On the road again: Balticon, day 4

I've never been a convention guest of honor before, so I have no basis for comparison, but as near as I can tell, if you're going to get to be one, Balticon is the place to be it. These folks have been incredibly gracious and accommodating.

My handler, Glen (I won't embarrass him by giving his full name), has been superb. I tell him he doesn't need to show up for this or that, and he smiles, allows as how he'll probably show up anyway or maybe even doesn't respond to me, and then shows up, just in case. My panel today ran an hour late due to an issue with the room, and I had voicemail waiting from Glen well before the original time. Always pleasant and on top of his game, he's been a joy to work with. As I understand things, I get to be a guest of honor here again next year (as the outgoing Compton Crook Award winner); if Glen wants to work with me again, I'm all for it.

My books sold out in the dealers' room, and plenty of folks asked me to sign them.

All the fans with whom I've spoken have been readers--something I quite value--and very nice to me. Every writer loves that, or, at least, every writer should.

While I was eating my pre-panel, high-nutrition lunch (two hot dogs from the hotel stand, their colors so far apart I wondered how two members of the same food pan could be so different), a con official whizzed by. "We sent someone to your hotel," he said, "and put your room bill on the Balticon tab so you wouldn't have to mess with reimbursement." Wow.

So, Balticon folks in general and Glen in particular, thank you, thank you, thank you. I will do all you ask next year, and I'll hope one day to earn the headliner guest of honor spot just so I can enjoy this treatment a third time.

In other news, I've done a boatload of company work today, enjoyed an excellent dinner at Cindy Wolf's Pazo, and worked a bit on Overthrowing Heaven, with more on that front still to come.

I constantly remind myself that the key is the work, that in the end it's all that matters, and I genuinely believe that to be true. I have to admit, however, that the award and the accompanying perks have been sweet. It is, therefore, good for me that those things vanish quickly, while the book in development is always, always calling for me.