Raising money to buy books

Balticon's main charity is BSFS Books for Kids, a longstanding focus of the Baltimore Science Fiction Society (BSFS) on buying books for area kids who could not otherwise afford them.  The Liars' Panel, an event I've run many times, raises money for this charity by making people pay a buck each to challenge a panelist when they think that person is lying.  If the panelist is telling the truth, all those dollar bills go into bowls that runners use to collect the cash.  If the panelist is lying, the panelist pays ten dollars into a bucket.

Today, I had the privilege of participating in and moderating a Liars' Panel with Joe Haldeman, Mur Lafferty, George R.R. Martin, and Jody Lynn Nye.  Over the course of 85 minutes we answered questions I had previously distributed to the panelists and told both lies and outrageous truths.

I'm happy to report that this panel set a Balticon record by raising $850 for the charity.

In this photo, four of the people who took care of the money--Boots, Rebecca, Eric, and Christine--join me with the baggie of cash I then delivered to the con.  (Jennie, who ran the money-collecting effort, took the photo, and a few other folks, whose names I unfortunately don't have, helped collect bills from the audience.)

Everyone laughed a lot, we all had a good time, and we did a little good.  Not a bad outcome for a con panel.

Later, I introduced George R.R. Martin's reading, at which he entertained a very large audience full of fans of his series.  The reading was quite entertaining, if dark, and the audience loved both it and the brief Q&A session afterward.

My last con activity of the day was a large group dinner with the returning and current guests of honor and many con staffers.

Everyone at Balticon treated me very well, and it was a great pleasure and honor to act as the Toastmaster for the con.

A radio show about Onward, Drake!

Monday morning, Dave Drake and I joined hosts Sam Montgomery-Blinn and Mur Lafferty on the Carolina Book Beat show on a local radio station, WCOM LPFM, to talk about this tribute anthology, which I edited.  The discussion ran an hour and thirty-eight minutes, and now you can listen to it right here.

We covered a lot of interesting topics, both some directly about the book and some only related to it, the latter group including the first time Dave and I went out to dinner together.  We also messed up and let out a few bad words--and, to my embarrassment, I was responsible for the worst of them.  (Sorry, Sam and Mur.)

If you'd like to learn more about this book, about Dave, or about me, or if you'd like to hear Mur, Dave, or me read from our stories in the collection, or if you just have a little free time, check out the show.  I'm pretty sure you'll enjoy it.

And, of course, once you've listened to the broadcast, be sure to pick up your own copy of the anthology.  I'm completely confident that you'll enjoy at least some of the stories, and quite possibly all of the contributions, in the book.

Library happy snaps

Gina was kind enough to take some photos of Tuesday night's library event, so I thought you might like to see a few of them.

First up is our host librarian, Carla Payne, setting the stage for the evening.

Click on an image to see a larger version.

She did a fine job of running the event.

The four of us, all hesitating to answer a question.

I find it difficult to express how much I dislike photos of myself.

It wasn't all hesitation, though.  We certainly did laugh, as Mur and Dave are doing here.

For those who tell me to post smiling photos, here's as close as I can manage right now.

Did I mention how awful I look?

John hasn't suffered a close-up yet, and Gina went to the trouble of creating some black-and-white shots, so we'll close with John in mid-answer.

Thanks to my fellow panelists, Ms. Payne, and our swell audience, the event was a good time.

Spec-Fic Writers Throw Down In Library War!

Well, not exactly.  We sat for an hour and fifteen minutes, answered questions, and left as quietly as we entered.  Still, I'm working on my New York Post headline writing skills, in case they need to call me up to the show, so I need to practice whenever I can.

As I mentioned in Sunday night's post, this second (for Dave and me) library event of the month featured David Drake, John Kessel, Mur Lafferty, and me.  Our gracious host librarian, whose name I'm embarrassed to admit I did not write down, asked us a bunch of questions, and then the audience--which again outnumbered us, for which I'm grateful--hit us with a few.  We talked a lot about writing, with all of us generally agreeing that the most important thing was, surprise, to actually write.  As Mur noted, everyone who wants to be a writer knows this secret, but few actually take advantage of the knowledge. 

