Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 10:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

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The New York Times's intrepid reporter Dave Itzkoff reported on MidSouthCon today. I'm not sure why he chose MidSouthCon, but he avoided the usual cliches of con reporting, and didn't look down his nose too obviously at Fandom Assembled.

Though this is the photo they chose to lead off the article, and I detect a bit of "check out these weirdos" in that choice. (Nice wings, though -- wonder if she made them herself?)

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 10:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The organizers of the Robert A. Heinlein Centennial, a one-off, all-Heinlein convention/celebration/academic conference to be held in early in July in Kansas City, have asked those of us with audiences (and I hope there's somebody out there) to help remind everyone about their event this summer.

I won't be there myself, but among the special guests will be astronaut Buzz Aldrin; Spider and Jeanne Robinson; Campbell winner John Scalzi; Congressman Dana Rohrbacher; SFWA President Robin Wayne Bailey; the newest SFWA Grand Master, James E. Gunn; and NASA Administrator Dr. Michael Griffin.

The event takes place July 6th through the 8th, and includes the annual meeting of the Science Fiction Research Association and the annual Campbell Conference and Awards. If you do go, write in a comment here to tell us all about it!

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 10:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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This past weekend, in the middle of a snowstorm, the 50th Lunacon was held in mostly bucolic Rye, New York. It's a great convention -- though I may be biased, since I've been going to it for about a dozen years now -- even when the snow is piled high outside.

I was there, and so were:

• SF Scope
• Sarah Beth Durst
• John Joseph Adams
• Irene Gallo
• Douglas Cohen
• Keith R.A. DeCandido 
• (among others, I'm sure; I'm mostly linking to people I know and saw there). 

Finally, Wendy S. Delmater has photos.

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The Battalion (a student newspaper of Texas A&M) reports on the efforts of AggieCon organizers to promote their upcoming convention (their 38th) through homemade plaster lawn gnomes.

<Snorts dismissively.> Aggies!

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 09:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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Once you get past the stupid headline, this is actually a decent, not-overly-biased look at the recent COsine convention in Colorado Springs.

(And I do know that headlines are usually written by a newspaper's editors, not the reporter.)

But, damn, if that isn't one of the stupidest "ain't them sci-fi folks silly?" headlines I've ever seen. A barely intelligble reference to a show that went off the air a quarter-century ago? Surely the mundanes of Colorado can do better than that.

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 09:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Tobias S. Buckell went to Confusion.

So did John Scalzi.

And so did Karl Schroeder.

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 02:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Alma Alexander was at Orycon over the weekend.

David Louis Edelman, on the other hand, was at Philcon (where I kept bumping into him -- very pleasantly, I hasten to add).

John Scalzi was also at Philcon, though I only ran into him a couple of times. (And, for the record, he does actually talk like Whatever sounds -- that is the authentic voice of the wild North American Scalzi.)

Glen Hauman, one of the few people in SF I can look up to (sorry, that's a bad joke), also has some scattered Philcon thoughts.

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 01:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle had an article yesterday on the just-sending Astronomicon 10.

Articulate (the blog of the Australian ABC, I believe) covers an appearance by Stephen King in London.

The New York Times had an interesting article about Dark Horse Comics in their Business section over the weekend.

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 02:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Articles and gewgaws about the biggest WFC yet (and the one with the slowest restaurant service) continue to appear on this here Inter-thingy, and here are some of the more interesting:

• The UK SF Book News Network had a story mostly about local small press Telos's win in the Special Award: Non-Professional category. (And that category has a weird name that sounds faintly derogatory, but it really just means that the person honored probably doesn't make a living from that activity.)
• Scott Edelman wrote an editorial for Sci Fi Weekly about WFC.
• Hal Duncan narrates his WFC experiences eloquently, as usual -- don't miss the part where a publisher drops him on his head. (And now you know what authors mean when they say "My publisher dropped me.")
• Lots of photos from the con are up at the massive MidAmerican Fan Photo Archive (2/3rds of the way down in the right-hand column). Also available there are photos from just about every other recent con you can think of.
• Lou Anders has a convention report, with nice pictures.
• John Klima has an official report on World Fantasy.
• Oh, and Yr. Humble Correspondent posted some disjointed thoughts on being a judge. (Other judgely thoughts came from Victoria Strauss and Jeff VanderMeer.)

