On the road again: Dragon*Con, Atlanta, day 4

Went to bed late and slept reasonably late, though nowhere near as late as I'd hoped.

Woke up, worked, showered, and headed off to be a guest auctioneer at the charity auction.

That, sadly, proved to be a bust. I thought I was going to work for an hour as an auctioneer, which can be fun and is a kind of performing. Instead, what the two current auctioneers wanted was for me to hold up the books I had donated, say a few words, and then get the hell out of the way so they could work. Which I did. Regardless, between my books and the ARC of The Wild Side, we raised about $150 for Dragon*Con's charity, which is a good thing.

Next up was the Baen brunch, which was a nice time in a revolving restaurant with a great view of the city. The conversation was generally good, as was the food.

The rest of the afternoon went to work, after which I listened to a panel in which Michael Whelan talked and answered questions about his horror paintings and his art in general. I don't know him personally, but I love his work, and he comes across as a very level-headed, creative, great guy.

I opted to watch the masquerade from the room, rather than sit on line for hours, but ultimately had to stop because the announcers were so mean to the contestants that I couldn't stand to listen to them any longer. While I certainly agree that some of the contestants needed to brush up on their presentation skills, there's simply no excuse for guys with microphones who are supposed to be helping with the event instead being jerks to contestant after contestant.

After some work and when the masquerade was over, I wandered a bit, perched, and people-watched at the Marriott. Amazing, simply amazing. I've never seen another con on this scale, nor one with so much happy energy. Very cool.