On the road again: Balticon, day 5

The alarm rang far earlier than I wanted today (when does it not?), but that proved to be a very good thing, because the drive out of Baltimore was the easiest in years.  A few hours later, I was at one of the places I find most relaxing, The Inn at Little Washington.  The small town is delightful, the Inn itself wonderful, and the food of Chef and Owner Patrick O'Connell absolutely scrumptious.  Sitting in the kitchen table, watching the chefs work and enjoying the results of their labors, is a treat every year. 

Each Memorial Day, I think about the people I know and have known who serve or served in the military, giving their precious time and work to that service, sometimes giving their lives.  I have never been in the military, so I have no firsthand knowledge of what they've experienced, but from talking with them, I know the costs have been high.  Very high.

So on this day, I want to thank them, and the many more people I have never met, for all that they have given for the rest of us.  We will never understand all that it has cost them.

On the road again: Balticon, day 4

Once again, sleep did not come until very late, so I was happy that my first panel didn't start until noon.  At that time, I joined fellow participants Gay Haldeman, Mur Lafferty, and T.C. McCarthy on the Liars' Panel.

This event, as I've written before, is particularly notable because we do it for charity, in this case BSFS Books for Kids, a program in which the Baltimore Science Fiction Society buys books for kids who might not otherwise be able to afford them.  As moderator, I prepare a set of questions ahead of time and share them with the other panelists.  Each of us prepares our answers, some true and some lies.  We take turns answering each question.  After each response, the audience has the option of challenging the responder--at the cost of a buck if the responder is telling the truth.  If the responder is lying, he or she must pay ten bucks.  I choose questions that will encourage interesting responses.  All the money goes to the charity.

The result is usually an hour or an hour and a half (today's length) of great stories, laughter, and a few hundred bucks for charity.  Today's panel proved to be especially funny, with stories that frequently made the crowd roar.  We answered such questions as

• What is the most unusual childhood possession you deeply loved?
• What is the oddest prank you've pulled or had someone pull on you?
• What's the most unusual thing to happen to you during sex?

Lunch and some work followed, until it was time for the Xenoarchaeology Road Show.  In this panel, Guest of Honor Joe Haldeman, Mur Lafferty, T.C. McCarthy, and I played the role of scientists who, 500 years from now, must guess the uses of objects discovered in an expedition to the ancient and now abandoned Earth.

None of the other panelists had seen any of the objects before, and I had done my best to ignore them, so we had to participate in an odd sort of improv comedy involving, one at a time, the objects in this picture:

Click on the image to see a larger version.

The fifty minutes passed quickly as the stories grew odder, each of us created worlds in which some of these objects were linked, and the audience laughed.

Dinner was with Kyle at the always reliable Pazo in downtown Baltimore.  We enjoyed many small plates of delicious treats ranging from Jamon Iberico to broccoli with cheese and peppers.  A visual oddity was the tres leches cake dessert, which was entirely more twee than any I had ever seen before.  Kyle may post a picture of me with it, though from the little I saw of the photo, I'm hoping he does not. 

On the road again: Balticon, day 3

Work kept me up late enough that I didn't get to sleep until the wee hours, so I was happy to be able to sleep late today.  After a quick shower, I headed off to lead the Baen Traveling Roadshow, an event I encourage you to attend whenever it appears at a con near you.  In this 80-minute panel, we gave away free books, talked about how Baen works, looked at slides of nifty pieces of original art and the covers built around them, and heard from Baen author Chuck Gannon and cover designer Jennie Faries, who made the presentation happen. 

I had a bit of a break next, so I grabbed a nutritious (not) hot dog lunch, walked the art show, toured the dealers' room, and generally checked out the con.

As it turned out, the con had scheduled me to be part of a group reading with two other authors, neither of whom write anything like what I do.  We decided to take turns reading and to listen to each other, so I enjoyed a bit of a novelette the author intended to go to Analog, where her first two stories and appeared, and then a chapter of a YA quest novel, which the author said was the fourth (I think) in her series.  I read a romantic chapter of No Going Back.  The combination of our pieces worked surprisingly well, and no one in the audience seemed bored at any time.

After a couple of hours of work, I headed over to Kyle's to eat some delicious Indian food and watch the UFC PPV.  The card proved to be way better than either of us had expected, the food was also better than usual (and usual is pretty darn good), and the evening was low-key fun.

Now, I'm going to crash.

On the road again: Balticon, day 2

Most of today went to working in my hotel room, which is sadly the norm for me at conventions.  I did manage to register, help a friend set up in the art show, and grab a late lunch. 

I spent the early evening helping debug the opening ceremonies, and then at 8:00 I was the Master of Ceremonies for them.  I got to spend a little time talking with a lot of fun folks, including Joe and Gay Haldeman, T.C. McCarthy, and Myke Cole. 

When I agree to MC an event, I focus most on what the event's organizers want.  Here, it is for the event to go smoothly and on time.  Entertaining the audience is also part of the job, of course, but the focus is on how the event goes.  So, I try to adopt that focus, make the event be the center of the audience's attention, keep it rolling along, and try to hit our time marks.  I don't try to make it be "The Mark Van Name Show."  This approach tends to mean that I maintain a smooth, calm affect, never take too long in my jokes or monologue bits, and keep the show moving briskly.  I think that's what the audience wants--it's what I have wanted when I attended the opening ceremonies of various cons--but the cost is that I'm not as entertaining as I could be.  I always wonder if I've chosen the right balance. 

After we finished the opening ceremonies, a small group of us headed to Woodberry Kitchen for a late dinner.  The meal was tasty, though not quite as good as in past years.  Still, the setting was lovely, the service good, and the food well above average.  If you live in this area and haven't yet eaten at this restaurant, you should head on over.

On the road again: Balticon, day 1

Each year, we leave earlier for the drive to Balticon, and each year, we arrive later.  The traffic on I-95 and the D.C. and Baltimore beltways is insane.  Time in the car on those stretches alternates between periods of no-motion and times of fighting with life-threatening traffic.  The drive is never fun.  When I wasn't driving, I worked.  When I was driving, I focused utterly on the traffic. 

The evening contained a fair amount of work but also two fun events. 

The first was dinner at The Food Market in Hampden, a part of this area that I quite enjoy.  I'd never been to this restaurant before, but every dish we sampled was tasty, so I'll definitely go back.

Over the meal, we discussed, among other things, upcoming action flicks we wanted to see.  Fast and  Furious 6 was high on the list because it's due to open this weekend.  As it turned out, the film actually opened tonight here with a single, 10:00 show, so off we went to the theater.  I may write a review later, but for now let me say simply that, as with so many summer action movies, you already know if you want to see this one, and if you do, odds are good that you'll enjoy it. 

Bandwidth here at the hotel is worse than that of any hotel in Europe, so miserable that SpeedTest couldn't even complete--and most fans aren't here yet.  Ah, well; email is already slow and will be getting slower.

Tomorrow, the con begins, and as Master of Ceremonies for the Opening Ceremonies, I get to kick it off.  Should be fun!