Con Squee or If You Ever Wondered if Pros Have Squee

At CONvergence, I went to listen to one of the many Urban Fantasy panels, mostly becauseAdam Stemple was on it.

Adam is in Wyrdsmiths and has a tendency--even worse than mine--to say out loud everything that goes through his head. This makes him a phenomenal panelist, because: Stop, Adam, no, oh God, too late! is always a thing that happens. At any rate, I'm listening to the panel and it's all interesting. I learned about a new fantasist from Detroit that I'm going to have to look up, erm... here he is, Emmy Jackson. Anyway, this is not the squee. 

At the end of the panel I decided to go up and harass Adam (because that's fun) and Emma Bull starts talking to me like she knows me. 

Now, I've been on a ton of panels with Emma in the past, but, c'mon. I don't expect the mother of urban fantasy to remember me, the local nobody, from one day to the next. Then, I realize she's saying something to me about *my* writing. I start listening and I hear things like, "Such an amazing, quirky voice. You had me laughing." And, I'm thinking, "Huh? Are you joking?" and because I'm actually quite a bit like Adam, I actually say OUT LOUD, "Are you kidding me?" She's of course taken aback, because here she's been so complimentary to a fellow author. We stare at each other for a second. She finally blinks and says, "Oh, of course, because of your humor writing, you must always get people who are wondering how to read your work." I think I nodded stupidly at this point, because how do you back-up and say, "No, Emma, I just couldn't believe you were actually talking about my writing...." I don't remember the rest of our conversation because I was thinking, "Okay, no, so.... this was real. She really likes my writing. What the hell? What she read? When did I get on Emma Bull's radar? Is this really happening?" and then I think we said goodbye while my mind was screaming, "Tell her how much she influenced you! Tell her War for the Oaks was the book you read over and over and how you swore ONE DAY to be as awesome (if not more awesome) as the Scribblies!" but, you know, it was all over before I knew it had started.

OMG. SQUEE.

Also, wow, the circle of life.  The other thing I could have said as we parted ways was, "When I left you, I was but the student, now I am the master."

Or just SQUEE....

Because: OMG. SQUEE.