Worldcon Notes: Friday is not a review

[hrj]

Fridays are my review days, and I actually have a couple things finished to review, but it's 11pm and I'm making an early night of it, so the reviews will wait.

Had my Kaffee Klatch today. In theory, all ten slots were taken, but four of the pre-registered people didn't show, and then one person showed up at the last minute, so I had seven in all, including at least one person who had simply decided that Kaffee Klatches were a good way to meet authors they'd never heard of before. I also got a surprise when one of the guests was someone I knew when I was a kid but who I hadn't seen since freshman year of college. Most of the rest were people I'd interacted with in some fashion online.

I led off with the promised demonstration of nailing the octopus to the wall, then we chatted about language and geography and why European history in the world of Alpennia hasn't diverged more due to magic than it has. I've lost track of more of the details but before we knew it the hour was up and it was time for the random drawing for the book give-away. I really enjoy this format of interaction.

I took the leftover Alpennian almond cakes off to the get-together of people from the Making Light blog and spent the next two hours chatting with folks there. Once again, this is an online community where I've gotten to know people through postings but mostly had not met in person before. Ended up selling a couple of books and making dinner plans with a small group for Sunday evening.

Decided I needed to rectify the fact that I wasn't yet pre-supporting either of the bids for 2018, but between New Orleans and San Jose, my recent experience of New Orleans weather this time of year made SJ my natural choice. I'd been exchanging triangulating tweets with yet another twitter friend and we finally got face-to-face at that location and had a chance to chat before I had to dash for my dinner party with the roommates and a couple of local friends. They took us to a local place that does serious foodie dishes including their own charcuterie and we indulged in fine food.

I got back from dinner just in time to catch the tail end of the Escape Artists get-together. (This is the umbrella group that includes podcastle.org where my story "Hoywverch" was published.) So I had time to talk to some of the staff and other authors/artists featured on the shows. I decided to skip the masquerade and instead went off to the SFWA suite where I practiced my random socializing for a couple hours before the ambient noise was getting to much and I figured I'd call it a night.

Air quality has been so bad today (due to multiple fires) that they posted warnings on all the exit doors from the convention center suggesting people minimize time outdoors and cover their mouths. The smoke has overwhelmed the HVAC filters and even all the indoor spaces reek. I feel for all the folks with breathing issues.

Hard to believe it's only Friday and there's still two more days of convention!

Comments

[abd07.livejournal.com]

I'd been wondering whether the fires were affecting the air quality there, and I'm sorry to hear that it's so bad. Hope you're mostly staying inside! (E. Coli in the water, bad air from huge forest fires--think it'll be a plague of frogs at the next one?)

[hrj.livejournal.com]

The quality has been variable depending on how in control the fires are and the direction of the wind. (Although there are fires in all directions, so the wind doesn't make that much difference.) Air quality is better today but last evening was pretty bad.

[shaunacarrick.livejournal.com]

A good friend of mine is attending the con and was going to try and see you, at least at the book signing. She's an SCA herald and knows your work in that arena very well, but had not really heard of your Alpennia books until I told her last month. Lynn Puckett - she's a very short but very lively person. Retired Navy Captain and IT librarian here in Billings. She had said she might take her copy of 'names for dummies' to the book signing.

[hrj.livejournal.com]

Well, my official signing was on Thursday, but she can try to track me down. My last public programming was my reading today at noon and I don't think I saw anyone by that description there. (I have a writers workshop thing tomorrow, but that's just for the immediate participants.)