More quick hits from another DragonCon day

I awoke unreasonably early on a Sunday morning for a fun brunch at PittyPat's Porch, courtesy of Publisher Toni.  Quite a few Baen writers and staffers ate, talked, and generally had a good time.

After a second tour of the art show, I ultimately decided not to buy any art.  Half a dozen pieces nearly persuaded me to bring them home, but none of them succeeded.

I next toured two more floors of dealers' rooms.  One even contained an arcade area.

I enjoyed one quick game at a Ms. PacMan machine.

Next up was a signing at the booth of The Missing Volume, run by the redoubtable Glennis LeBlanc.  To my happy surprise I signed some books, sold a few, and had some pleasant conversations with fans of the Jon & Lobo series.

After work and rest, dinner took me to Kevin Gillespie's new, second restaurant, Revival, in Decatur.  Wow, is it good!  It and Gunshow are the best of all the Atlanta area restaurants I've tried.

We opted for the family-style dinner, in which each person selects an entree and everyone at the table shares an appetizer and sides.  If you want to know how good Gillespie's chefs are, consider that the salad course was kale, which I despise.

Here's that plate after we finished.

Yes, I had seconds of kale salad!  They used grape seed oil as a dressing, put bits of asiago cheese on top, and included four small peach slices.  Wow, was it good!

The crowds in the Hyatt lobby were smaller than last night's, but the people watching there was still decent.

Over at the Marriott, the crowds were more intense, as usual, but not as huge as last night's.

Tomorrow, I head home.

On the road again: World Fantasy Con, Saratoga Springs, day 4

The first non-work, non-sleep part of today involved paying for and packing up my art purchases.  I'm quite fortunate that friend and bookseller, Glennis, offered to drive art home for me, thus saving me a lot of packing and shipping hassles.  Thanks, Glennis; I owe you for this.

The annual World Fantasy Awards banquet filled much of the afternoon.  The food might well have been the worst banquet fare in memory, but it was still nice to chat with others in the community, commiserate over said food, and applaud the award winners.

After transferring the art to Glennis, I and a few others headed down the street to Saratoga Gelato, to get the bad banquet taste out of our mouths.  The gelato was indeed delicious and did the trick.

Later, we walked to Chianti for a dinner of Italian food.  The salad, a warm blend of lettuce and anchovies with a piece of cheese on it, was one of the weirder dishes I've tasted recently, but the pasta was quite good.  Compared to the banquet, all of it was heavenly.

Tomorrow, I journey home.

Last night's signing

at McIntyre's Fine Books, a truly lovely bookstore, went pretty well. Though more people in the audience were friends or acquaintances than not, we still had a decent crowd, and there were multiple people I did not know. A couple of them brought copies of One Jump Ahead, which was nice to see.

I read the start of Slanted Jack, then went crazy and for the first (and probably only) time read the completely raw first page and a quarter of Fatal Circle. I think folks liked the new bit, but I won't have more to show for a few years. I then read a couple more selections from Slanted Jack, answered questions, and signed books.

One of the nice surprises of the evening was that Glennis (of The Missing Volume) and Thomas showed up. They had recently moved to the area, heard about the signing, and decided to join us. It was great to see them.

A group of ten of us, including Glennis and Thomas, headed out to a nearby (as much as things out that way can be near one another) Toreros Mexican restaurant for dinner. These folks have some of the best queso I've ever tasted, and their fajitas quesadillas with steak are wonderful and richly flavorful. The food and the conversation were great fun.

I'm now done signing for a while, and I have to say that though I enjoy the performing, I'm glad I'm done. The signings take a lot of time, they force you to confront the small size of your audience, and they encourage the sort of writerly neuroses for which I am justifiably well known. I'm glad I'm now just writing.