By the time this is posted here, I’ll be at GRL in San Diego. If you’re there too, I hope you’ll come and say hello!

I’m feeling like a real world traveler this year. In July I made it to Munich for EuroPrideCon, and now it’s the US again for GRL! And, after Germany, I was all “Thirteen hours between Brisbane and Los Angeles? Pfft! That’s child’s play!” Of course, you have to add onto that thirteen hours the two hours between Townsville and Brisbane at the start, the four hours between Los Angeles and Chicago at the end– because I can’t come all this way and not visit J.A. Rock’s dog – and an awful lot of sitting around in airport lounges or waiting in queues for security or immigration in the meantime.

But hey, jetlag is a small price to pay for being on the other side of the world, right? And, in all honestly, jetlag isn’t that big of a deal. I work shift work, so I’m used to functioning on next to no sleep and having no idea what day we’re up to. At least with jetlag you’re sleep deprived and half delirious somewhere more interesting than your work.

The fact is, I love going to conventions. I love meeting up with old friends, and making new friends, and I love talking about gay romance with other people. I come from a relatively small city. I joined a writing group once, and discovered that not only did they look down on romance writers (most of them were, of course, writing Big-L Literature –most were also unpublished!) but gay romance? Let’s just say I didn’t have a lot in common with most of those other writers. Coming to events like GRL is important to me, because I get to feel, for once, part of a real community. And of course we are a real community even when we’re not in the same room—I’ve met a crazy number of great friends online—but it’s just somehow so very special to meet those friends in real life as well. Internet hugs just aren’t the same.

So if you see me at GRL, please feel free to introduce yourself if we haven’t already met. And if we have met, let’s grab a drink together, and talk about the books we loved this year, and the ones we can’t wait to read.