My first WriterCon was in 2006 too and it was awesome! I learned a lot about writing in general, as well as specific things related to fanfic. Also, because I did not know much about Joss Whedon's world, and I wanted to have some knowledge about something so I could conduct some sort of conversation, it spurred me to borrow Firefly from my library. Now I have a new favorite show, though I'm sad it's no longer on tv!

One thing I would highly recommend, if you want to make it to more than one panel discussion happening at the same time, is to bring a tape recorder. Just give it to one of the panel speakers and ask if they would mind recording the panel for you while you sit in on another one. I did that, and it worked great. Once I got home I had the time to listen to everything I'd missed, and took great notes! Heh, and I never take notes during classes. But this was totally worth the effort. The college library I worked for at the time had several cassette players you could borrow, so I borrowed three or four of them and bought a whole pack of cassettes. This year I don't have the option of borrowing equipment, so I'm a little stumped as to what I'll do if more than one panel going on at a single time interests me, but we'll see what I can do.

Also, I will mention, some of you might (*ahem* I was too shy back them, so probably not) remember me as IslandWriter, as I'd changed my penname recently. Well, I decided that name wasn't working for me and went back to my original name, which suits me so much better. So, if you see me and get confused by chance, it's ok. The name's QueenOfTheUniverse, and I'm mostly associated with CSI and The Love fandom. Back in 2006, I was still into The Net, whom no one's heard of, so I was definitely a wall flower. Hopefully that will change this year! And so you know, I'm not planning on changing the name ever again. Woot!