When I surveyed the San Antonio culinary scene due to my planned LoneStarCon 3 trip, the two restaurants I discovered that seemed to be musts for dinner were Bliss (which I visited the Friday of Worldcon) and Nao, part of the Culinary Institute of America (which I visited Saturday).

In both cases I made reservations long before I had any idea who’d be joining me, having no doubt that I’d find the right foodie friends who’d want to tag along. I already told you who came with me to Bliss. For Nao, my co-conspirators were Simon and Angela McCaffrey, plus Rosemary Claire Smith, who also went on my pilgrimage to Franklin BBQ Thursday morning.

I hadn’t even known there was a C.I.A. school or restaurant in San Antonio before I started my research, having been aware only of the ones on the coasts. But as soon as I learned of it, I knew I was in. I liked the idea of seeing the future chefs of tomorrow today.

Which isn’t quite how it turned out. Since we visited over Labor Day weekend, the students ended up all being off, which meant that we were instead taken care of by professionals, not those attempting to prove they’d actually learned what they’d been taught during their years at school. I was told that a student’s service in the restaurant was the equivalent of a thesis (though that was the word I offered up, not our server), and that each student had to spent six weeks at the end of their schooling working in the restaurant—two in the back of the house, two in the front, and then two in the back again, moving through all stations of cooking and dealing with customers.

So due to the holiday, I can’t tell you how the students would have done. But the teachers did just fine! (more…)

So let me tell you how I ended up singing “Pure Imagination” to Aaron Franklin, the magician behind Austin’s Franklin BBQ, just before LoneStarCon 3 began.

Those of you who followed me as I made my Worldcon foodie plans already know all about Franklin BBQ—how Texas Monthly named it as turning out the best brisket in Texas, which means it’s the best brisket in the United States, which probably means it’s also the best brisket in the world. How by the time Franklin opens each morning at 11:00 a.m. there are already hundreds of people waiting in line to eat there. And how if you don’t get there early enough, you get nothing. (Or perhaps you get nothing but cole slaw … like Hitler.)

Which means that instead of flying to Worldcon in San Antonio early Thursday morning as I normally would have, I instead headed there late Wednesday, so that I could rent a car that night and therefore have it ready super early the following morning in order to make the drive from San Antonio to Austin (about 79 miles, or an hour and 13 minutes) to arrive at Franklin’s front door no later than 8:30 a.m. Thursday. That would (I hoped) allow me and my hardy band to stuff ourselves with BBQ and be back at Worldcon by 2:00 p.m.

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There’s been a lot of talk lately about the greying of science fiction fandom—particularly when it comes to the World Science Fiction Convention, where it is more obvious than elsewhere—and whether those already attending conventions are driving away those who could help cons thrive. But amid all the gloom, I felt a ray of hope at LoneStarCon 3, the Worldcon that ended a few days ago in San Antonio.

Yes, there’s been a lot of complaining about various aspects of the weekend, but it must also be noted that this happened—

There were so many Worldcon newcomers this year that the committee ran out of FIRST WORLDCON ribbons for attendees to affix to their badges and had to print up new ones halfway through the con.

So there are people out there who want to be part of this special thing we have. How do we make them feel welcome?

One thing I made sure to do was approach every person I noticed wearing a FIRST WORLDCON ribbon and say … well … “Welcome!”

I told them I was glad they’d decided to join us, and asked the catalyst that caused them to come this particular year. I told them I hoped they were having a good time so far, and said that if they had any questions, I’d try to answer them. I shared an anecdote or two about why I fell in love with Worldcons so long ago.

I asked them what science fiction they loved, and if it didn’t happen to be a thing I also loved, I DID NOT JUDGE THEM FOR IT.

If I saw they’d gone so far as to volunteer (as I could see many were during the Hugo Awards ceremony), I said, “Good for you!” or something similar, and thanked them for helping make the whole thing come together. Sure, I partied with my friends, too, but at the same time, I tried not stay within my safety bubble, not to have the newcomers see us as a collection of cliques. I reached out to as many unfamiliar faces as I could, particularly those faces above the name tags adorned with that ribbon.

Not a big thing, I’ll admit. There are many far more complicated fan issues that still need to be solved. But this outreach—or let’s not call it outreach since that sounds so clinical; let’s call it kindness—is one small thing we can each easily achieve. I hope that whatever else we do as we seek inclusivity, we at the very least let the newcomers know we’re glad to see them.

It’s a start.

After all, we were them once.

No time to post a full LoneStarCon report—I got back late last night from San Antonio and this morning have to immediately dive into the work of the day that allows me to go to Worldcons—so here are six photos to hold you.

And since a picture is supposedly worth a thousand words, consider this a 6,000-word con report!

With Aaron Franklin, the BBQ magician of Franklin BBQ, purveyor of the world’s best brisket (and no, I am NOT being hyperbolic)

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