Hey! Cool future thing alert: Fourth Street Fantasy Convention
OK, I need to plan for something good right now, because having things to look forward to is an excellent method of regaining one's vigor. Having something to look forward to which will have all sorts of interesting conversation and a lot of fun and a nifty mix of people I already know and people I will meet for the first time is even better. I hope the people putting on the Fourth Street Fantasy Convention don't mind, but I am hijacking it a bit and designating it an official Thing I Am Looking Forward To. It's going to be next June (that's June 2008, for anybody like me who is still clearing major painkillers out of their system), Friday the 20th through Sunday the 22nd, here in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (OK, technically it's just outside Mpls, at one of the airport hotels, but you know what I mean.) Any of you guys reading want to go?

It's a convention that used to be held here, back when, and it was really, really a lot of fun -- if by fun you mean intense conversation and laughs with knowledgeable people who love fantasy writing and art. It's got some excellent things in common with other conventions I like (WisCon, Readercon, and so forth) and it's got one thing I loved and miss very much: a single track of programming, which meant we were all in the same discussion, which elaborated and deepened over the course of the weekend. (This worked pretty well because it's a small intense convention. I don't know yet whether there will be an attendance cap on the 2008 Fourth Street, but I will let you know when I find out.)

Fourth Street went on hiatus a bunch of years ago, and I missed it dreadfully. (I'd reminisce, but it would mostly be "Oh, man! John Crowley and his cool symbolism exercise... Jane Yolen.... Chris Li on the dance floor at First Avenue... Emma Bull... sitting and talking in the lobby, braided conversations spilling out of the programming rooms...Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman and Terri Windling... fangirling at Lisa Goldstein... Jon Singer and TNH and Kathy Li and Steve Brust and Gene Wolfe and Roger Zelazny and and and..." and then it would turn into happy babble. Oh, and Juan and I got married early on one Fourth Street Sunday morning, so I love it for that, too. Emma Bull was Broad of Honor, Jonathan Haskett was Best Dude -- they picked their own titles -- and our officiants were Pamela Dean, who actually married us in the eyes of the state, and my friend Mary the Lutheran minister, and Jon Singer. Pamela wrote the vows, which were lovely: we took each other "in appreciation and in annoyance," a phrase which occasionally gets invoked to this day. Heh.)

Anyhow, the point is not to recreate what was, but to pick up right now and go forward, having just as much fun. When they told me who is Guest of Honor, I did the happy dance: it's matociquala! A new Fourth Street Fantasy Convention?? With BEAR??? I am so very there!

Registration inquiries go, unsurprisingly enough, to registration@4thstreetfantasy.com. Also, the hotel is near the airport, and the light-rail comes from there to downtown Minneapolis, and a bus from one of the intermediate stops comes right to my house. For anybody who wants to come a day or two early, I would love to have a beads-and-other-crafts gathering, either at the hotel or at my house. (If anybody wants a wandering wire class, this might be a very cool time to set up one of those.) Plus there's just the goodness of various Minneapolis June fun. It's going to be very cool. Want to come?

P.S. Tell 'em I sent you. Hee!