Last weekend, Rebecca and I were guests of honor at EerieCon 12, a small and friendly SF convention in Niagara Falls, NY.  We traveled with Tim and Diane Jones, who helped us man the table in the dealer’s room.  We came Thursday afternoon and the con activities didn’t start until Friday night.  After dinner at a nice Indian restaurant, Tim, Diane, and I went for a sunset walk on the American side of the Falls (Rebecca’s foot was still hurting a little, not quite recovered from the surgery a couple of months ago).  We saw beautiful scenery, clear skies, through twilight and then nighttime where the Falls were lit up.

The next morning, also bright and clear, all four of us went over the Rainbow Bridge to the Canadian side to see the larger Horseshoe Falls and to see the American Falls from across the river.  The scenery was truly spectacular.  While we ate lunch in the Rainforest Cafe, we received a call from Tim and Diane’s daughter, reporting that back home in Colorado we had just received 20 inches of snow.

Kevin and Rebecca at the Falls.

One of the Maid of the Mist boats heads toward Horseshoe Falls

American Falls from the Canadian side.  Hard to believe 20″ of snow was being dumped on Colorado at the same time!

After we got back to the hotel it was time to set up the table in the Dealer’s room, meet the con staff, get our badges and program books. I had a panel at 10 PM, where James Alan Gardner interviewed me and other guest authors.  Several members of the Rochester 501st Garrison came to say Hi, and I spent time with the fans and other authors in the Con suite (which had good beer on tap all weekend provided for the Con attendees).

Next day Rebecca and I had breakfast with Robert J Sawyer, then we participated in several panels and book signings, then a great game with all the guest author, What Line’s Mine?, where the emcee read random lines from the authors’ novels, and we had to guess who had written what.  Then a very nice dinner at a local inn with Rob Sawyer and wife Carolyn Clink, other authors Ann Bishop, James Alan Gardner, Josepha Sherman, and their guests.

James Alan Gardner stops by the table to browse books.

Writer and tarot reader Sephera Giron lures victims…er, customers.

For my reading, I read the new short story I had cowritten with Janis Ian for Blood Lite 2, and I also read the first chapter of Hellhole, my new novel with Brian Herbert.  Former Writers of the Future students of mine David Sakmyster and Carl Frederick also stopped by to chat.

Kevin and Dave Sakmyster, with Dave’s novel Silver and Gold.

Carl Frederick shows off some of his magazine appearances.

After the con ended on Sunday, we packed up and took a late flight from Buffalo to Washington, DC, but bad weather delayed us (yes, the same storm that had dumped all that snow on Colorado two days earlier), so we missed the connection and spent the night sprawled on benches at Dulles airport for a 6 AM flight.  But we did make it home eventually and have managed to recharge our batteries.