If I can ask further, what did you find useful/important about them in the beginning? Sense of camaraderie with other writers, fans of fantastic fiction, etc.? Meeting editors and Big Name Authors?


Meeting other writers, making connections, the chance to travel, being seen, being asked to do panels, etc. It was all very exciting from about '94 (my first con was World Fantasy in New Orleans that year) up to about, I don't know, maybe 1998.