Okay, I tried to do this a few days ago, and then pushed the wrong button and deleted the entire con summary. This made me pissy, and I haven't been able to make myself do it again until now.
I do this sort of thing about once per book, and go through the exact same process, except there are generally tears and swearing involved.
And yes, before you say it I DO BACK UP. Sometimes it doesn't help.
Anyway.
Friday was a weather nightmare. Snow and ice. It took us 4 hours, counting the dinner break to make a 40 minute drive, and included several of what felt to me like serious skids. With Alexander in the back. NOT FUN.
But we did get to the hotel in one piece and checked in just fine. Alexander was not, however, willing to go to sleep. I left him with his father (bless his heart), and went to my 10 pm panel, "Where did the future go?" which was supposed to be a discussion about whether SF was using more contemporary settings than it used to.
It was not a great panel. Our answer was "no," and we were all tired and frazzeled, so it was pretty laborious to keep the conversation going. I slumped back up to the room and fell into bed.
Alexander woke up at six the next morning. This was expected. Fortunately, the hotel had the HBO family channel and this kept him entertained while the parents also managed to wake up, shower, etc. We had breakfast in the hotel restauraunt, which was a bit expensive but excellent quality. We met up with our friends Robin and Sylvia there and had a nice conversation in between feeding Alexander and ourselves.
After that, Tim took charge of The Toddler (who was on his safety harness for the first time and loving it. Freedom! Hallways! Stairs! High Speed! Let's go!) and I got to see the dealer's room and art show, and then go to lunch with Ye Editore.
Lunch with Ye Editore went well. He likes my concept for the 4th Isavalta book, which is now an official go. Whew. The SF was turning into a nightmare. Now that the pressure's off, maybe I can revisit and rework and discover what the block is.
I had 2 panels after that. The first was Style vs. Storytelling, and went very well. Everybody had recovered from the weather and there was just enough disagreement to keep the discussion lively. Then came Writing the Non-Human, which also went well, although it pretty much wandered off into a discussion of current genetic engineering and biotech developments and their Implications.
After that, I snuck in an hour of Adult Conversation with fellow UWG members Steven and Lisa, which was refreshing and enjoyable.
Then I relieved Tim on FBD (Fussy Boy Duty) until six when we met up with various friends to do the Dinner Thing. Fortunately, everybody was willing to go along with the plan of ordering in, because it was FRIGGING COLD! outside, and the idea of bundling up an overtired Alexander to go to a restauraunt filled me with fear. So, we ordered in pizza, and by the time it came, Alexander was ready for bed, so the group trekked over to the adjoinging room, and I put the little boy to bed and then joined all for sociability and food.
Then I went to bed, but alas not for long. Alexander woke up at 11 pm. And stayed awake. And stayed awake. And stayed awake. I had to call Tim back from his evening perambulations early because I was losing my mind. The Little Guy did not fall asleep until 2 in the morning. And he woke up at 7 am. Ah, the joys of parenting.
Breakfast again at the hotel restauraunt, where we learned Alexander likes pancakes fine, but has no use for this maple syrup stuff. Then it was wander about a bit and see who was where, and then off to the noon panel on building a writing career in SF. The Law of Money Flow was imparted along with a lot of other good advice.
After that, it was pack up and head home. A good, basic con.
Oh, and let me say this, in case any con committee folks are checking in here. I speak in great praise of the new hotel. Okay, the elevators were a little slow, but it was clean, it was comfortable, there was good food easily available from a variety of sources. There was a friendly, helpful staff. It was a _good_ switch.
The above praises will give those of you not familiar with this con an idea of what the previous hotel was like.
Hey Sarah:
Alex was indeed happy being an almost-free-ranging toddler. I'll take any maple syrup he leaves unused, provided he hasn't used it to explore "the magic of viscosity" with his fingers.
Ditto on the new hotel being good. The pool/spa setup was very good also. Could've used enough facilities so that the dancing "panel" sessions and the gaming could have been in completely separate rooms.
On the accidentally deleting thing. . .
Ouch. I have done that with short docs, due to lack of a backup. But you shouldn't be losing whole chapters or anything. Perhaps I'm misunderstanding what you're saying.
At the risk of being flamed (please don't flame the anal-retentive physicist :-) I'll continue.
Do you save your docs every half hour or so with a new version number? FE: "Edible Yak Parts Ch2 v13". If you bump up the version number every time you save you're guaranteed to lose at most a half hour of work. (Unless of course the hard drive crashes.)
Cya,
Mark
Posted by: Mark Everson | January 31, 2004 at 03:57 PM