Readercon, and the past

Readercon is by no means an oldsters convention, but certainly many of us have been going for decades, and we show it. While the phenomenon I am going to discuss isn't exclusive to Readercon, it seems more noticeable there, because I see many of these people only there, once a year. That sampling rate makes all of us seem to age faster than we do.

I was on a panel with a writer who had a fund of good stories about his writing career. I don't know him well, but even so, I had heard some of these stories before. They were polished, and entertaining, and delivered with real verve. It wasn't anything like what you should do on a panel, which is interact with your fellow panelists and what they have said, but that's not such a big deal, or so unusual. I did note that the most dramatic incidents had happened quite a number of years ago.

Later that night, I had beers with a bunch of writers. One of us regaled the others with various entertaining stories. I had not heard many of them, and enjoyed them all, but most took place some time before the turn of the century.

There is nothing wrong with any of this, by the way. I just note it for my own use, which is to keep creating story-worthy incidents. As I've gotten older I've gotten more disciplined and work more. That is good for my income and my career, but it sucks as far as stories go ("want to see this spreadsheet of my task schedule?"). Yet another thing to work on. I'll have to work it into my schedule....

What's happened to you lately?