And I’m back. A very good weekend has been had – it all went extremely quickly (which is usually a good sign), hung out with some splendid people, soaked up an atmosphere of eccentric politeness, and generally had heaps of fun. To be honest, it was just enough to see everybody’s costumes – the amount of effort people put in was quite staggering, and despite taking my camera I didn’t actually take a gigantic number of pictures simply because it was almost a case of overload – everywhere you looked, there was something amazing to look at, from uniforms to waistcoats to a boggling number of corsets. I’m certainly glad I wasn’t able to spend much money, as the dealer’s room could easily have been very financially painful if I’d let it, and like all events that are being run for the first time there were moments that worked and moments that didn’t, but it all went very well – except for the bit where, thanks to a hideously complicated bit of tomfoolery on my part, I got myself locked out of my accomodation for the night. Thankfully, I was able to come up with a solution quickly and didn’t spend the night wandering the streets of Lincoln, but it was certainly proof that (a) you can expect the unexpected and (b) there is no end to the ways I can find to make my life more complicated.

Four days of frenetic proofreading will follow, and then I’m off to Fantasycon. And then I’m back for three days. And then I’m off to the Gollancz party.

Gulp…