On the road again: Balticon, day 3

I managed a decent night's sleep after a very late bedtime, so I awoke feeling less exhausted than usual.

First up for me today was the Baen News panel, in which we showed slides of upcoming and recent Baen books, often with the original painting first and then the final cover, and generally discussed things Baen-ish. I answered a lot of questions and the almost 90-minute panel seemed to go over well.

With less than thirty minutes before I had to set up for the next panel, lunch was necessarily rushed. We all opted for health food: tube steaks from the hotel concession downstairs. Fortunately for me, I love the noble tube steak in many varieties, so these were completely adequate.

I then moderated the Liars' Panel, where my fellow panelists, Jennie and Kyle, and I answered provocative questions and then gave the audience a chance to call us liars--for a buck apiece. If they caught one of us in a lie, he or she had to cough up ten bucks. If we were telling the truth, each challenger had to give over a buck. We raised well over two hundred bucks for Balticon's reading charity, which is a good thing to do, and we also kept the entire audience laughing for the full hour, another good thing.

After a bit of time wandering the dealer's room and the art show, I retreated to my room to fine-tune tomorrow's comedy show and do some work.

At 7:00, I gave a reading at which, to my surprise, almost ten people I didn't know showed up. I read part of "The Long Dark Night of Diego Chan," and it seemed to go over well.

We spent the evening at Kyle's place eating delicious Indian take-out, watching the UFC PPV fights, and finishing with yummy ice cream.

Back at the hotel, I worked some more on the show, and I will now do that again.

A full day, but not as full as tomorrow, in which I have my standup comedy show, a panel immediately after it, and then a one hour break before an hour of improv. I expect to be exhausted when it's over.