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 03:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I didn't make it out of the hotel at all on Saturday -- I'll say that up front. I also spent a couple of hours in the middle frantically blogging and catching up on e-mailish things in the middle of the day, which will reduce the vaguely interesting things I can write about.

And, actually, now that I come to think of it, I don't remember what I did do yesterday before the WFA Banquet -- I think I hung out at the bar for a while in the afternoon, and I think I went to see a panel about art with Lou Anders on it, but it's all a blur.

I was somewhat dreading the Banquet, since I'd never been to one in the first place, and I'd just found out the night before that Marvin Kaye was expecting me to accept if The Fair Folk won. (He asked me about it several months ago, and I thought I made it clear that I felt very weird and inappropriate about that, since I'm a judge -- but I guess he forgot my problems, or I wasn't vehement enough.) I e-mailed Marvin (I don't have his phone number) to try to get a speech or list of people to thank or something, but he didn't get back to me before the banquet.

I'm sure someone, somewhere, has or will detail the whole banquet -- Bradley Denton was a great Toastmaster, with a long, funny PowerPoint presentation that combined the history of Texas and introductions of the Guests of Honor. And the food was actually pretty good, though having the dessert on the table before we walked in was an odd touch. Stephen Jones and Jo Fletcher announced the British Fantasy Award winners (which I'm sure I blogged here a few weeks ago when they were announced originally in the UK). Then the WFA administrators David Hartwell and John Douglas took over for the presentation of the awards -- but, first, they asked all of the current nominees to stand up, and then added all past nominees. (Worse, after that David asked the judges to stand up -- and since Steve Lockley wasn't there, it was just the four of us with the room staring at us.)

I was sitting next to Barbara Roden (one of my fellow judges), and we made a point to clap loudly as each winner was announced. I have to admit there was a bit of a pause before the applause in some categories -- it seemed like we'd picked the non-obvious winner every time. (Though I also have to insist that we did pick the best works -- and we were remarkably unanimous across the board.) And, in due course, I had to make my way up to the stage to accept Marvin Kaye's award for The Fair Folk. (I'm looking at it as I type this; I still have to get the damn thing home.) We judges had gathered before the banquet began, wondering if anyone was going to throw rotten vegetables at all, but, in the end, we all made it out alive. (Though some Old Personage I didn't recognize, at the next table over, kept making much-too-loud, and mostly incomprehensible, comments on the proceedings to the guy next to him.)

Finally, it was over -- but then I had to head over to the photographer's pit with all of the other acceptors (and Sean Wallace, the only winner there in person). I chatted with some people (mostly Ellen Datlow and Gordon Van Gelder) on the way out, and then escaped to my room to change out of the suit and dump the staring head of H.P. Lovecraft there.

The parties were a bit scantier on Saturday night -- or maybe it was just that I tried to go to the parties first, instead of spending a few hours in the bar first. I did eventually end up in the bar, mostly talking to Tor art director Irene Gallo and a pallette of artists. (That's the correct collective noun, right?) In the end, it was another night when I didn't get to bed until about 2AM, which is ridiculously late for me.

Today I had a lunch date with an editor about a possible project, then it was time for the big Judges' Panel. Victoria, Jeff, Barbara and I assembled in front of the (mostly friendly) crowd, and I was officially the moderator (and I think I talked too much). We explained how boring and friendly we were this year, and then spent most of the time taking questions. There were some things we couldn't answer (such as which items, precisely, were chosen for the shortlist by the judges and which by the reader's ballot -- the administrators want there to be no distinction, and we completely agree with them), but I think our answers generally satisfied the crowd. And then we were done being judges -- it will be five other people's problem next year. (And, if you've been asked to do it, and you're reading this, please do contact me -- there are Secrets and Tricks to pass on.)

After that I ran away from the con (which was winding down, anyway), and went on a quick sightseeing tour of the city with my cousin and her husband, finishing up with a nice Mexican dinner at some place I think was called Guerro's. (My spelling may be very bad, though.)

