Writers writing about writing conferences?

Writers writing about writers attending writing conferences? Hm, you're gonna have to do a lot to win me over if that's what you're offering, and Rivka Galchen's story in current NYer does not exactly win me over though it does showcase some of her strengths, starting w/ a title that will definitely grab attention: The Late Novels of Gene Hackman. (There are none, apparently.) This kind of off-beat sensibility marks her style, and she has a good vehicle to convey the style here with a 30something writer (of sci-fi or fantasy, it seems) attending a key west conference and bringing her step-mother (more like her birth mother in that step mom raised her) as her plus-one. Characters identified only by initials - M, Q, J, et al. - for no particular reason that I can see other than to lend story a gloss of gossipy mystery as if these may be real people, like the various Count X's that turn up in Russian fiction. Step mom Q gets the best lines, as she blithely mixes with the writers and turns out to be quite a character; narrator, J, just observes wryly. In fact, wry is the mood of the day here - which is OK and can be funny and edgy but unfortunately, as far as I can see, story does not build to anything or conclude anything; this kind of story moves up to the next level if the character grow, change, or at least reveal something to one another - in this case perhaps something that mom and daughter could not discuss at home or face-to-face but that emerges when they speak to each other obliquely, through other writers. Galchen does not cash in on opportunities to satirize writers - we see little or nothing of the actual conference - and is not particularly interested in depicting the KW setting, which I think would offer lots of opportunities as well. Her writing is about voice and tone - and that's her great strength; perhaps other stories in the forthcoming collection will use that strength to more potent or poignant effect.