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Worldcon: Wednesday and Thurs morning

Thursday, August 18, 2016 - 13:02

At some conventions, I feel like I have lots of down time to compose daily blog entries. This time, I'm feeling very "on the go" and figure I'll just jot down impressions and experiences.

Wednesday

After registering, there were a couple hours to kill before the event space actually opened. I tried wandering around to orient myself but was a little stymied by the con's renaming of spaces. (Which space does the "Heinlein arena" correspond to again?) Once things got going, I haven't had any problems finding anything, but it's a very spread out space and I tend to get anxious about not knowing where things are. While wandering, met up with a local couple for whom this is their first ever SFF con (not just "first Worldcon" but first con ever). I hope I was sufficiently enthusiastic about welcoming them and giving useful advice.

When the event space opened, I pretty much only had time before my signing to survey the dealers' tables to know where to send people who might want to buy the Alpennia books. This was a good thing, because not only did I get a steady stream of over a dozen people for signing[*] but about four of them went off to buy copies to bring back. Also handed out about 10 copies of the Musketeer story, which served its intended purpose of being something to sign for those who didn't have physical books.

[*] OK, so maybe a dozen people would be pathetic for most authors, but I think it's the most I've every had for any signing ever. Personal best, and all that.

Spent some time wandering the dealers' area (most of the non panel stuff is all on the one big event space, which is a great layout). Did my site selection voting for 2 years from now. Tried to sign up for some volunteer time with the San Jose bid, but never quite seemed to connect with anyone who was coordinating it. Bumped into a number of "first time in person" encounters, including JJ from File 770 with whom I grabbed a quick late lunch/early dinner. Went to Rachel Acks's "literary beer" (an alternate form of Kaffee Klatsch), then a panel with Sumana Hariahareswara, Teresa Nielsen Hayden & Heather Urbanski looking at historical fiction as "fan fiction" in how it fills in the gaps in stories and adapts existing characters to new storylines.

At that point, I was looking for known people to hang out with for the evening and had a brief period of thinking it was going to be one of those "wander around feeling lonely and not seeing anyone I feel able to approach" times. Now that I have Twitter, I have a potentially productive way of expressing that when it happens. Fortunately a brief Twitter coordination got me a chance to finally meet Renay of Ladybusiness & Fangirl Happy Hour. (Although after I briefly fangirled at her, I kind of ran out of things to say and felt really awkward just hanging out.) Got another tweet leading me to a group I met at Sasquan who were hanging in the Marriott bar, which took me through the rest of the evening.

Thursday

This morning, met up with Catherine Lundoff & friends (Martha Wells, Steven Gould, and a couple others) for breakfast. It really helps to have the in-person thing with people I've only met online! Then off to do time at the WSFS business meeting. (3 hours of voting on the agenda and schedule for the rest of the sessions. Alas, some of the most intense debates will be on Sunday when I have programming opposite.) Went to a ready by Rosemary Kirstein, whose books have been on my to-be-read pile for quite some time now. And now I'm taking some brief down time and catching up before my Kaffee Klatsch at 4pm. I wasn't able to get a peek at the sign-up sheets, but I'll just assume that if I was able to pull a full slate last year, I should do the same this year.

At that's my Worldcon so far.