The con is now over, and tomorrow I fly home. I won't be back into the office until Tuesday, though, and I hope a couple of big packages will be waiting for me there. (And, if I'm really lucky, Stross's The Jennifer Morgue will be among them.) Regular blogging will resume sometime on Tuesday, depending on how much work is waiting for me in the office.

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 10:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

First of all, I have to admit I'm amazingly disorganized right now -- I started making a list yesterday of everything I'd forgotten to bring to WFC, and that list is getting long. (One of the things I forgot is my digital camera, so no pictures this time, I'm afraid.)

And time is slipping past me, so I'll try to remember what's happened so far and see if it makes any sense.

I came in on Thursday, flying out of Newark in the early afternoon. I ran into Gordon Van Gelder (editor of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction) at the airport, and he introduced me to the agent Shana Cohen, who was also on our flight. We all shared the ridiculously long and expensive cab ride from Austin's airport (way out of town to the south) to the Renaissance Hotel (a bit out of town to the north), and finally got in around six-thirty.

I took a quick spin through the very cramped dealer's room, hoping to find a copy of Charles Stross's The Jennifer Morgue (which is supposed to be published now, though I haven't seen it for the club yet), with no luck. I did find some other things I was looking for, though, and some may turn into SFBC offerings in the fullness of time.

I had a late dinner with the other WFC judges after the IHG awards -- Victoria Strauss, Barbara Roden, and Jeff VanderMeer -- at a close-by Tex-Mex restaurant that looked like a tourist trap but turned out to have decent food at good prices. (Steve Lockley, our fifth judge this year, unfortunately couldn't make it over from the UK, so we decided to blame anything controversial on him.) It was the first time the four of us had ever been together, and we had a great time. I'm afraid, though, that I can't reveal any more of what we talked about...

As I recall, I avoided parties and the bar after that, and went to bed at a reasonable hour -- scandalous behavior for a convention.

Yesterday morning I got out of the hotel to wander around the neighborhood, something I like to do in strange cities. Unfortunately, this hotel seems to be solidly placed in a clump of bland commerical suburbia -- there's a freeway outside of the mall that surrounds the hotel, and then some more strip malls as far as I could find, but that's about it. (Several people have grumbled mildly that it would have been nice to be in the middle of downtown Austin, which is apparently much more interesting.)

Then much of the middle of my day was taken up with e-mail and blogging, which wasn't even interesting to me at the time.

I emerged to dive into the dealer's room again, and started running into people. I probably won't remember them all, or put them in the right order, but some of the folks I saw then and later that night were:

• Jason Williams of Night Shade Books, walking around his new author Jon Armstrong and enthusiastically passing out advance review copies of Armstrong's novel Grey
• Devi Pillai, an editor who recently moved over to the launching Orbit line --she also introduced me to her new boss Tim Holman, a major British SFF editor who I hadn't previously met. (Much of the evening was also spent in various groups trying to work out exactly who Devi's nemesis is -- you're no one in publishing if you don't have a nemesis.)
• Jeffrey Ford, author of The Girl in the Glass, shared WFC judging war stories (he had the job last year) and was resplendent in a tuxedo (required attire for his agent Howard Morhaim's annual gala dinner)
• even more dapper was Hal Duncan, author of Vellum, who claimed to have found his great black tails jacket in a charity shop
• piles of other editors: Diana Gill of Eos, Ginjer Buchanan of Ace, Juliet Ullman of Bantam, Chris Schluep of Ballantine, and probably on and on and on. There was a lot of shop talk going on last night. (See discussion of "nemeses," above.)

I also had my first panel yesterday afternoon, on "Fantasy, Social Networking, and the Blogosphere," and talking about it here would be more self-referential than even I'm comfortable with. It was fun, though, and I got to meet several authors/bloggers who I'd only seen electronically before, starting with Elizabeth Bear.

Then it was time for dinner; I was a last-minute replacement for Tobias Buckell in agent Joshua Bilmes's dinner-party. (Toby's wife isn't feeling well, so he had to stay home with her.) We all piled off into a bunch of cars and went to Austin landmark Threadgill's, where about half of us had the declared-to-be-famous chicken-fried steak (not me: I went or the pecan-encrusted chicken) and two of our party (who shall remain nameless) had an impromptu jalapeno-eating contest.

