Update: Dragon Con Post Mortem (Patreon)

So, I finally got home yesterday evening, lasted long enough to unpack my car, and sat down on the couch. That was all she wrote. The next thing I knew, it was morning.

All in all, my publisher seemed happy with the results of Dragon Con, so I'm calling it a win. Not gonna lie, I did a lot of fake it 'til you make it during the convention. I honestly think I spoke out loud more in those five days than I did the entire previous year.

There were upsides. I got to meet a few people who only existed as online entities to me before. I think I made a few new fans. One guy I met in the hotel laundry room actually turned up at my publisher's booth and bought my book. I wasn't there, but it was still a cool turn of events.

On the downside, i definitely caught con-plague. It was almost unavoidable. I think I personally interacted with a couple hundred people. I had tenuous contact with thousands. My immune system is pretty good, but that's asking a bit much of anyone's immune response. Hence, I drove home yesterday with a fever, a persistent hacking cough, and a perma-migraine. I had to pull over and sleep a couple times so I wasn't a danger on the road. That turned an 8 hour drive into a 12 hour slog.

I'm feeling a bit better today. The hacking cough is mostly gone, at any rate. I don't think I'm running a fever anymore, but the migraine is still in place. I'm going to take something for the migraine and hope it works better today than it did yesterday. If it does, I will try to get a chapter out tonight. If it doesn't, there will definitely be fresh Unintended Cultivator tomorrow.

Despite my fervent desire to never, ever, ever go to Dragon Con again, I tentatively agreed to do it again next year. While it was exactly what I expected it to be, and I was horribly uncomfortable with just about everything, I recognize that it was almost certainly good for the series, my career, and my publisher. So, plan accordingly if that matters to you.