MileHiCon Day 1

Day one of MileHiCon has come and gone, and the day got interesting before I even made it to the hotel.

I took the bus down there, and while we were stopped at a very busy intersection (for those of you from the Denver metro area, this would be Colfax and Broadway), we saw two mounted police officers chase down a suspect. As all of the lights went red, they galloped across the intersection, chasing a guy into the park directly across from the state capital. As they closed in on him, one of the officers jumped off his horse and brought the guy down. It was like something out of a movie.

The first day of the Con was a good time. I didn't really go to any panels. Instead, I mostly just sat and talked to people I'd met before, like Laura Givens, Ian Brazee-Cannon, David Lee Summers, David Boop, Maggie Bonham, Carol Hightshoe, Cynthia Felice, Michael Turner, Barb Nickless, Patricia Coleman, and I also had the opportunity to meet several others that I hadn't met before. Mostly we talked writing and politics.

After a while, I went to the opening ceremonies. The theme of this year's Con is zombies (don't ask me, I just go to these things), and seeing Ed Bryant, the toastmaster, in a zombie mask was priceless. During the ceremony, artist guest of honor, Frank Wu came in completely zombiefied chasing someone across the stage. Later he tried to eat Ed's brain, and unfortunately, this is when my camera screwed up, because I would have loved to have gotten that shot.

I'm completely convinced that Frank is insane, which means that I'm going to have to introduce myself to him today. You just can't have too many insane people in your life!

After the opening ceremonies it was off to Autograph Alley, which if you're not one of the guests of honor means that you sit around and talk to other authors. I was seated next to Mike D'Ambrosio, who I had met at CopperCon three years ago, so it gave us a good chance to catch up. I was also seated next to Maggie Bonham. I'm not sure what it is about the two of us, but we bicker constantly. I think we're both a couple of smart-asses, and we really enjoy it. We'll renew the rivalry today since we're signing together at 3:00.

Overall, it was a good first day, and now I have to finish getting ready for day two...I have a panel in an hour and a half.