read to as a kid, and this series is a great one for reading aloud, not only because the characters are vivid and voice-y, but because adults will enjoy these books too, which seems like an important consideration.

I had the opportunity to talk with the lovely Jeri Smith-Ready () about all kinds of things, not least of which is her vampire-DJ series from Pocket. The first book, Wicked Game was released a couple months ago and it’s fun and sexy and smart. Plus, it comes with a playlist at the front—how cool is that?

To recap, it was a great experience, I got to meet a lot of interesting, friendly, funny people who had previously only existed to me online, anyone looking to build their spec/fic reading list should definitely check out , and I can’t wait to do this all again.