I woke Saturday morning at World Fantasy to a city in which I’d already eaten at every Man v. Food restaurant. What to do? Luckily, the locals had all raved about a place called Hash House a Go Go, which supposedly prepared amazing breakfasts—well, amazing everything—so that’s where I headed to start the day with Bill Shunn, Laura Chavoen, and Eileen Gunn.

But everything good comes with a price—and the price was that there was a 90-minute wait before we could be seated. Since it sounded like the food would be worth it, Bill and Laura were up for it. But Eileen had to be back by 12:30. So I returned her to the hotel (which apparently had a major problem I didn’t hear about until today) and got back to the restaurant with plenty of time still remaining to chat with Bill and Laura in the warm California sun while trying not to feel too guilty that my wife was back in the West Virginia snow.

I ordered the pancake of the day—banana coconut—which surprised me by coming with a few pecans, too. It also surprised by BEING THE SIZE OF A HUBCAP!

I assure you that I did NOT eat the entire thing. I was thinking of taking it back to the con suite, but pancakes do not travel well, and besides, we wanted to have a postprandial walk around the neighborhood, and so didn’t box up any leftovers. It was a good thing we took that walk, too, because it allowed Laura to see her first Bird of Paradise in the wild.

Back at the con, I bought my membership for next year’s World Fantasy Con in Toronto—which you should do, too, just in case there’s a sell-out the way there was this year—schmoozed with countless friends, and went to Maureen McHugh’s 4:30 reading. If you didn’t catch that reading, well, now you can.

After further schmoozing, I was supposed to meet Nalo Hopkinson and Betsy Mitchell for dinner, and I’m sad to say … I bailed. Liz Gorinsky, who led me to the marvelous “transmedia shindig” that was the play “I’ve Never Been So Happy” during World Horror earlier this year, discovered a Saturday-night-only Hell House Be-In to be held at Space 4 Art—and as my post on the Austin experience proves, I’m a sucker for those kinds of things and helpless to resist their charms.

So a little after 6:00 p.m., a gang of us dashed off to Salazar’s Fine Mexican Food, and then on to the Hell House advertised below.

Was I dressed appropriately for the event? You be the judge.

Yes, those are indeed Marvel Comics sleep pants. Plus a Super Cthulhu T-shirt. So garbed, I wandered the maze-like gallery (the panda above being only one of many intriguing works of art), and eventually ended up out back at the stations of the Hell House, which included a visit to the Forest of Sin, a zombie ballet, an encounter with a necrotic Mr. Peanut, and a frenetic parade in which we all marched to the beat of a very different drummer. I loved it! Which means Liz is batting 2-for-2 with her eclectic events. So if she ever asks if you want to tag along to an off-site affair, follow her!

We returned in time for my 10:00 panel on “Metafiction,” moderated by Rick Wilber and featuring Steve Rasnic Tem and Victoria Schwab. We had a surprisingly large audience for such a late-night panel, one even awake enough to ask good questions. I name-checked the greats—Herovit’s World and Galaxies by Barry Malzberg, If On a Winter’s Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino, and others—and we all did a good job of explaining what the heck metafiction is and the nature of its appeal.

Then it was on to the parties, especially N. K. Jemisin’s pajama party, which included gummi bear flavored drinks, pillow fights (which I missed) and rounds of Twister (which I did not miss, but probably should have; I played miserably).

Sometime around 1:00 a.m., I foolishly thought, hey, maybe I should change into something warmer than these sleep pants, and so returned to my room … and never returned. You should never go back to your room after midnight at a con unless you intend to stay there. Because fatigue overcame me and I crashed, and that was the end of Saturday. Or should I say, the end of the beginning of Sunday …