Taking My Dancing Foot to Pyrkon

Two weeks ago, I broke my foot while weeding my front garden—something I never knew I had to worry about before then. I was working at the edge of the flowerbed, my foot slipped over the curb, and I heard a distinctive Crack!

That’s not good, I thought. I could not put weight on it, and I had to call my husband out of the house to pick me up out of the verbena canadensis.

It turned out that I had fractured my fifth metatarsal bone—the one that connects your small toe to the rest of your foot. This type of break is called a “Jones Fracture,” or a “dancer’s break,’ because it is common in athletes and dancers.

This fracture is notoriously difficult to heal without surgery, because it’s in a place where there is a poor blood supply. That seems like a serious design flaw. I was given a massive boot, a pair of crutches, and orders to stay off it and come back in two weeks

.This was the latest in a series of personal structural failures this past year—knees, shoulder, spine. It’s like my body suddenly realized that it’s out of warranty.

But I’d already made plans to take this body to Poznan, Poland. I’d been invited as a guest of the Literary Track at Pyrkon, one of the largest multi-genre fantasy conventions in Europe, attracting more than 60,000 fans over its three-day run.

I’d never been to Poland. My husband hadn’t, either, so he’d planned to come with me. I really, really wanted to go, but figured maybe it just wasn’t meant to be.

I emailed my contact, Artur, at the con, delivering the bad news. I told him that I was sorry, and said that I was trying to figure out whether there was any way I could still come.

I figured they’d say, “Too bad, maybe next time,” or the equivalent in Polish. Instead, Artur responded with a gracious letter, outlining how they could accommodate me at the con, if I chose to come. He said they’d had other guests with disabilities. They would provide a wheelchair during my stay in Poznan, plus an assistant throughout the event to help me to get where I needed to be.

I asked my husband how he felt about schlepping an invalid through Europe. I wouldn’t have blamed him if he bailed. But, he didn’t.

I asked my doctor if I could go, and he said, “I don’t like to tell my patients what to do.” Which was probably a ‘No’ but I took it as a yes. The gig was on.

It’s not easy to fly from western North Carolina to Poland under the best of circumstances. We were looking at three flights and 24 hours, even if everything went well (Ha!)

We consulted our nephew, Brian, the travel agent, who helped us access wheelchair services at the various airports.

On our day of travel, we entered the mysterious backstage world of the airports, propelled along passages not intended for public view and onto secret elevators. There is no way I could have navigated this on my own

.The usual airline stuff happened. Our Chicago flight was diverted to Indianapolis because of thunderstorms. (Never—ever—connect in Chicago.) By the time we got to Chicago, we’d missed our flight to Frankfort. That’s when we learned that United has embraced a “digital first” approach, providing passengers the opportunity to try to sort things out themselves on a tiny screen rather than at a dedicated service center. Unless, of course, you are a United Club or Global Services member. Then you can talk to a person.

We cornered a beleaguered gate agent, who was able to book us standby on a later Frankfort flight, then stood in line at the new gate to secure a seat—any seat--on the plane. (I’m using ‘stood’ figuratively.)

Once in Frankfort, we had to rebook a connection to Poznan. Meanwhile, we were trying to communicate all this to our contacts at Pyrkon, who were to collect us at the airport.

Things went much smoother once we reached Poznan. Pyrkon staff met us at the airport , drove us to our hotel, and delivered the folding wheelchair. We shared our ride with members of Twilight Force, a symphonic adventure metal band based in Sweden. Here I am with some members of the band,

and here they are, performing at midnight on a stormy night at Pyrkon

.The next morning, Pyrkon volunteers offered con guests a walking tour of the old city. They encouraged us to come along, so we did. (I’m using ‘walking’ figuratively--I rattled over lots of cobblestones in my wheelchair.) Still, I was glad to have the opportunity to get out and about in this beautiful and historic city. The Old Market Square is beautiful, lined with the pastel facades of buildings

I think every old European city has a clock tower with two goats that ram heads, and Poznan is no exception. The goats butt heads at noon in the Old Town Hall tower. Sometimes they dress these goats up for holidays.

We also went to the Old Zoo, which is the oldest continuously-operated zoological park in Poland. It was supposed to shut down when the New Zoo was built on the outskirts of town, but it has been maintained as a cultural landmark, housing second-string animals like ring-tailed lemurs. The gardens and plantings were beautiful, and admission was free.

If you know me at all, you know that I am always interested in food. We got to sample a few dishes in Poland—pierogi, of course, and a kielbasa-potato soup called zurek.

Poznan is an old town, but it is also a city of students, housing 100-150,000 students at 28-30 public and private universities (out of a total of 550,000 residents.) That means that one in four or five residents is a student, and it delivers amazing energy to the town—and to the con. In addition to Poznan students, Pyrkon attracted student volunteers from Warsaw and Krackow. My assistant, Zuzanna Sacha, was one of them.

Over the course of the con, I participated in a photo shoot, a Q&A session, two autograph sessions, and four panels. Zuzanna had to translate while readers at the signings yelled at me in Polish for killing Han Alister, “my book boyfriend.” Then Zuzanna herself took me to task for the people I killed off in Runestone Saga.

It was interesting to compare Pyrkon with US fan conventions like ComicCon and DragonCon. There were lots of gaming guests, cosplay, and concerts. An entire hall full of complex and custom Lego sculptures. Another focused on Star Wars.

I was lucky enough to share English language panels with Maggie Stiefvater, Kevin J. Anderson, and Fonda Lee. We had the best time! I love it when panelists actually spar and engage, rather than sit like star pupils at school.

I literally put poor Maggie and Kevin on the floor when they heard about my footloose pantser ways. NO OUTLINE?! YOU HAVE NO OUTLINE? Perhaps that explains why Kevin has written 190 books. He doesn’t wander in the wilderness.

It’s still magical to me to think that people across the world are reading my books in other languages, and yet finding a connection to their own stories and their own lives. I was touched when Artur told me that his mother was a fan of my books. She used to read them to him when he was small. He said it made him feel safe and protected (Truly? In my scary worlds?). It touched me because my mother was such a huge influence on me as a reader and writer. It has always been a goal of mine to write books that families could read together.

Travel is hard, these days, and the need for special accommodation makes it harder. I keep thinking maybe I’d be better at it if I’d had more practice. This adventure was challenging, but well worth it.

Though I wasn’t able to see as much of Poznan and greater Poland as I would have liked, I felt totally embraced by the city and by fans and volunteers at the con. Special thanks to Artur, Zuzanna, Milena, Sol, Alexsandra, so many others for their kindness and patience.

If Poland calls—don’t hesitate. Go!