And I come bearing pictures.
Now that the conference is in the rearview and work has calmed down a little, I should be back to posting Genuwyne Quality Content on the regular. Starting with a small gallery of my Albuquerque trip.
A glimpse of Lee Moyer’s amazing SFF Author Arcana. Scalzi has already bought his! 
My whimsical photo which does no justice to Beth’s work whatsoever. 
The author and her gracious host. Beth is the sparkly, good-looking one. 
Sunrise on the last day of the Balloon Fiesta. 
They rise… 
St. Philip of Neri Church in Old Town Albuquerque.
I took 250+ shots of the Balloon Fiesta ascension, culled those for FB posts, and then drew a tiny representative sample for this post. In the midst of working the conference, my fencing buddy S, who introduced me to Beth in the first place, flew in to ABQ, rented a car, and picked me up for a side trip to Santa Fe for Beth’s gallery opening reception, which was amazing, of course. You can see why I was so honored for Beth to make room for Ryswyck on her easel! (And obviously I need to get on the stick and read more Ray Bradbury.)
Speaking of Ryswyck, somewhere in the midst of prep work and travel and long hours, I’ve managed to finish two chapters of The Lantern Tower. This is not at all my prolific time of year, but I’ll eke out whatever I can in the fall months. The themes so far appear to be secrets and shock tests, and unsurprisingly du Rau is responsible for a lot of that. I suppose it’s his revenge for my not using his POV this go-round.
And so it goes, &c. &c.