We all then headed back to the hotel for the big signing, which led inevitably into the art show reception, and then to the bar/party scene. I'm afraid I wasn't nearly as good last night as I was the day before; I didn't get to bed until 2 AM. (Which still feels like 3 AM to me.) Along the way back to the hotel, I helped Joshua pick up a cake -- Elizabeth Moon had been his client for twenty years this fall, so he brought her a cake at the signing to celebrate.

Today is the WFA banquet, and I also have to get some real work done, so this will probably be the only blog post for the day. I'm sure there's something else interesting going on in the Intarwebs you can check out, and I'll be back with WFA winners sometime tonight.

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 10:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I expect most of my readers are Americans, but -- if any of you were making plans to attend the upcoming Eastercon (the big annual UK convention), I'm afraid you're out of luck: it's been cancelled due to hotel troubles. (I learned this from The UK SF Book Network.)

What is it about the UK and hotel troubles?

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 01:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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Chris Roberson noted that the preliminary Program Schedule was up, so I popped over there to see what I would be doing that weekend.

If you'll be in Austin the weekend of November 2nd, and you want to heckle me, here are your best opportunities:

• Fantasy, Social Networking, and the Blogosphere (Fri 4:30 PM)
• WFA Judges' Panel (Sun 1:30 PM)

And that's it -- I'd expected that the convention would work the judges like rented mules, but happily that's not the case. But it's a small convention, so I bet people will still be able to find me if they want. (I'm over six feet tall, so it's hard for me to hide.)

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 10:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The gallery of official photos from this year's Worldcon, LA Con IV, are just going online now.

Other LA Con IV images online: a set of Masquerade photos, video of the closing ceremonies, pictures from the Space Cadet games, some Masquerade fan photography, Laurie Mann's photos, Hugo evening photos, and my two Flickr groups sfbc_photos and sfbc_photos2. (I'm sure I've missed many others; anyone out there have some to add?)

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 08:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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The Belleville News-Democrat (and don't you just love small town newspaper names?) went to Archon 30 this past weekend, and they think we're only moderately weird.

Next year's Archon will also be the 2007 North American Science Fiction Convention (held whenever the World Science Fiction Convention that year is somewhere else in the world -- and next year's Worldcon is in Yokohama, Japan), so those of us vaguely thinking of attending next year are very interested in how this year's Archon went.

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 09:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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FenCon, a literary/filk SF convention in the Dallas area, has announced that it will be proudly celebrating "Talk Like a Pirate" day during the con this year.

So, if you're near Dallas, and like pretending to be a pirate, keep the weekend of the 21st open...

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Sci Fi Wire talked to Peter S. Beagle about his Hugo winning story "Two Hearts."

And they also had a general (very short) Worldcon round-up report. 

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 06:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The morning was again mostly eaten up by blogging, work e-mail, and things like that -- not very exciting.

I did gt over to the convention center in the afternoon, and stuck my head briefly into the Omnibus Publishing Panel, but it seemed very unfocused, so I snuck back out again and settled into a quiet corner to do some reading. I did make it to the Fighting for Shelf Space panel, where Patrick Nielsen Hayden gave a very detailed explanation of the history of the distribution of mass-market paperbacks, and where the gloom was somewhat cut by the repeated admissions that it always looks like things are horrible now -- but what specifically is making things horrible is regularly changing.

Then it was back to the room and these chiclet keys for more work. (I'm beginning to hate this damn laptop; it's hard to type on and I've been chained to it for half of the convention.) I emerged into the bar, where I started into space for a while (that was remarkably relaxing, though I guess it's not usual behavior for a con-goer).

After various permutations of hanger-outers in the bar had to leave to either get into their fancy clothes or just head directly to the Hugo pre-reception, I led a small deputation of those of us left over (Joel Shepherd, Rani Graff, Laura Anne Gilman, and Deanna Hoak, who had to leave mysteriously before she ordered) into Pavia, the fancy Italian restaurant in the Hilton. After a very nice meal, Laura Anne went back to the bar, but the rest of us went off to see most of the Hugos. We arrived during the unveiling of the Hugo base, so I did miss John Scalzi's Campbell win -- but, on the other hand, I managed to miss sitting though the Seiun Awards this year. The rest of the ceremony was quite amusing, and even surprising in spots (I was thrilled to see Donato Giancola and David Hartwell win).

