My sweet home

Luther M. Siler

We ventured up to the northern Chicago suburbs today, the part of Illinois I used to call “north Northytown” back when I actually lived in the city, to celebrate Christmas with my brother’s family. The fact that it took us nearly two months to do so should indicate just how many times we’ve had to reschedule this visit. We’re home now, but that means I spent maybe five and a half hours driving for what was probably about a five and a half hour visit, so .. I’mma go collapse into bed now.

Probably going to review Peacemaker: Season One tomorrow, but if I don’t, be it known that you should watch it.

In which I’m planning my nerdery and also I’m stupid

Luther M. Siler2 Comments

We’re heading to Chicago for C2E2 tomorrow; we only bought tickets for the Saturday part of the show, but we’re going to stay with my brother on Friday night so that we don’t have as long or complicated a drive to deal with on Saturday morning. I spent some time tonight looking around at who was planning on being there and trying to wargame out who I wanted to see and how much standing in lines I thought my eight-year-old might be willing to tolerate. Which is … probably not too much, honestly.

I have a handful of people on my list: two comics writers, Gail Simone and Al Ewing, both of whom should be easy enough to find at their Artist’s Alley tables, Noelle Stevenson, who my wife also wants to meet and who is responsible for the excellent Netflix She-Ra program, and a few science fiction authors: John Scalzi, Sam Sykes, Robert Jackson Bennett and S.L. Huang. I have absolutely no idea whatsoever how difficult it will be to get autographs from these people, and I’m not about to subject my kid to lengthy lines, but is Sam Sykes gonna have a long line? I mean, probably not, right? Who the hell knows. There’s also the minor decision needed about whether I’m gonna bring stuff with me for autographing, which takes up space and requires me to carry said stuff around, or if I’m going to plan on buying things for signatures, which, okay, it’s our anniversary so I’m gonna splurge a bit, but I don’t know how many extra books I need just for signatory purposes. I mostly want to just meet these folks; the signatures are frankly all sorts of secondary to that purpose.

Now, take all that, whip up a bunch of unnecessary COVID-19 related paranoia, and pour said paranoia all over my plans like some sort of infection-based gravy. There have been sixty damn cases of the novel coronavirus in America, and I know how to wash my damn hands, which is the best way to avoid it. I’m just not super eager to be northern Indiana’s patient zero when I contract this shit and then spread it all over a damn middle school. Am I going to let this change my plans? Hell no, although I’m probably going to spend a smidge more time with my hands in my pockets than I might otherwise, and there’s definitely going to be more hand-washing than usual. But it’s in the back of my brain anyway, because stupid, and because oh right I have an actual anxiety disorder and anxiety disorders love this shit. Like, there’s nothing an anxiety disorder loves more than going to a 100,000-person-strong nerd convention during the opening weeks of a pandemic. Loves it.

Unrelated to anything: I am listening to a Kesha album right now, on purpose, and I’m rather enjoying it.

Anyway, I’ll post tons of pictures– pretty sure I can’t be infected with anything through my camera– and the usual end-of-month posts will be happening as usual. Whee!

It is decided

Luther M. Siler1 Comment

For our 12th anniversary, my wife and son and I will be attending C2E2, which is a huge show that I attended once as a vendor several years ago. This will be the first nerd convention that I have been to in years where I will actually get to be a fan and an attendee and not trying to hawk books, so it ought to be a lot of fun, although I’ll probably need all of Sunday to recover afterwards. I have important decisions to make during next week now, mostly along the lines of how much money am I going to allow myself to blow at this thing and when I find a giant sword that I want, should I consider buying it, or am I past the point where I should be buying giant swords?

I mean, realistically I know the answer to that, but still.

There will be tons of pictures of cosplayers, of course, and there may be pictures of me taken with a handful of my favorite authors, as John Scalzi, Sam Sykes, and Gail Simone are all going to be in attendance. I will absolutely go meet Gail; Scalzi and Sykes will depend on the length of lines, as we’ll have the boy with us and I feel like C2E2 is not an optimal place to “meet” people who I might want to talk to for more than ten seconds. We’ll see, though.

Finally! A plan!

In which I drive

Luther M. Siler1 Comment

My wife is out of town for the next… God… eight days, meaning that not only am I on solo Daddy duty all week, but that I had to drive to Chicago and back today to get her to the train station.  That’s only about a total of four hours of driving, especially if you discount all of the driving around in the city itself.  That said, I rarely really drive longer distances at all any more, and I’ve been 75% asleep the whole time I’ve been home.  There are tons of things that need to be done before I head off to work tomorrow, and instead I’m sitting in front of the TV with my laptop in its accustomed place, doing nothing in particular.

19983612_10155470147278926_8570603837941311806_o

While we were in town we tooled around in Hyde Park a bit, since my wife had never seen the University of Chicago’s campus before.  This particular spot in front of Swift Hall, which is where 90% of my classes were, holds a bit of personal importance to me, but it became real clear as we were walking around campus that between seventeen years of development and the fact that I was in grad school and really never entered the vast majority of the buildings on campus.  Basically, my “tour” was “parking was bad but I don’t remember it being THIS bad… uh, this used to be a road… that building wasn’t here before… most of my classes were in this building… OH HERE’S THE BAR I LIVED IN FOR TWO YEARS!”

Which, really, is pretty much my grad school experience anyway.

Posting may be a bit light this week due to parental responsibilities.  Feel free to buy a book if you miss me!

Come see me at #C2E2!

Luther M. Siler1 Comment

C2E216-DGP-ProstetnicPublications-1280x444

I’m leaving tomorrow morning for the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo, at McCormick Place, where I’ll be doing my best to make at least a moderate amount of money in booth 228!  The hours for the sales floor are long– 10 to 7 on Friday and Saturday, and I think 10 to 5 on Sunday– so there’s plenty of time to go do whatever else people do at huge conventions and still come see me!

I expect to spend today rushing around like a maniac getting 10,000 last-minute things done, so it’s going to be quiet around here.  I have guest posters lined up for the next five days, but y’all know me; the chances that I won’t be posting at least something while I’m at the con are slim.

See you in Chicago!