“Why can’t you be more like Charles Dickens?” she asked.

I was unprepared for the question.

“Dickens? What are you talking about?”

“Do you know how long it took him to write A Christmas Carol?”

“No, I d-“

“Six weeks. It took him six weeks, Jenny.”

“Wow. But, I mean, did he have a day job at the time?”

“And what about Anne Rice? Interview with a Vampire? One month.”

“Geez. That’s… that’s impressive.”

I remember Kirsten Dunst’s hair kept growing back, every time she cut it.

“You need focus. That’s what you need.”

“I want to take a bee-keeping class.”

“Charles Dickens!”

Filed under: General on January 19th, 2009 | 11 Comments »

I was forced to do something against my better judgment on Wednesday – something I vowed never to do – but I was driven to this state by the actions of one man. A man I love dearly, but oh my god, don’t ever ask him to keep a secret. As one of the founding members of the TequilaCon committee, Brandon had the responsibility to hold the date and location under lock and key until such a time when we had secured a final venue, or at least narrowed it down to a few options. But then almost two months ago, it started with an email, and I knew I had to worry.

To: Jenny
From: Brandon
Subject: CAN’T KEEP HOLDING IT IN!

It was only a matter of time before he would crack under the pressure. And then I heard rumors of him starting guessing games and leaving a series of clues on Twitter. I had to know if it was true. I had to stop him.

For ages I had resisted joining Twitter because a) I don’t really understand how it works and b) I feared it would be the end of my already sporadic blogging. But he was out of control and someone had to intervene. Vahid tried his best by posting red herrings all over the internet. Dave played it cool and feigned ignorance.

But now the time has come to put Brandon out of his misery. So here I am, a reluctant Twittite, finally announcing the details of TequilaCon 2009.

When the TequilaCon Planning Committee came to Chicago in October for our hard core planning session, we narrowed down the list of candidate cities to a possible six or seven. Then we spent an agonizing number of hours weighing out the pros and cons of each option.

Frankly, even we were surprised with the final outcome. But after much deliberation and intense research, TequilaCon 2009 will be held…
…on Saturday, April 25th …
…in Santa Fe, New Mexico!
[awesome artwork courtesy of Dave]

For the first time in TequilaCon history, we are heading to the Southwest! Yee-haw! Wait… do they say that in the Southwest, or the South? Guess we’ll find out.

So this still leaves a lot of questions, I’m sure, like – what is TequilaCon? And where will we be meeting up? And where should we stay? And will Brandon wear pants? But for now, I can only ask that you hang tight as we work through the final details. In the meantime, if you’re interested in attending and want to be on the distribution list for future updates, send an email to TequilaCon@runjenrun.com.

Until then, you can see what you may be getting into by taking a walk down TequilaCon Memory Lane:
TequilaCon 05: Chicago, where it all began
TequilaCon 06: New York City, where it first got tattooed
TequilaCon 07: Portland, where it got swag
TequilaCon 08: Philadelphia, where it got big

Hope to see you in Santa Fe!

Filed under: TequilaCon on January 9th, 2009 | 37 Comments »