I made the 11-ish hour drive up to Burlington, Massachusetts for Readercon 34 last week. It had been a hot minute since I’d been to a con, COVID saw to that. I did manage a trip to DC in 2021 for WorldCon, but wound up watching most of the panels from my airbnb room due to rumors of COVID so it certainly didn’t hit the same.
The trip up was fairly uneventful, with emphasis on fairly. When I was about 20 minutes from Burlington my front left wheel started making a noise that started to get worse. I managed to limp into a local service station right off I-95, talk to a mechanic (it was about 6:30PM, so I considered that fairly miraculous), call a Lyft and make it to Burlington by 7PM. I checked in, cleaned up and went down to the convention to catch Laurence Raphael Brother’s (also a VP alum!) reading, which was quite enjoyable despite still vibrating from being on the road for so long (me, not the reading).
And thus kicked off a whirlwind of panels and readings, really amazing stuff that gets the wheels turning. I don’t think I realized how much I missed this face-to-face discourse around books and writing.
Viable Paradise
Readercon is particularly fun for me due to being a Viable Paradise writing workshop alum. A Saturday night dinner was organized by David Twiddy, writer, VP staffer and all round good guy and this year we were able to sit everyone at a long chain of tables. I got to chat with Jeff Reynolds (and his lovely wife and co-editor of Trollbreath Magazine) and David DeGraff from my cohort (VP 21 in 2017), Christopher Rose, Jennifer Hudak, RJ Taylor, Courtney Floyd, John P. Murphy, K. M. Veohongs, and the aforementioned David Twiddy. It was such a nice time.
Readings
By day I attended panels and readings (so many readings) and generally immersed myself in all things books. I’ve found attending readings to be a great way take a deep dive into a particular author, especially those I’m not familiar with or have only scratched the surface of. Some highlights included Elizabeth Hand, Matthew Kressel, Michael Cisco, Scott Edelman, Benjamin Rosenbaum and Scott Lynch, as well as a few of my fellow VPers Laurence Raphael Brothers, David DeGraff, Chris Rose, and John P. Murphy. I love hearing what people reading their work and talking about it afterwards, getting some of the background stuff, the influences, all the stuff that makes for a richer experience. If there’s a spark there, it makes me want to read more by that author.
As a result of Matthew Kressel’s reading I am currently reading the novel from which he read the first chapter: Space Trucker Jess. It’s a super fun ride and I highly recommend it if you dig space opera.
Another book I’m enjoying is non-fiction, Weird Fiction: A Genre Study by Michael Cisco. It’s 100% a scholarly work, easily at home in any high-brow academic setting, but it’s so, so good if you are inclined toward weird fiction and want to understand it more deeply than just “vibes.”
Panels & Nightlife
The panels were, by and large, well done and thought provoking, from discussions on how trauma informs writing and how writing can act as a type of therapy for processing trauma, horror and the weird in 2025, what happens after revolutions, British “scientific romance” fantasy of the late 19th and early 20th century, and on and on.
Although panels and readings went until 10 PM, I availed myself of BarCon, that time-honored gathering with libations (or not) in various hotel lounges and seating areas as conversations swirl about along with people. It’s always amazing to me how gracious people are with their time, whether they are “big names” or not, and the quality of the conversation. It’s easy to find yourself outside of various social groups, but it’s just as easy to find yourself sucked into the orbit of this conversation or that. I find that just letting things be as they are makes for a wonderful time rather than pinning hopes on particular experiences. As I mentioned at the outset of this post, this personal interaction was so good for my writerly soul.
Wrapping Up
I headed back Monday morning binging several episodes of the Coode Street Podcast along the way to keep the good times rolling and returned home with a headful of inspirations and ideas, buoyed by re-connecting with the writing community. I can only hope I provide that in turn for at least one person I encountered. So here’s to writers in all their forms and the events where they gather. Now I need to figure out how to attend more of these more often.