After the panel, a small group of us headed over to Gonza Tacos Y Tequila for a tasty dinner.  I'd not been there before, but I'll definitely go back if I'm in the area and craving Mexican food.

Now, to write.

Come see me Tuesday night (October 8) at the Wake County North Regional Library

Last week's gathering of SF authors nearly destroyed a library (okay, that's a lie), so there's no telling what might happen Tuesday night (that's kinda-sorta true, in that no one can know the future).  We might sit around and talk writing and genre fiction, but we might also pull out our light sabers and duel, throw down with the audience, or even share milk and cookies (I wish). 

The "we" in this gathering, by the way, includes John Kessel, Mur Lafferty, David Drake, and me.  That's a group of four writers with strong opinions on pretty much every topic, so the discussion should not lack for enthusiasm.  All we need is an audience, which is where you come in.  Bring questions, bring friends, bring milk and cookies (would the library even allow that? why am I on a cookie binge?). 

Let's pack this room and show those rowdy librarians how SF fans rock! 

Art electronic and tangible

I know that being somewhere by 11:30 on a Saturday morning is not any sort of hardship for most people, but given my fatigue and my late bedtime last night, it felt rough to make this morning.  Still, I succeeded and was in Durham way before the start of my panel at the Escapist Expo. 

At noon, in a small room packed to its capacity, Richard Dansky, David Drake, Mur Lafferty, and I began the panel.  On short notice and with no desire on her part to do it, Mur graciously agreed to moderate the discussion.  Here's how the con's program book described the panel:

Being able to communicate with your fans in near real-time over the internet is a new challenge for authors, even those who write about speculative worlds. Prominent science-fiction authors discuss what the internet has brought to publishing, if they’re embracing it or fearing it, and how the net has changed their relationship with their fans.

What we actually discussed was a little bit of that, a little bit of the economics of ebook publishing, a little bit of self-publishing, a little bit about publishing in general, and so on. Mur steered the conversation well; I'd be happy with her moderating all my panels.  She, Dave, and Richard had plenty of intelligent things to say, and I tried not to embarrass myself too much.

I wore my EFF anniversary shirt in recognition of the geek nature of the con, but if anyone noticed, no one said anything.

After the panel ended, a group of us strolled into Durham's lovely CenterFest in search of lunch.  The show proved to be quite cool, and I hope to spend more time wandering it after tomorrow's panel. 

While looking for lunch, we stumbled across the booth of Mikel Robinson, an artist whose work I think is wonderful.  Sure enough, a piece spoke so loudly to me that I had to buy it and take it home.  If you don't know his art and you're in the Triangle area, the trip to Durham is worth it just to see everything he has on display--and from what I saw, CenterFest features many, many more artists worthy of your attention as well.

So we talked about art, and I took some home with me.  That's a pretty good day.

Catching up with me over the next eight days

Starting tomorrow morning, I hit the road again.  If you'd like to catch up with me while I'm out and about, here's where I'll be.

From Monday through Friday (with Friday an all-day-on-planes travel day), I'll be in San Francisco for IDF, the Intel Developer Forum.  I'll be attending this tech conference during the day, so if you're not doing the same, it might be hard for us to meet then.  I'm thinking, though, about calling an open dinner of some type on one of the nights, so if you're interested in that, please email me. 

Next weekend, I'm one of a small number of writer guests at a new local conference, the Escapist Expo.  This gaming-oriented affair is a bit of a departure for me, but when they asked, I figured I might as well give it a try.  I'll be on three panels with three other fiction writers (and friends):  Richard Dansky, David Drake, and Mur Lafferty.  Drop by, and you can catch us talking about

Adaptations and the IP (Saturday, 10:30 a.m.)

Publishing science fiction and the Internet (Saturday, noon)

Dystopian futures (Sunday, 10:30 a.m.)

If you're at any of these events, feel free to come by and chat--though not while a panel is going on.  That would be rude, of course--though more common than you might imagine.