I neglected to mention in my Hugo Winners post last night that the convention also gave two special awards this year, to Betty Ballantine and Harlan Ellison.

And then it was time for the parties. I learned this morning that the big Hugo Losers party was over in the Marriott (which is why I had no luck even finding the door I wouldn't have been able to get in). I collected a couple of stickers, wandered across the various decks of the lanai level, and then decided to just go to bed.

Today is Day Five, but I don't think I'll even make it to the convention center. I need to do a bit of work, pack, and then get to the airport. So this, I think, is the end of my boring convention blogging. I just hope some of the pictures came out OK.

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 10:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

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I should have run these links earlier, but, you know, brain like a sieve and so on:

• David Louis Edelman
• Kevin Standlee
• Mark Kelly
• Paul Cornell
• Paul Melko
• Jed Hartman
• Laura Ann Gilman
• Keith R.A. DeCandido
• Cheryl Morgan
• Robert J. Sawyer
• John Joseph Adams
• Paula Guran (Dark Echo)
• Patrick Nielsen Hayden

There are many other author/bloggers here (I saw Sarah Monette across a room last night, and talked with Scott Westerfeld, for example), but they seem to be actually enjoying themselves instead of immediately regurgitating experience into bog posts. Possibly more links later, if I don't collapse.

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 11:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Orange County Register has a short article about Worldcon. They also had a somewhat longer article about us as well.

The Dallas News on the official 40th Anniversary Star Trek shindig over in Las Vegas.

WebProNews on Google's attempts to recruit "geeks" at Worldcon.

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 11:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Emerald City reports that Denver won the site selection voting for the 2008 Worldcon in a squeaker. Denver beat both Chicago (home of the 2000 Worldcon, which was nice but a bit subterranean) and Columbus (whose bid crew I'm sure are great people who would but on a wonderful Worldcon, but I wasn't all that thrilled about the idea of going to Columbus). Denver's last Worldcon was in 1981, so they're certainly due.

As usual, I forgot to vote.

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 11:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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.)

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 11:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Wired News reports on Worldcon, and calls us "geeks" in the second word of the headline. (This may be a new record.)

I'll repeat that, in case you didn't catch it the first time: Wired is calling us geeks because we read books. Can I get a group harrumph?

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Today there will be no Worldcon news; I played hookey and went to Disneyland instead of doing something more productive. (Hey, it's right down the block; how could I resist?) I'll get back up on the horse tomorrow, I promise.

So here's where I spent the day:

And here's how I felt when I was done:

There are also a few more photos uploaded into sfbc_photos on flickr, for the edification of those making a study of SF Pros in Their Natural Habitat (viz: the Hilton bar).

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 10:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 07:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's a beautiful day here in Anaheim, but I'm spend this part of the gorgeous afternoon inside, trying to type on these chiclet keys and to upload some photos from my wife's digital camera. Ah, well, who ever said that blogging was all skittles and beer?

I haven't yet stuck my head into a panel yet, but so far I have:

• found my badge and other goodies (late yesterday)
• had dinner (last night) with a bunch of folks I mostly hadn't met before
• inquired politely at Program Ops about being on the program (not that I'm expecting anything; the program looks pretty full already)
• wandered the dealer's room to talk with some small press people (like Sean Wallace of Prime Books), check out new books, and buy a couple of things
• ran into several people (Michael Walsh of Old Earth Books, John Douglas and Ginjer Buchanan, Karen Haber) in passing
• and had a great lunch with anthologist/editor Jonathan Strahan, where we spent a long time sharing World Fantasy-judging stories and somewhat less time discussing things that are more like work

And, as I'm typing this, I'm also uploading some photos I took along the way. Watch that space: more photos should be added as I go along. (Though I might have to open another flickr account as "sfbc_photos2" soon, since it looks like I'll run out of upload space for this month soon.) There probably on't be a "Day Two" post for tomorrow, as I'm planning on playing hookey and going to Disneyland. (My boss is in London on vacation, so I get to have a little fun myself, right?)

I do hope my con-blogging doesn't stay this dull; I'll try to do more interesting things in the days to come...

Posted by Andrew Wheeler at 06:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)