Another World Fantasy Convention—during which I had loads of fun and little sleep—is over. WFC is one of my favorite con weekends of the year, second only to the always amazing Readercon. Now that I’m home, and have had a decent night’s sleep, here are a few of the moments I enjoyed most.

Thursday night, Rajan Khanna, Jenn Reese, Liz Argall, Greg van Eekhout, and Barry Goldblatt joined me for dinner at Rose’s Luxury—where we ordered and ate EVERY FREAKING DISH on the menu. (A meal which I shall describe at length later.)

Here are Liz and I reveling in the Sfoglini rigatoni with parmesan cream and breadcrumbs—plus white truffle!—before digging in. She seems lost in the moment, while I appear absolutely manic.

With good cause. A memorable dish from a memorable meal.

Friday morning, I once more read my most recently sold short story “And the Trees Were Happy,” which will appear in the anthology Genius Loci. It’s the third time I’ve read that story in public, and yet my voice cracked again and I nearly wept. Apparently, I am not immune to its emotional arc. I hope you won’t be either.

Friday night, during the mass signing, Stephen Jones handed over my contributors copy to the Russian edition of Zombie Apocalypse. I can’t make out anything but my name, but apparently there’s a story of mine in there.

Saturday night, with David Nickle as our sole audience, Claude Lalumière and I once more “discussed” the relative contributions of Stan Lee vs. Jack Kirby to the Marvel Universe, and as you can see, things got out of hand.

Obviously, there was much more fun than that, as it was impossible to walk through the lobby or any of the hallways without ending up in a conversation with old friends and potential new ones. It would be pointless to try to recount them all, for there were hundreds of such interactions.

During the con, I uploaded 97 photos, of which 48 were of food, 38 of people, and 11 of the general scenery. (Yes, I have my priorities straight!) To see all the pics save the food-related ones (well, except for what we were served at the banquet), go here.

And I look forward to seeing you next year when the World Fantasy Convention convenes in Saratoga Springs!