On the road again: World Fantasy Con, Saratoga Springs, day 1

I expected to dislike Saratoga Springs, but so far I've quite enjoyed my time here.  It's a nifty little town, with a fun main street and plenty of good restaurants.  I'm very happy to have been wrong about it.

My day went primarily to work, lunch, and more work until my 3:00 panel rolled around.  Lunch took a small group of us to Compton's, a little diner that appears to have no Web site.  The food was exactly what one would expect walking up to the place, so I had a completely reasonable breakfast for lunch.

On the way to my panel, I browsed the dealers' room for a bit.  It was, like most such rooms at World Fantasy Cons, full of books, which made it very entertaining and very tempting for me.

My panel today was titled, "Real World Nomenclature, Taboos, and Cultural Meaning."  We talked about the choices writers make when they create fantasy worlds and when they write historical fantasies.  The discussion stayed interesting and the fairly large audience remained engaged for the full hour, so I had a good time doing it.

I then took a spin through the art show, which proved to be very good.  I want many pieces in it; time will tell if I decide to spring for any of them.

I spent the next couple of hours working before heading to dinner with a different group of friends.  Our meal at 15 Church was tasty, and everyone left both full and satisfied.

My company is closing tomorrow at noon for a few hours to go to see Spectre, the new James Bond movie.  (We've done the same thing for each of the three previous Daniel Craig Bond films.)  Because I am here and could not go with everyone else, I instead went to see the film tonight.  I will talk more about it after the con, but I will say that I very much enjoyed it.

Work took me until late in the night, so now it's time to rest a bit before another day of work and con stuff.