On the other side of the RWA conference, I’ll evaluate how I feel about the event over all.

It’s a little after 10PM on the last night of the conference, and the event is essentially over. Tomorrow, Melissa and I can get up whenever, catch our bus back to Toronto, and hopefully experience uneventful travel, putting us back in Sacramento around the crack of Midnight. I don’t think either of us took Monday off to recover, so it’s going to be a long week, folks.

With that in mind, if I’m going to write a timely wrap-up for this event, it’s now or a week from now. Let’s do it now.

This has been great! Melissa gave her presentation today, and while she was nervous at first, she shook off the nerves, locked it in, and did a really great job. She had me up there with the second microphone to cover things from the author perspective, and we played off each other really well. People in attendance complimented Melissa on how well her presentation went.

I think she may even get some people submitting their work to Cupid’s Arrow, which is fantastic.

Writing came easy for me this week, and it’s been a lot of fun. I’m almost to one of the scenes I’ve been looking forward to ever since I conceived the idea for writing this book. I really can’t wait to share this book with you all, because I think this one might be really special.

Pretty much everything I said in the previous post still applies. Melissa and I felt welcome the entire time. We met some great people, and it’s been the perfect way for us to celebrate 30 years together. Earlier tonight, we were in the audience for the awards ceremony, which was sweet but also a far cry from the presentations of the past. It’s a far cry from The Hugos, to be honest. The presentation and speech for the Lifetime Achievement, given to Jane Porter, lasted most of an hour. Again, sweet, but long.

Next year, RWA 2026 is in Albuquerque, from July 15th through July 18th. Neither Melissa nor I can commit to attending yet, but I wouldn’t be opposed to it. We had a good time.

Politics at Conferences

There was a moment during the conference where Melissa and I met someone from a red state that was new to going to conferences. She’s a very sweet lady, but she’s also a product of her home. While talking about traffic in our cities, she said something along the lines of “Covid and BlackLivesMatter destroyed her town” and I sort of paused and looked around at the other people in the conversation. Melissa didn’t seem to catch it. The other two ladies caught it, also paused, but clearly didn’t want to make a scene.

I talked to Melissa about it later, saying that I feel like I should take the lady aside and recommend avoiding political topics like that. I figured I could do it with as much kindness as I could muster, without attacking her personally. Melissa didn’t think it was a great idea, so I just kept the thought in the back of my head.

Tonight, as Melissa and I were leaving the ceremony, Melissa needed to use the restroom so I waited in the hall for her. And there was Red State Lady getting confronted by another woman that was very upset. She said something about “concentration camps in Florida” and I understood what was going on. Red State Lady was getting the talk I was going to give her, but without the attempt at kindness.

Red State Lady approached me and said she’d just been reamed. Before the other woman had left, I heard Red State Lady say “I’m sorry” but also “That’s your opinion” and honestly, I didn’t have a lot of sympathy to offer her.

On this blog, I am very clear about my politics and, most importantly, why my politics are what they are. This is a place where I’m having a conversation with you, and it’s where I’m talking about the change I want to see in the world.

At conferences, I avoid topics that will start a fight. I might still talk about being anti-Trump. I talked to someone here at the conference about exactly that when it was clear that it wasn’t going to create a problem.

And, I’m not avoiding political topics out of cowardice or fear of conflict. If you’ve known me for long, you know I love to argue.

I avoid political topics in person because I know that we all have more in common than the differences highlighted by our political leanings. I want to make friends, and then through kindness, compassion, empathy, and generosity, convince my friends that we are on the same side. If I’m going to change hearts and minds, it’s going to be through looking at controversial topics from a place of respect and kindness.

If I’d had a chance to have that talk with Red State Lady, maybe I could have helped her. But then again, if she’s been on the Fox News train too long, maybe it would have become an argument after all. I avoid the topics, but I’m not going to lie or let harmful lies float by unchallenged.

Melissa and I talked about it and she said there were a couple of other people “talking bullshit” in her presence, and I don’t know what to say about that.

We had a good time. I think Seattle Worldcon is the next event. For now, I’m going to look at The Psychic Out of Time for a few minutes before we go to bed.