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hrjThe registration line took only about 40 minutes and I ended up chatting for much of it with the couple directly in front of me after I spotted the photo they tweeted of the line under the #Sasquan hashtag and recognized the set of backs therein.
My first spin through the dealers' room was meant to verify where to send people who asked about buying my books. The one bookseller I'd corresponded with in advance had a couple copies each, but Larry Smith also still had one copy of The Mystic Marriage left from what he'd picked up from me back at Chessie Con. Ended up buying a few books (one historical reference, and a couple new series books where I want to have physical copies).
I signed up to be a convention volunteer, but had a frustrating first assignment: got sent to a room that doesn't exist, then identified the department they'd meant to send me to and it was behind a closed door that no one answered. Trekked back to the assignment desk and got a sort of vague "If you go to this area and look around for someone who looks like he's coordinating volunteers, they might have something for you to do." Yeah…no. I'll try again the next time I have an empty space in my schedule.
Went to Aliette de Bodard's reading. Her new book sounds intriguing (which is a good thing because a copy resides on my iPad as of yesterday). Popped back to my room for a bit then figured I'd give the opening ceremonies a try. The first segment was fantastic, with a local (to Washington, though not Spokane) Native American storyteller giving a brief talk/presentation about the importance of creating and telling stories to pass on emotional truths, including a few stories and a song. The middle segment was…painful. There was a long photo-montage set to music, mostly local tourist-bureau images. And by "long" I mean "maybe 10 minutes" which is a long time when you're expecting opening ceremonies. The third segment was the introduction of all the guests of honor, which had some funny parts and served its purpose, but the presenter could have been a bit more prepared.
I had better luck volunteering for the Helsinki in 2017 crew. After the opening ceremonies there was an open air "First Night" thing in the riverside park, where various groups and organizations had demos and performances. The Helsinki crew had a number of lawn games set up as a draw for talking up the bid. I found my niche being the carny barker for the live-action Angry Birds game (because: Finnish, you know).
I hadn't really left myself a real dinner break and expected to do some nibbling at parties later, so I spent some time in my room writing up my critiques for the writers' workshop, then went off to check out the get-together for the Skiffy & Fanty podcast/reading group, just because I've been meaning to check them out (being local and all). Managed to participate in a book discussion for a book I haven't read, but then got called away to make a guitar delivery.
After that I went to the reception for the people participating in the writers' workshops, which was being held in the SFWA suite, which also gave me a chance to get my official SFWA badge sticker. Eventually I maxed out noise and crowds, but had a chance to meet one of the writers in my workshop group, and also to exchange a few words with guest of honor David Gerrold.
My first spin through the dealers' room was meant to verify where to send people who asked about buying my books. The one bookseller I'd corresponded with in advance had a couple copies each, but Larry Smith also still had one copy of The Mystic Marriage left from what he'd picked up from me back at Chessie Con. Ended up buying a few books (one historical reference, and a couple new series books where I want to have physical copies).
I signed up to be a convention volunteer, but had a frustrating first assignment: got sent to a room that doesn't exist, then identified the department they'd meant to send me to and it was behind a closed door that no one answered. Trekked back to the assignment desk and got a sort of vague "If you go to this area and look around for someone who looks like he's coordinating volunteers, they might have something for you to do." Yeah…no. I'll try again the next time I have an empty space in my schedule.
Went to Aliette de Bodard's reading. Her new book sounds intriguing (which is a good thing because a copy resides on my iPad as of yesterday). Popped back to my room for a bit then figured I'd give the opening ceremonies a try. The first segment was fantastic, with a local (to Washington, though not Spokane) Native American storyteller giving a brief talk/presentation about the importance of creating and telling stories to pass on emotional truths, including a few stories and a song. The middle segment was…painful. There was a long photo-montage set to music, mostly local tourist-bureau images. And by "long" I mean "maybe 10 minutes" which is a long time when you're expecting opening ceremonies. The third segment was the introduction of all the guests of honor, which had some funny parts and served its purpose, but the presenter could have been a bit more prepared.
I had better luck volunteering for the Helsinki in 2017 crew. After the opening ceremonies there was an open air "First Night" thing in the riverside park, where various groups and organizations had demos and performances. The Helsinki crew had a number of lawn games set up as a draw for talking up the bid. I found my niche being the carny barker for the live-action Angry Birds game (because: Finnish, you know).
I hadn't really left myself a real dinner break and expected to do some nibbling at parties later, so I spent some time in my room writing up my critiques for the writers' workshop, then went off to check out the get-together for the Skiffy & Fanty podcast/reading group, just because I've been meaning to check them out (being local and all). Managed to participate in a book discussion for a book I haven't read, but then got called away to make a guitar delivery.
After that I went to the reception for the people participating in the writers' workshops, which was being held in the SFWA suite, which also gave me a chance to get my official SFWA badge sticker. Eventually I maxed out noise and crowds, but had a chance to meet one of the writers in my workshop group, and also to exchange a few words with guest of honor David Gerrold.
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Parallels!
Date: 2015-08-20 07:57 am (UTC)Anyway, hope to meet you at Sasquan--maybe our paths will cross again.
no subject
Date: 2015-08-20 02:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-08-20 09:22 pm (UTC)