Month: August 2008

In the Dealer’s room, time moves in leaps. Every time I glance at the clock, the minutes are around “29” but the hour has changed. I think this phenomenon is due to the tidal pattern created by the convening and release of panels. Today was slower. There were more breaks, but this was just fine because it meant that the average length of conversations increased. We got to meet people from Codex (an online writer’s forum) for breakfast. Then through the course of the day, several of them stopped by the booth to say hello. We had enough space to invite people inside the booth to sit down and chat. Alas our extra space will be gone tomorrow since the dealers who were supposed to have the space showed up. We enjoyed it while it lasted. Now we know that in future dealer’s rooms, we’ll want two tables for Howard. Unfortunately most of the dealers I’ve talked to are experiencing slower sales than they hoped for. I hope it picks up for them tomorrow.

In the category of “things that make us go squee,” Jay Lake stopped by our booth to say hello and tell Howard how much he likes Schlock Mercenary. I’ve not read any of Jay’s stories, but I hear his name everywhere and his badge was bristling with pins from Hugo nominations, Campbell awards, and other awards. He was a joy to talk to, but he had a panel to go to, so he could not stay long.

Right at the end of the day, Howard returned to our booth with Greg Bear. We’d heard that Greg reads Schlock Mercenary, but it was delightful to have the rumor confirmed. We took a picture of Howard and Greg standing together, both of them saying “Sqee!” Then Greg and Astrid stood at our booth talking while Howard drew a quick caricature. They even bought one of our books. Greg also signed the copy of Moving Mars that we brought with us. “To Howard and Sandra. Great minds laugh alike.” To top it off, Steve Jackson walked past. Howard hailed him and then introduced Steve Jackson to Greg Bear.

Tonight’s dinner was pizza in our room. We needed a quiet space before heading off into the wilds of the Friday night parties. I’m blogging now because I’ll probably be too tired when the parties are over.

Someday I may write a post about how much I dislike wearing badges with my name plastered on them, particularly large badges. I don’t like labels even if the label is only my name. But since the badge gains me entrance to the convention, it is tolerated and even viewed affectionately. Our sales today were even better than yesterday. We’ve no broken even on this convention appearance and we’re looking at all future Worldcons and making calculations. People came by our booth in waves. Sometimes we were so busy that we couldn’t pay proper attention to everyone who was there. Other times we sat with no one there at all. The lulls never lasted for more than 15 minutes though. There was always someone stopping by. I’ve got the pitch down really well now. If someone looks interested, I give them three short sentences and hand them a business card. Most of the time they smile and pocket the card. Sometimes they’d stay and talk for awhile. A few people refused the card. It was all good. I think the most surprising thing was that there were people who had never heard of Schlock Mercenary before, but they bought all the books anyway because it looked interesting.

I talked to so many interesting people today, but it has all become a blur. Several times I realized that I was giving the pitch to someone that I’d already pitched to yesterday, and they’d come back because the pitch worked. Then I’d feel bad because I want to be able to remember everyone. These are all very interesting people, but I’m shoving so much information into my brain all at once that I’m having trouble retaining all of it. I keep getting turned around in the hotel and on the streets. I’ll start walking, sure I’m headed the right way, only to be called back by Howard because I’ve gone in some odd direction. Sometimes I re-orient myself without help, but I always have to stop and sort it out. I’ve always thought my sense of direction was pretty good, but it may just be that I rarely go into completely unfamiliar territory. Howard’s books are not the only ones selling. We’ve sold a dozen copies of Hold Horses. And I’ve had several people say they’re going to come back and buy it later when they’re ready to carry things. I’d take that as a brush off, except that many of them have actually come back and purchased.

We couldn’t have better booth neighbors. On one side we have people selling chocolate honey. This is wonderful because they are offering free samples of yummy food right next to us. Their traffic helps us. We send traffic their way too, because their product truly is wonderful. On the other side we have an empty table. The folks who were supposed to have the space, never showed up. The kind dealer room folks let us have the table for a significantly reduced fee. This means we have twice the table space we were anticipating, which is wonderful. There is space to set out fliers and Howard’s portfolio.

We were at loose ends for dinner until just before the dealer’s room closed. Then we had an influx of friends stop by and we shanghaied them for dinner. I finally got to meet Steve Jackson of Steve Jackson games. He and Howard have been friends for years, but I’ve never had the chance to meet him. With him was his girlfriend Monica Stephens, who I was also delighted to meet. We got to introduce them to our friend Julie Frost and the five of us went in search of food. We found very yummy food indeed.

Now it is late. Tomorrow will be long and filled with fun things. Codex breakfast, followed by working the dealer room, followed by evening parties and visiting. Three more days to go.

I am in Denver. The convention center is big. I feel small. I’m worried that we’ll not get to talk to the people we want to find while we are here. I’m worried that I won’t be able to meet and greet at full energy. This is pre-show jitters. We’re here. The booth is set up. We’re settling in to the hotel. We even went out and had a yummy dinner. Tomorrow I’ll be well rested instead of at the end of a marathon day. It will be good.

Howard and I spent our first wedding anniversary scraping and staining the wooden siding of our newly purchased house. The day ended with piles of work yet to do. It was after midnight that night when we rolled, exhausted, into bed and realized we’d completely forgotten our anniversary.

Tomorrow is our 15th anniversary. In keeping with tradition, we’ll be rolling out of bed at o’dark-thirty, climbing in the car, driving for eight hours, and then hauling several hundred pounds of books into a convention center to set up a booth. By the end of it all, we will be exhausted and we’ll still have 5 days of convention to go.

We started out working together and we’ll continue in the same way. It’s been a great fifteen years and I’m hoping for twice as many more ahead.

When I am faced with a challenge, I follow the same steps:
1. Decide what to do using a combination of logic and intuition/inspiration
2. Fret, doubt my choices, and envision all possible ways my choice could go wrong.
3. When the time comes to act, take a deep breath and do what I decided in step one.

If step 1 and step 3 are right next to each other, I can sometimes skip step 2. Sometimes step one and step two are all mixed up together. If step 3 is delayed from step 1, then I will spend a significant portion of the intervening time on step 2. The intensity of step 2 is directly proportional to the size of the challenge.

Today I finally tipped over into step 3 for our Worldcon trip. This is a big relief after spending nearly two weeks trying to not be in step 2 and failing. But I won’t be all the way into step 3 until Howard and I arrive in Denver.

Gleek and Patch are in my brother’s car on their way to my parent’s house. Tomorrow morning I’ll put Kiki and Link (and three cousins) on an airplane to be greeted at the other end by my parents. I feel like I’ve put my heart into a box and handed it over to someone else for safe keeping. I’m trying to keep busy so that I don’t notice the absences. Being away from the kids is easier if I’m also away from home.

The pace of departures has slowed a little. I have one more night with all my kids at home. Tomorrow morning at 0’dark-thirty I pack Gleek and Patch into the car to hand off to my brother. The extra time is greatly appreciated even though it was caused by extra-hecticness for my brother. In part I’m grateful for the time because I’m beginning to come down with the cold that Howard brought home from Comic Con. I’m treating it with vitamin C, lots of water, and stopping to rest a lot. Hopefully that will be sufficient. I need to be on top of my game at Worldcon. Of course, this means I’m not on my game right now when I’m supposed to be managing the last minute packing. Hopefully I won’t forget anything.