It shows where my priorities are that I told you all about Saturday night’s dinner at Range before I shared anything about the rest of my weekend at Capclave. But then … you already knew that about me, didn’t you?

When I arrived at the Hilton in Gaithersburg Friday night, I quickly discovered that there was no parking available. I circled the lot multiple times, as did dozens of other cars, to no avail. This had never happened before at a Capclave. Blame Guest of Honor George R.R. Martin, who attracted a horde of new attendees. (I was told later that night that the con sold three times as many walk-in memberships as usual the first day of the con.) Thankfully, a hotel employee at the front desk allowed me to use employee parking, or else I’d be wandering the lot still.

I bumped into Michael Dirda, Howard Waldrop, and Ellen Brody in the lobby, and they invited me to join them for dinner before my 9:00 p.m. panel. I’d already eaten during my drive, but I joined them anyway for a lively conversation during which we discussed Stan Lee’s date with Patricia Highsmith, the unfilmed (and entirely fictional) seventh season of Leave it to Beaver, and more.

Then came my panel titled, “J. K. Rowling Wrote an Adult Mystery,” which wasn’t really about Rowling per se, but instead the issue of pen names, writing in multiple genres, and whether the latter required the former. You can tell where I come down on the issue by the fact I’ve used my own name on all my writing, even the two unauthorized biographies I wrote about professional wrestlers. I’m agin’ ’em.

And then I rushed back home. It may seem odd to drive 90 minutes each way in order to spend two hours at a convention, but that’s all work (I couldn’t spare using another vacation day) and finances (I try not to splurge on hotel rooms when a con is commutable) allowed. Which meant the next morning I headed back to do it all over again.

My first program item Saturday was my 12:30 reading, and rather than trying to share an entire story in the half-hour slot allotted, I read snippets of multiple stories from my two most recent collections, What Will Come After and What We Still Talk About. No one seemed to mind being teased.

For the rest of the afternoon I schmoozed in the con suite and lobby, eventually running into Dave Bartell who, like me, had brought his ukulele. We wandered the ground floor looking for a place to jam which would be inoffensive to the other attendees—I don’t like inserting ukes into an existing crowd; no one deserves that—and eventually ended up on a bench in front of the hotel, where we noodled around with songs like “Five Foot Two,” “You Are My Sunshine,” and “Waltzing Matilda.”

At one point. I looked up and noticed that a gaggle of giggling girls had gathered—I put them all round 8-10 years old—who asked us whether it was OK that they were listening. (I don’t think they were with the con, but rather attendees at a nearby soccer meet.) Of course, we said, though I warned that we were such beginners their ears might bleed. But they insisted we were very good, and they laughed and danced around and clapped in time to the music … and when they left, tossed a dollar bill atop my uke case. Which I told them they didn’t have to do, but they insisted.

So I guess that makes me a professional musician!

Dave had to get to a 5:00 p.m. panel, which meant it was back to more schmoozing in the lobby for me, a smidgen of which was spent with George R.R. Martin, who wanted to know how I could remain so “gaunt” when all I seemed to blog about was food. And when the guy responsible for Game of Thrones tells you that you’re gaunt, you’re gaunt! Of course, while he was asking me this, my mind was on my coming dinner at Range, so I’m not sure I came up with an answer that was acceptable to him.

I got back from dinner and arrived at my 10:00 p.m. “Name Drop and Quote” panel just as it was about to begin. I don’t know how the audience felt, but the best part for me was learning that co-panelist Steve Stiles had worked on Marvel’s British reprint books a couple of years after I was no longer editing them. I didn’t know that! I can tell we’re going to have to get together some time in the future to swap Marvel Bullpen stories. Immediately following that, I was on the “Grumpy Old Pharts” panel, where I fear I failed to live up to our billing. I feel I’m far from grumpy even when I try to be grumpy. (I hope you’ll agree.) So I just ended up spending a second hour talking about my early days in fandom and prodom, with multiple stories of my first Worldcon, 1974’s Discon II.

It was after midnight when I started heading home, and I didn’t arrive there until nearly 2:00 a.m. But it was worth it. Another fun Capclave, by which I mean, another fun gathering of my tribe.

I hope you’re lucky enough to find your tribe.