I’m back from Utopiales. As always, I experienced the now familiar con-backlash : you spend 4 long days crammed with lots of people talking writing and SF, and in a matter of minutes, it all goes away. There is a feeling of loss that’s difficult to bear for a few days after.

The con went great. I followed some fascinating panels (9/11, and wikileaks come to mind). In fact, Utopiales is a strange mix between a literary convention and comicon. You’re sitting in a room, listening to a panel about philosophical issues raised by Science Fiction novels, and your eyes drift to the concourse surrounding the panel area. There, you see some groups of people with steampunk attire, or even dressed with manga outfits. The entire thing feels surreal and adds a very distinctive feel to Utopiales.

The other area where Utopiales shines is his guests. This is a small local convention (well if you call a con with 45000 people attending small), but it has some great international guests. As a result, you have well known authors essentially free to talk to you, because very little people around can even understand english. Yes, why bother to go to overcrowded signings where you’ll have 3 minutes to talk to your favorite author when you can talk to him comfortably seated in a chair sipping coffee?

So, for 2 years in a row, Utopiales has been great : last year, I had Brandon Sanderson essentially all to myself (Right, I might have bothered his editor a bit when I showed up to talk to him when she was around). Those talks were all about craft, and I learned a lot there – even joined the writers group he mentioned then. This year, I had decided to target (forgive the expression) Ian McDonald. I chose him, because I wanted specifics about publishing in the UK. I might have gone with Glen Cook instead, but decided that Ian was the best choice.

The talk with Ian was wonderful. He talked to me (while sipping coffee) for an hour, mostly about editors and agents in the UK and submissions packages (he has some pretty interesting thoughts about the subject). I don’t regret not bothering him at Eurocon : he was a guest of honor there, he couldn’t have given me this sort of attention then.

So, all in all, things went great. Will I go back there : definitely. Was the pass worth it? Yeah totally!