Happy Easter! As usual for the holiday, it's raining, stirring up memories of childhood Easter egg hunts in the damp grass. P'raps next year we'll get some eggs dyed. (It's difficult to motivate myself to hard boil eggs when I'm not particularly fond of them.)

Yesterday, Russ and I attended our first Norwescon. It was a long day, but we both had a good time. The costumes were great. Lots more steampunk costumes than I'd imagined there would be. My favorite was probably the trio of Victorian-dressed folks, one of whom had a butterfly net and a jar at her waist with what I assumed was a fairy in it. One of her companions had an old-fashioned camera on a post tripod, which brought the Cottingley Fairies to mind. Someone else was dressed as an infected nurse from the Doctor Who episode "The Empty Child," right down to the cut on her hand, and she would ask, "Are you my mummy?" It was quite clever.

We only ended up attending half the panels we intended to, but that was fine. With so much to see and do, it was good to occasionally sit down, take a break, and enjoy the passing eye candy. The best panel I attended was the one on Clarion West. Nothing like listening to former graduates and teachers laud their amazing experiences there to get me all excited about it again. Sigh. And I'd been doing so well at not thinking too much about it lately, too. Still hopeful...

After that, we went and listened to Cat Rambo read her short story "Ms. Liberty Gets A Haircut." It was an excellent way to end the day, both listening to a smooth reading of an entertaining, though-provoking story, and also visiting with Cat for a few minutes. (If not for her, it's doubtful I would ever have been inspired to apply to Clarion West. Thanks, Cat!)

Now I'm all jazzed to write a short story...