On Friday the 17th I dressed in my frankly magnificent Professional Author costume and plunged into the convention. All the really interesting panels seem to be first thing in the morning, so I went to one on constructing alternate histories, called "If This, Then What?" After that I took a pass through the dealer room and came across Colonel Professor Doctor Brett Cox showing off his new book, which I immediately purchased and got him to sign.
At noon I did my own panel for this convention, "The Culinary Speculative: Food in Fiction." We talked about how food can be an important symbol in stories — though sadly nobody shared any recipes.
After that I met a friend for lunch and then spent the afternoon wandering about the convention. Because most of the panels are very well-attended, it's difficult to just drop into one after it starts, as there's no place to sit.
At the end of the day I watched the panel on "Not Hugo-Nominated Novels You Should Read," and then joined some fellow writers and scientists for dinner at a Chinese place nearby. After that we attended a party hosted by Tor Books at the Hilton hotel, and finished the evening by cruising the room parties in the Fairmont Hotel.
Thoroughly tired and a little unsteady, we retired to the room and told the rest of the Crack Team to quit playing computer games and go to bed.
Comments