Busy day

I worked until the wee hours and so awoke at 9:30 after not much slumber, but today was not the day for sleeping late.

First on my agenda as Balticon 50's Toastmaster was introducing artist and friend John Picacio, who then did an hour-long presentation on his art.  I generally try to keep introductions short, because the real starts are the people doing the presentations, and I kept to that practice here.  John showed a lot of very cool art and offered some insights into his creative process.

After a half-hour break, I debuted a new spoken-word/comedy show:  Mr. Poor Choices III:  That Moment When.  A blend of old and new material, the show seemed to come off well, and everyone in the audience laughed every time they should.  I would have preferred a bigger crowd--under a hundred folks showed up--but I had a good time entertaining those in the house.  The two women who were signing the show deserve special mention, because I gave them a lot of challenging work, and I even dragged them into the act at times, yet they stayed cool.

After an interval of only twenty minutes, I conducted an interview with Guest of Honor George R.R. Martin.  (You can read about it and see a few clips from it in this Baltimore Sun online story.  Having to watch these clips over my fat gut is a sobering experience.)

I dashed straight from that event into the Baen Traveling Road Show, where editor Jim Minz gave me a chance to discuss my most recent works.

I grabbed a snack--a hot dog--and then it was time to introduce George R.R. Martin and John Picacio for their writer/artist chat.  We ultimately agreed the flow would work better if they just jumped into it, so I enjoyed this conversation from the audience.

My final event of the day was a publisher dinner with Jim Minz and many Baen writers.

Tomorrow looks positively slack by comparison, with only three more events.