Husky Galore

I headed to ConFuzzled after work on Friday, so by the time I arrived the convention was in full swing. It's a bit overwhelming at first, and it takes a while to acclimatise, but after the first night you stop being surprised when the lift door opens to reveal a six-foot fox tapping his paw impatiently. (Some small children who were staying at the hotel thought all their Christmases had come at once when they found the lobby was filled with big furry animals.) I located Ultrafox, my roommate, and eased myself into things with a drink.

Saturday began with breakfast, which lasted for two and a half hours. The coffee kept coming, I had nowhere else to be, and the company (theodor and party, swapping Hitch Hiker's quotes) was convivial.

Eventually I took myself upstairs to brush my teeth. When I emerged from my room, the Norwegians two doors down, who as far as I could gather had been drunk since they left Norway, invited me in for a drink. It was a quarter to twelve, but since they were still running on European time I felt it would be fine to accept a quadruple gin and Pepsi.

I was rescued from certain ruin by a text from foozzzball, arriving on a day pass, and went down to the bar to meet him. A wander through the Art Show and Dealers' Den, then it was time for me to run my poetry workshop. This attracted an audience of six, one of whom was leading the writers' events and two more of whom I brought, so it ended up more of a group discussion than me standing up saying words at people. It was a pleasurable way to earn the drinks token with which panellists are rewarded.

The next writing event on the programme was SilverFoxWolf's session on Creativity, which also got six takers. We were tasked with collaboratively coming up with a plot and characters:

SFW: What's the first word that comes into your head?
ME: Cat!
FOOZZZ: You're such a husky.

The point of the exercise, and it's a good one, is that your brain and the way it works are unique to you, so nobody need think they are unimaginative or incapable of coming up with ideas.

After this I passed time in the bar until kandrel's Erotic Writing panel, which ended up finishing at gone one in the morning and was both funny and informative, without going into too much tab-A-slot-B detail. It is a testament to the fox's oral skills (fnarr) that I stayed up late at a writing lecture rather than e.g. staying up late partying.

In tomorrow's (probably) concluding instalment: Hypnotism! Flash fiction! Cocktails! Cards Against Humanity! And I finally get to go swimming!