Susan and John Ruff, Fantasy Authors

Cookies, conversation, books, and friends. LosCon was great fun! The convention took place last weekend at the Airport Hilton in Los Angeles. John and I participated in several panels during the convention, and I even took a turn at the autograph table signing our books.

When we attended Baycon earlier in the year, we sold books at the Liminal Fiction booth. Because LimFic did not have a table at LosCon, John and I decided to splurge for our own table in the dealer’s room. It turned out to be a good investment financially. Even better, it gave us a good opportunity to introduce more readers to our books, and we got to meet some fun people.

I’ve been to LosCon many times over the years. When I was preparing to write this post, I found pictures in one of my photo albums from LosCon 9, back in the early 1980’s. In those days, I attended the convention as a fan, and I loved watching panels where my favorite authors like Larry Niven and Barbara Hambly spoke.

But I had not been to LosCon since the pandemic, and this was the first time I attended as a published author. It was thrilling to participate in panel discussions with authors I admire. At one point, I was moderating a panel of authors which included Barabra Hambly, and guess who came in and sat in the front row to watch the panel … Larry Niven!

The con also gave John and me an opportunity to catch up with old friends we hadn’t seen in years, and to reconnect with friends we had met at Baycon.

My favorite moment of the convention happened on Sunday. A reader had bought our novella “Coins for the Counter” on Friday. She stopped by the table on Sunday to say how much she had enjoyed reading it. Moments like that are the best part of being an author.

-Susan 12/5/2025