This was a busy day; I'm having trouble remembering what happened before what.
The morning was mostly eaten up by blogging and catching up on work e-mail. (I'm of two minds about this taking-a-laptop-to-the-convention thing; on the one hand, I am keeping up with stuff, but if I was laptopless, I'd be sitting in my hotel room tapping away at chiclet keys for many fewer hours.)
I got over to the convention center in time to take a few pictures and run through the art show before the first panel I wanted to see. I don't know if it's just the proximity to L.A., or the organizational abilities of LASFS, or something else, but the exhibits are great, and the con is nicely spread out in a large hall -- it's not quite as homey and friendly-feeling as Noreascon was a couple of years ago, but it's a very close second. As usual, I'm not always sure why all of the exhibits are there, but it's all interesting stuff, so it's not as if I'd wish it off into the cornfield if I could. (Though if anyone can tell me why there's a corral of movie cars, I'd be eternally grateful.)
The art exhibit was also quite nice, but I seem to be massively jaded by Worldcon art shows these days. Either the ones at Bucconeer and LoneStarCon really were super-wonderful, or I just remember them that way because those were my first Worldcons.
As I type this, I'm also trying to load up those new photos into the sfbc_photos ID on Flickr, so they should be available as you read this. (Addendum: Windows is horrible and stupid, so the pictures may have to wait for tomorrow.)
The first panel I went to of the whole con (yes, I'm a slacker these days; there have been cons recently where I didn't go to anything if I wasn't speaking) was It Crawled Out of the Slush Pile at 11:30. John Joseph Adams read a frightening array of sexually-oriented snippets -- all, he claimed, from Gordon Van Gelder's novel-editing days -- while Betsy Mitchell had less cringe-worthy but still apallingly funny pieces. There were two other people on the panel, also with funny stuff, but I didn't know them already, and I didn't write down their names.
After that I made another serious run through the dealer's room, and then sat down to read for a bit. (There's still work that needs to get done, even during Worldcon.)
I caught the 2:30 panel Literary Vs. Media SF in part to say hello to editors Jim Frenkel (Tor) and Jim Minz (Del Rey) afterward, and I was still chatting with people in the hall afterward when Ginjer Buchanan draged me into the next room over for the 4:00 Assistant Editors: Glorified Gophers or Finders of Hidden Gems? It seems that my pleas to be put on program had not fallen on deaf ears, but, unfortunately, this was the first that I had known about it. Luckily, it was a "what do you do in your day job, and how does publishing work" panel, so my lack of preparation was no handicap. It went pretty well, I think, though book publishing can be like laws and sausage in that the process is more gruesome and less interesting than the consumers of the final product want to know.
When the panel was done, I went immediately to Program Ops to see if they'd put me on anything else. Good news: yes, they had! Bad news: the other thing they put me on was a panel at 1:00. Oops. Well, I missed that one. I seem to be free for the rest of the con, unless I try to get myself put onto anything else.
After that, I stopped in my room briefly to drop the accumulated stuff, and headed off to catch a cab to the fabulous poolside Eos cocktail party. (Eos is one of the few publishers who throws parties at Worldcon these days -- or, I should say, one of the few publishers who tells me about their prties, since it might just be that everyone else doesn't want me to know.) The sun was a bit blinding, but it was a nice party, and the space was big enough for everyone to move and mingle. I got to meet Martha Wells for the first time, which was great, and I also ran into John Picacio, Gardner Dozois, Laura Ann Gilman, most of the staff of Locus, and others.
I came back from that and dove right into the Masquerade, which had already started. I missed the first four entries, but they were mostly "Young Fan" things, so I didn't mind. (Did this Masquerade actually start on time? If so, I think that would be three in a row, which is appalling or those of us who like to tell jokes about Masquerades.) The quality of costumes was very high, and the presentations were also excellent. In fact, there were a large number (I counted six) major presentations, with more than six people in new costumes and (in some cases) great choreography. This might also be a Southern California effect, but, if so, it's greatly appreciated -- I think this was the best Masquerade I've seen yet.
And that gets me up to now. I'll be wandering off next to the obligatory Tor party, and possibly other parties if my stamina holds up. (Tor throws the biggest and most famous pros-only party at every Worldcon, and everyone at least makes an appearance. It's also generally massively crowded and hot, so folks don't always stay long.)
