After only two hours of sleep...
Day 1: Betrayed by my eleven-minutes-slow watch, I made a late entrance to the first panel I was sitting on. I made the best of the History vs. Historical fiction panel, in spite of the fact that my histories are made up, being...well...of future humans or aliens. Walter Hunt and I exchanged cards. After discovering that Walter is a Douglas Adams fan, I gave him a copy of Awesome Lavratt.
Before heading back down stairs for a panel on “Is the Short Story Dead?”, I received an email that my story “The Heist” will be published in Every Day Fiction! ☺ I guess it’s not.
We hung out on the party floor for a while and I spoke with the BASFA (Bay Area Science Fiction Association) folks.
After six hours of sleep...
Day 2: I mentioned California Writers Club at the Sex, Lies and Publishing panel, which Tony Todaro (aka TN Todaro) was sitting on. He approached me afterward to talk about the CWC briefly and we exchanged cards. We spoke again at length the following morning in the dealer's room where I met his wife Lilly, an artist with a table and art in the gallery. I was also able to plug my SF Reviews List at that panel.
Tony introduced me to Tim Powers, who accepted a copy of my book, Awesome Lavratt, and handed it back to me with a pen for a signature! "This is so backward," I said to him. I spoke to Tim about The Anubis Gates (great book, btw!) and being on panels. I bought a copy of his book, Declare, before leaving the dealer's room. WWII espionage meets fantasy. It doesn’t get any better than that. I made sure to have him sign it on Monday.
I moderated the silly panel, My Dream Geek, and sat silently on the Evolution of Dr. Who panel. The latter ended up being the history of Dr. Who instead, and didn't get to the ones I've seen until it was time to vacate the room. The former was surprisingly well attended and very lively. See picture below.
The Broad Universe Rapid Fire Reading I led that evening was, eventually, well attended. Valerie Frankel, author of Henry Potty and the Pet Rock: An Unauthorized Harry Potter Parody, and I were both reading funny spec fic. I signed books after.
Back to the party floor.
After four hours of sleep...
Day 3:
I shared a panel with Deborah J. Ross, Tony Todaro, Maya Bohnhoff, ElizaBeth Gilligan, and Juliette Wade. (see picture below) Julia sold her first story recently. To Analog! It can be done. Find it in the July/August 2008 issue.
L to R= Tony Todaro, me, Deborah J. Ross (flash didn't cooperate)Everyone is excited about "firsts". I'm introducing them to my "first".
Did I mention how much I like to sign my book?
L to R= Tony Todaro, me, Deborah J. Ross, Juliette Wade, Maya Bohnhoff, ElizaBeth Gilligan. Notice the "firsts" smile on Juliette's face. :)
After a leisurely lunch on the terrace (the law of inertia, aided by the lack of sleep, prevented further activity for some time), we watched JPL watch the progress of the Phoenix landing in the ballroom on a big screen.
We went off campus for a nice dinner and then hung out in the room with my friend Cindy Pavlinac, who rode down with us to the convention. Then we danced every which way (the swim, even) to modern Trance? Techno? music in the ballroom. Next, we explored the warrens on the party floor where we found better music.
After two hours of sleep....
Day 4 (AKA Day of the Dead):
Everyone moved in slow-mo. We didn’t attend any panels. Hung out in the dealers room mostly and lunched on the terrace again. A fan from AZ found me at the closing ceremonies for an autograph. Will I ever get tired of that? I doubt it! Bless Serena’s heart, she carried a sign around her neck with the authors she was looking for for signatures and I was at the top. I’m glad she waited till the closing ceremonies to find me. Free advertising! ☺
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