August 2019

It’s a month of near constant activity around here. Pretty much all of July and the first 11 days of August were dedicated to Myths and Legends Con prep. The convention went well, thank you for asking. (I know at least one of you is wondering. 🙂 )

It didn’t create a new attendance high-water mark; that was MALCon 2016 when local favorite Jim Butcher was one of our Guests of Honor.

I’m really proud of the caliber of Guests of Honor, panelists, vendors, and volunteers that we’ve had over the years. Every year we’ve had attendees say that they found a new favorite author, artist, or musician because of getting to meet them at the con.

It wasn’t necessarily by design, but we ended up a small, intimate event, where you got to have in depth conversations with every category of person there. It’s making me rethink what success can be.

But enough of waxing rhapsodic for now. 🙂

After the convention, literally the next day, we boarded an international flight back to Europe. We had cleaned and tidied before we left for the US, so we came home to a beautiful apartment. It was so relaxing to be in that space, and nice to be home.

24 hours at home, and back to Schiphol airport. This time it’s vacation, and for real. Mostly. Billy is taking the days off work, so in that regard it is vacation. First stop is Worldcon in Dublin and I’m on two program items. We are also volunteering at the Info Desk. Like I said, mostly a vacation.

We’ll be there for 5 days, and then we head to Belfast, Northern Ireland for Titancon/Eurocon. Where Worldcon will likely be between 5000-8000 people, Titancon and Eurocon are more the size of the cons I’ve run (250-850).

Again, we can’t just attend, so I’m on one program item, and we are volunteering as well (Registration and a special Build-a-Beard event). Knowing us, we are likely pick up more shifts than we start with.

Then we’re home for a few days – time to grocery shop! – and we relax for a few days. Then houseguests arrive (they’re chill, so it’ll be fine), and then the Doubleclicks are playing in Arnhem! (I may have had my hand in that…)

So August 2019 is busy, but hopefully also relaxing. Neither of us has ever been to Ireland or Northern Ireland before, so we are looking forward to the trip. I’ll be sure to do some recaps with hopefully lots of pictures when we get back (or sooner if I get good at making mobile posts).

I hope your August is also full of interesting adventures, and also relaxing. That’s what I’m hoping for mine. 🙂