Con*Stellation and stuff

 I had a great time at Con*Stellation.  Mary let me stay at her house, which made the whole thing possible, budget-wise, and my one regret of the weekend was that I didn't get to spend more time there.

I had not been to Con*Stellation before--it is a small con, strongly focused on space exploration, with a strong contingent of Baen people--including  a presentation on what books would be coming out from Baen in the next few months with books given away (I got "Fire Season" by David Weber and Jane Lindskold) and several Baen authors.  Marc Gunn was the other filk performer there, and he gave two concerts of drinking songs (one that was purely Firefly songs.)  I hadn't gotten to hear very much from him before--he plays the autoharp, and has two, so that when his enthusiastic accompaniment knocks one out of tune he can switch out to the second, which I thought was very clever.  He has a whole box full of six or seven CDs he has recorded.  Maybe someday I'll have a box like that, but I think that's a few years away.
I only had about eight people at my concert (perhaps twelve given that some people wandered in and some people left early) but they seemed to enjoy it and I thought it went off pretty well.  I did notice that set-up time was geared to a panelist who walks in with her drink of water and her notes and sits down and starts, rather than someone who has to set up a music stand, two instrument stands, and a music book before tuning her instruments.  I ended up having to cut a couple of songs despite having run my set for length several times at home.  Something to remember for next time, I guess.  Maybe I should be running my set for length including set-up and tear-down.
I sold six CDs, which came to $25 after the cost of the membership and the gas, but I'm glad I went because I had a good time, got a chance to buy _Acolytes of the Machine_ and _Third Thyme's The Charm_ and met several lovely people, and renewed old friendships.
Stephanie Osborn was a very entertaining panelist and I went out and bought one of her books to try it out.  Les Johnson was also very entertaining and I also bought one of his books.  The difference in timing was the difference between the dealer's room being closed and open, so I got Les's book in paper and he signed it for me, and also offered to look over my song about Neil Armstrong and let me know if there are any inaccuracies I should correct. I have an e-mail address for Sherlock Holmes I intend to try one of these days.  Stuart introduced me (on the phone) to an accoustic engineer friend of his who might be willing to help me design a recording booth I could put up inside my house--the prospect of being able to record at my convenience is very exciting.  And I braced one of the Baen editors about me writing songs about books and perhaps I should be considered a reviewer and qualify to receive ARCs, and I have her e-mail address to e-mail her about it.  I met a songwriter named David Watson who plays and sings really well--apparently he had a concert at Deep South Con but I wasn't there, so this is the first I got to hear him.  We had a filk circle Sunday, and I was afraid I was going to be the only performer there, because Marc had to leave early when his daughter got sick, but Stuart did a few things, and David showed up for the last half of it (before I had to go--it may have continued for some time afterward.)  I was glad it worked out because the songs I had to cut from my concert I got to do in the circle.  And I played "Normal" and it was a smash hit, which pleased me very much.  I had been worried people might not like that one.
I feel like I met so many people it will be days before I recover.