March 26
Here I am at Detroit Metro airport, waiting for my flight to New York. I'm on my way to ICON in Stony Brook, and thought I'd try to keep a travellog with my funky new PDA and little keyboard. It's actually pretty sweet, basically atrunkated laptop that fits in my purse and plays music to boot.
Anyway, the trip thus far, I did finally find a parking spot. I have trouble with airport parking. I always end up in the wrong lot, especially now that they've opened this huge new terminal. And I'd like to point out a problem with the Austin Mini. At least a half dozen times I thought I'd found an empty space only to see a mini in there. Those things should have a big red flag that pops out when you park them.
But, I parked and checked in, and proceeded to my gate which turned out to be at the tail end of the terminal. On the way, I stopped at the bookstore, just to ego surf. I wasn't there, but there was a nice selection of SF/F. The clerk was singing "Hello, Dolly," so I joined her in a chorus, and we had a brief discussion of movie musicals and the sublimity (is that a word?) of Gene Kelly.
More later.
March 26 3:50 pm
Arrived at the Holiday Inn Unpronounceable (okay, it's the Holiday Inn Ronkonkoma, but no matter how many times I hear it, I can't seem to say it). The flight was good, except for some nasty turbulence over Pennsylvania. The car was waiting for me just like the Nice Con Folks (TM) said it would be. I've got a basically good but unremarkable bar burger for lunch, and am now sort of hanging out and waiting for things to start happening, which they should in another hour or so.
And for reasons unknown, the palm has decided to stop being able to run the music program and the documents program at the same time. This is frustrating as I really like to listen to music while I write, and the radio in the room is abysmal.
Oh, poor me. Move over Jane Austen Doe.
March 27 9:50 am
Ooookayyy....this con is...different.
It's my first college con. I thought I was ready. I knew the hotel would be a ways from the con, but I wasn't expecting a full half-hour's drive. And, frankly, I was expecting something like the U of M campus, with the college and the town mingling together. Nu-huh. The campus is it's own pretty self-contained unit, and the town is...elsewhere. I haven't seen it yet.
However, last night, my ride showed up as promised and I got to the main con building and was dropped off. Then I found out they weren't letting you into the con without a badge. Well, my badge was waiting for me, inside. Fortunately, I had been pointed toward a minion (not my term, they're wearing bright yellow shirts that say minion on them), who was able to walk me in so I could get the badge so I could get in.
Wow. This con is huge, and it's crowded. I haven't seen crowds like this outside a worldcon.
The con provided a dinner buffet, which was...edible, and I was able to check in with various convivial folks, including Esther and WJ, Kieth and Laurence.
Now, that first night, I had a signing and a panel, and life was good. I found my signing site, which overlooked the mammoth dealers room and was able to contemplate all the trouble I was going to get into once I got to go shopping. They were, unfortunately, also playing loud and fairly uninteresting music on a bad sound system. The signing was lightly attended, but I've got another today, with Connie Willis, which will be a humbling experience, but will bring the folks up, so, I hope will the fact that Luna sent several cartons of freebie books. But I talke with several really nice folks, and the time passed pleasantly.
Then I had a chance to go down and sort of skim the dealer's room and the art show. There I finally got to meet Danato, the man who did the cover for Fool's War, and I finally got to shake his hand and tell him how much I loved my cover. I also finally got to ask him what he'd want for the original. I'm going to have to save up for it.
Then I hooked back up with Esther and Keith for the panel, which was "Con-Con, the Condensed Convention" The conceit was we'd do thirty panels in an hour. _Fortunately_ we had two great advantages here; Keith did advance prep coming up with 30 silly panel topics (including Is Harry Potter gay? and How Come Nobody Buys my Books? My contribution was 7th Season of Buffy -- Threat or Menace?) and we had Esther, who many of you know is one of the quickest wits in the west. And we had an egg timer in the shape of a ladybug. We discussed each topic for exactly one minute, and that timer did keep dinging at the most interesting and oportune moments. It was funny, it was lightly attended, but it went well. Afterwards, I hitched a ride back to the hotel with Esther and WJ and collapsed and didn't get up...
...until this morning when we all met for breakfast. The hotel had a buffet, which is bad news for WJ because of the severity of his egg allergy, so instead we went to this diner we'd passed the night before.
And it was good. I had scrambled eggs and a couple slices of really, really thick french toast and all was done to perfection. Not fancy but tastey. And we saw their pastry case. It was eye-popping. Esther has declared we are coming back for dinner and I am not protesting.
So, it's a busy day ahead. I've got another signing and a reading, and if she can navigate the hurdles to get here, I'm supposed to be having lunch with my editor.
So, more later.
March 27, 5:25 pm
Yeesh, am I tired. But it's been a good day. My signing was pretty well attended, and many people were most surprised and pleased by the free books. My Editor was indeed able to find the con, and me and we went out to a little deli called Strawberry Fields for lunch. I had a very pleasant Ruben and a good talk with said Editor. She is pleased with the way the book is going, she likes my ideas for the future books, and approves of the changes (some of them pretty radical) I made to the current Work in Progress. So, much happy talk all 'round.
