WorldCon, Day 2

Hey, I sat through an entire panel yesterday! It was a good one, too. Military SF & Bleeding Heart Liberals. Elizabeth Moon did an excellent job moderating John Scalzi, Joe Haldeman and John Hemry. I twittered about it, and don't have too much to add. I also attended Charles Brown's kaffeeklatch, which probably didn't address the questions of the folks who were there. One gentleman was an aspiring author, another an aspiring editor, but with folks like Charles, Gary Wolfe and Graham Sleight around, we always ended up tallking about books and reviewing. Unsurprisingly Charles has a *very* low opinion of those of us who review online, but that's to be expected.

Other than that I spent time wandering around the dealer's room and art show. The art show has some very good pieces, and more high-quality space-related art than I remember from previous shows. Of course, all the really good stuff is well out of our price range, but we can dream. I managed to stay fairly good on my book-buying: Illyria by Liz Hand, Survival by Julie Czerneda, and The Dragon's Nine Sons by Chris Roberson. By lucky happenstance, I then ran into Chris Roberson at the Locus table, and got him to sign his book for me.

Dinner was wonderful. The group: Curtis, Traci Castleberry, Oz Whiston, Amelia Beamer, Farah Mendlesohn and Gary Wolfe (if I got anyone's name wrong, please let me know!) We went to P. F. Changs and it was Delicious - I'm glad I took Gary & Amelia's suggestion on the Northern short ribs. They even had a gluten-free menu for Farah. The conversation was excellent, and some plots were hatched about possible program items at Anticipation next year in Montreal. It looks like writing workshops, for both fiction and non-fiction writers, will be a real possibility; also that Curtis might get involved with some of the science track programming. Walking back to the party hotel I had a lovely conversation with Farah about writing style, which gives me hope that I'm on the correct path to improve mine.

We headed up to the SFWA suite, which was full of authors. I talked with Stephen Barnes, who is hoping to start a sequeal to his Lion's Blood/Zulu Heart sequence this year. It would essentially cover the civil war, end slavery and bring Aidan and Ky's relationship to a resolution. I can't wait to read it.

As I twittered, David Marusek is investigating how to make his writing more commercial. One can't blame him: he's living purely off writing income now, and would like to move out of Fairbanks, Alaska. He's been reading some of the trashy best-sellers for tips on things like pacing. Well, whatever works. I wish him all success. I was embarrassed that I hadn't read Counting Heads yet, but at least I could tell him how much I admire his short fiction.

It was getting quite hot in the suite, and Curtis and I were beginning to flag, so once again we went to bed at a reasonable hour and woke up at a reasonable hour (midnight and 7 am). This is very un-WorldCon of us, but I think it's working well so far.

I'll be off soon to be on my first panel ever, "Book Reviewing: The Missing Link in the Publishing Industry." Graham Sleight and Jonathan Strahan will be there, so worst comes to worst I'll simply sit back and let them do the intelligent talking. "Better to keep silent and let others think you a fool, than open your mouth and remove all doubt." Wish me luck!