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.

On the road again: DragonCon, day 3

My day began rather earlier than I would have preferred, because a mixture of shouts and amplified speech carried all the way from the ground to my room on the eleventh floor of the hotel.  The shouts came from excited fans getting ready for the annual DragonCon parade.  The speech was courtesy of a man who was letting the entire convention-going crowd know that they were going to hell because they were worshiping false idols.

I am all for free speech, so I respect the man's right to buy a mic and an amp and try to save the crowd.  I am also fine with his wanting to save us all.  What I find annoying is the assumption that any of the people here were actually worshiping false gods.  Though I believe con-goers are passionate in their interests, I've never met one who had a lick of trouble understanding the difference between God with a capital G and any of the actors, performers, writers, shows, games, or whatever else they enjoyed.  I further believe that the vast majority of the con-goers self-identify as having some serious religious conviction.  So, to that one loud man:  Dude, know your audience.

Anyway, I watched the parade from my balcony, where the view was excellent and I didn't have to fight a crowd.  I couldn't see any details, obviously, but I had no trouble recognizing all the groups--including this one, from Baen Books.

Click an image to see a larger version.

The parade lasted about an hour and a half and featured many types of groups, from the Battlestar Galactica crowd to the Star Wars storm troopers, and from the comic-book superheroes to the Doctor Who characters.  I was happy to see a small set of Monty Python gumbys.

After some work and a shower, I grabbed a quick lunch and joined the Baen Books Traveling Roadshow panel.  Because I haven't yet finished the next Jon & Lobo book, I had nothing to contribute to the panel, but it was still a fun time.

Work was light, so I devoted the next couple of hours to wandering through all of the many vendors in the two floors full of dealers.  Though most of the stuff on offer here does not appeal to me, I still enjoyed looking around.

Dinner tonight was an amazingly good meal at Gunshow, a relatively new Atlanta restaurant.  The food was so good, and the experience sufficiently interesting, that I'm going to write a separate entry on it later.  (I now owe you three restaurant reviews; I am keeping track.)

Around eleven, I went strolling for about an hour, checking out the usual spaces and also going to another hotel, the Westin, that I rarely visit.  The people-watching at the Marriott was as good as always--and the crowd was the biggest yet.

With all of the thousands of people here, and with all of the folks in the SF/F community whom I know, I did not encounter a single person I know.  Not a surprise, but a testimony to the sheer size of this beast of a con.

Another day at DragonCon.

On the road again: Chicon, day 5

For lots of different reasons, none of them fun, I ended up getting very, very little sleep last night and awoke exhausted and grumpy.  After work and a shower, I headed off the Baen traveling slideshow. 

I've led and participated in many of these events before, but this one was a first, because via Webcams we were linked live with the same event in Atlanta at DragonCon.  All things considered, it went quite well.  Toni Weisskopf led the proceedings in Atlanta, Jim Minz ran the show here in Chicago, and all the authors present in either venue spoke briefly about their latest works. 

After a work break, I toured the dealers' room and the art show.  The con has placed in the fan lounge a bunch of old video-game machines, so I indulged an old vice and left the top three scores on the Robotron machine.  (The only reason I did that well is that no one else playing was any good, either.) 

Dinner was a fun meal with friends at Gene & Georgetti, a Chicago steakhouse institution that does it old school.  We all left happy and full...and having sent back food we could not finish. 

For most of the Worldcons I've attended, I've attended the masquerade.  I did so again tonight.  I don't like to bash the work of volunteers, so I'll restrict my comments to this:  It needed a lot of work.  Even so, some of the contestants brought admirable work.  For my taste, the best in the show was a comic piece on the 1962 Seattle Century 21 Exposition (aka the Seattle World's Fair).  As of this writing, I don't know if won the Best in Show award, but it should have. 

As soon as the masquerade ended, we rushed to the elevators and headed to the top floor for the Baen party.  I helped out around the party and talked with a lot of good folks.  After a while, though, my social reserves gave out, and I headed back to the room to decompress, work, read, and crash. 

A day that ended far better than it began, for which I am grateful. 

Party night

Here in Raleigh, I don't attend a lot of parties other than the small extended-family gatherings I usually host, but tonight marked the kick-off of the NASFiC with two SF parties.

The first was an open house at Baen's offices in Wake Forest. The food and conversation were both excellent, and I got to catch up for a few minutes with Eric Flint (the con's Guest of Honor), John Kessel, and my publisher/editor, the redoubtable Toni Weisskopf (the con's Toastmaster). I also had the chance to meet and chat briefly with Mary Robinette Kowal, whose first novel, Shades of Milk and Honey, also came out yesterday.

From there, we drove to Quail Ridge Books for the launch party of the second issue of Sam Montgomery-Blinn's SF magazine, Bull Spec. The short readings were generally interesting, and I had a chance to at least briefly meet so many local SF/fantasy writers that I couldn't catch all their names (sorry, folks; I was already tired). Sam even made a point of mentioning the Children No More charity program, for which I was grateful.

All in all, a fun evening.