We got back to the con, and I actually attended a panel. It was "Has Humor Been Neglected by the Genre?" and I went because it was going to have Esther, Keith and Connie Willis on it, an entertaining conversation if ever there was. Here we learned of Ms. Willis's undying hatred of puns. She in fact declared if there was any pun uttered, she would no longer moderate, as she refused to preside over puns. Esther put a stop to the punning for good by putting out a cup and declaring that for each pun uttered, the perpetrator would pay a fifty cent fine (proceeds to go to her charity). Connie wasn't so sure this would work, but Esther waved away her concerns. "I know these people," she said. "They're cheap." And we were off, as it were, to the races.
The convenient thing about the humor panel was that my reading was immediately afterward in the same room. I had maybe half-a-dozen people, including Ye Editore. I read for about a half hour and then there was a little bit of Q&A and then I dismissed the class so all would have time to hike to their next panel. Me, as the weather had turned nice, I sat outside watching the SCA tournament for awhile, and then went in to do my shopping.
Dang, I'm getting old. Friggin' huge dealer's room, and what do I buy? ONE book. It's on the folklore of Dartmoor and came from Andre Norton's research library. And now it is mine. Whee!
And now I am wiped out. I'm in the green room writing this. Soon, I shall be meeting friends for dinner.
The one real drawback to this con is there is no way to get back to your hotel room for a quick rest and refresh. Ah well.
More later.
March 28, 8:15 am
Well, here I am all packed. I'll be meeting Esther and WJ in the lobby so we can go to our diner for breakfast in a few minutes.
Dinner last night was...eh. Dee and Ed had planned on us going to an excellent steakhouse. Unfortunately, the rest of Stony Brook had also decided to go to this excellent steakhouse, and the wait was an hour long by the time we got there. So, instead, we wound up at one of these Chinese Buffet places that are so popular right now. It was...inedible. But, the company was good, and it was great to see Dee again. I met her my summer in London and we've stayed in touch ever since.
Dee and Ed took me back to the hotel and I dozed and watched figure skating (hey, look, I'm sure you have your private vices too) until 9:30 when I met up with Esther and WJ (sense a pattern here?) so we could go back to our diner and try some of those lovely pastries we'd seen before.
As I hadn't had much before, I got soup and a salad, which turned out to almost violate the rule of never eat anything bigger than your head. Good though.
Dessert for me was a lovely, flavorful piece of New York cheesecake with a spongecake crust rather than the usual graham crackers, with strawberries of course. Esther got a chocolate tart that was something like a six to eight inch mound of chocolate mousse covered in a shell of bittersweet chocolate on a bed of cherries. Lordy, lordy, lordy, was it good! Alas, they were out of the things I'd wanted to try, which were these chocolate covered cakes, each with an oreo standing proudly on top that our server told us were called "giant ring dings." Maybe for breakfast.
Nah. At least, not before I've had my good food.
Busy day today. Three panels and the trip home.
More later.
March 29, 10:02 am
Here I am home. Yesterday was indeed busy, but quite good. Hooked up with Esther and WJ for breakfast as arranged. Had a fine, basic breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, home fries and a bagel. Out to the con we went. At 11:00 I had an Analog Mafia panel. We were all Analog authors, with Stan Shmidt presiding. In short, it was me and 4 physicists. The topic was "Is Science too Complex for Many People to Write About?" My answer was no, and I offered myself up as an example, as I'm a communications major and an english minor. If I can do it, surely anybody can. Conversation was good and Stan did a fine job riding herd on us cats.
After that, I had a lunch break, and while the con com was in the process of setting out sandwhiches and stuff, I didn't feel like hanging around for it, so I took a walk, and found that yes, indeed, one could easily cross the railroad tracks and the semi-busy road behind the athletic field and get over to the little strip mall. I was disappointed, however, to find the cafe which had advertised as opening at 11:30 for lunch didn't really open until 3:00. I did, however, find another place called Soup's On, where I didn't get soup, but did get a good salad.
Refreshed and restored (and lord was I wearing out by this time), I returned to the con, grabbed a cup of tea and went to my 2:00 panel, "Fantasy in and out of the Middle Ages." It was me and another woman who was from Chicago, her last name was Lincoln and I'll be darned if I can remember her first name. Also a good panel, lot of wanna be writers interested in definitions, times, sources, etc.
And then it was back to the green room to reclaim my suitcase which was parked there and meet the waiting car. I fell asleep on the way back, but woke up in time to watch the City go by. We reached the airport in good order, I got all checked in, and except for the fact that my umbrella tore apart (*&%$!) and the hot dogs I got for dinner were a little shrivelled, all went just fine, until we got to the Detroit airport, and tried to claim our luggage.
See, the spiffy new monitor set up which was supposed to tell you which carosel your luggage was at told us #5. So there we all stood, and waited, and waited, and waited, and watched other people's bags go around. It was only when a fellow passanger came back and said "Hey, our stuff's on carosel 9" that we found out what had happened to our bags. $%#@! Northwestern.
Anyway, claimed bag, found car, drove home, collapsed into arms of waiting husband. Life is good.
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