Quick catch up as I only have 9 minutes of free internet access at the hotel. This has beenmy first bit of free wifi etc since the start of the holiday. Outrageous!

Flights were awful, even more than usual. Spawn was great but connections and customs were not. Also car rental place sucked. You do your best to organise everything online before you travel and it doesn't matter, they still have to reprocess your paperwork manually. Do not plan to drive for two hours after a nine hour flight. You think you will sleep on the plane. You will not.

Naples was lovely but we were very aware we were out of our real estate league. And we were very pale indeed. Picked the first hurricane/flood type day to get to the swamp sanctuary. It was so bad they wouldn't even let us in to walk around. At least the rain here is warm though.

Drove back to Miami for my sister's wedding craziness. Much family drama, but it went well. Do not trust a hotel's babysitting service, they will be late. Did not get as drunk as I would like as had entire body cushioned by food.

Now in Orlando waiting to brave the theme parks!

Back from FantasyCon 2008 and here is my breakdown...

Good bits:
1. Being encouraged to write again, anything that can do that is worth the money.
2. Meeting amazing authors such as Christoper Golden and Ian Watson, and hearing great authors chat about their work. I have new respect for tv tie in novels!
3. Being faint in the presence of Dave McKean and his work. He also did a sketch of the Sandman for me.
4. Meeting old friends and making some new ones. It is good to know you are not alone in liking the, and aspiring to the same things.

Bad Bits:
1. The hotel - the service, prices, rooms, bar and food were all terrible. So much so we are probably going to stay somewhere else next year, even though it means I won't be able to spend the entire weekend in my socks, and have to stumble across the road at 3am instead of riding upstairs in the lift.
2. Scheduling of the panels - One of the reasons I go to the event is to hear the talks on writing, and it is very annoying when they are scheduled at the same time as the guest of honour talks. So I missed Dave McKean and Christopher Golden. Boo.
3. Not being able to get drunk in the evening and chat all night in the bar - ok so this one is my own fault for taking the sprog. I've learnt my lesson!

Good chance I'll be back next year.....

If you're interested http://www.fantasycon.org.uk/

This weekend me, the hub and the bub are off to FantasyCon in Nottingham. I'm looking forward to hearing talks from the likes of Dave McKean and discussing where the genre is going wrong - and right! Despite the title it is also to do with horror and SF - though you can tell all the major horror fans, they are either real geeks or goths. The main purpose seems to be getting 150 writers and fans into a bar and seeing how long it takes the beer to run out. Suits me.

Compared to last year it is going to be a bit weird since the bub is only 8 weeks old. It never occurs to you how easy and yet how difficult it is to travel with a baby. Easy because at this age they are quite small and portable and keep quiet most of the time as long as they are happy. Bad because of all the equipment required to keep them clean in the nappy department ane fed. It isn't as simple as just packing up your boobs. I've tried to get prepared. I've bought a special camo-sling for me to heft him about in, but I'm not sure how I feel about whipping out a nipple in front of Ramsey Campbell.

I'll post when we get back....