Uncategorized

Being at a convention is a little bit like being sprayed with a fire hose. There is so much going on so fast that it is impossible to catch all of it. This experience is reflected in post-con blog entries which tend to be just a list of people met and events attended. The blog author is just trying to make notes of everything that happened before life moves on and pieces are forgotten. These entries serve as a Cliffs’ Notes for the person who attended the con. The entry is intended to serve as reminders for larger stories. I’ve written my fair share of Cliff’s Notes blog entries. I always intent to come back and fill in the gaps, but life moves on and I find myself blogging new things instead. For this Worldcon I decided that rather than try to capture all the people and events, I would try to capture my mind state or the feel of the day. This seemed to work well both for the blogging and for reducing my stress level. I did not feel compelled to try to collect every detail and keep it in my head. Instead I just let it all wash over me to see what would stick. it was an enjoyable way to experience a con.

I am not used to talking to hundreds of different people in a day. All these conversations cover many of the same topics and so I found myself re-using jokes and anecdotes. Some stories got used in almost every conversation. I do this because I it got a good reaction last time and I’m hoping to reap the same return energy. However, over the weekend, conversations begin to blur and I forget who I’ve already told a particular joke. So I find myself halfway through a story, wondering if this person already knows the ending.

At then end of three days of convention, I leave feeling like there is still fun to be had. Part of me is sad to go. After five days I’m pretty burned out. I’ve had a great time, but I’m ready to be back at home. It’ll be nice to be where all the days and all the conversations don’t blur into one long con-warp.

I talked to all of the kids last night. They were all glad to talk to me, except for Gleek. She was too busy watching Avatar on TV. I can tell that they are having fun, but they will be glad to be back at home. We’ll all be together again on Wednesday.

Closing down the booth and packing out went far more quickly than I expected. The dealer’s room closed at 2 pm and we were on the road by 4 pm. We stopped for a dinner at Johnson’s Corner on I-25. Wonderful place, I really recommend it if you are driving between Ft. Collins and Denver.

I never pictured myself attending the Hugo awards, but I was there last night. I got to see Mary Robinette Kowal win the Campbell. I got to see John Scalzi win for his Whatever blog. I got to be sad that Phil Foglio did not win for best artist. I got to laugh at Robert Silverberg’s comments, which are surely available on You Tube by now. I was delighted when “Blink” from Doctor Who, won for best short form dramatic presentation. Now I want to re-watch Doctor Who. After the event was over, we went down to the front to congratulate the winners. Howard got to hold John Scalzi’s rocket.

Phil and Kaja were charming and cheerful about their loss. We sat at a table with them and Alice and Mike, swapping funny stories. Howard related the tale of Gleek’s woeful phone call earlier in the day. Then Phil made me laugh until I cried by offering horrible ways I could have responded to my daughter. “I’m sorry you’re sad, but mommy loves science fiction more than you…” It went on from there. I wish I could remember more of it, but I was laughing too hard to retain any information. The words played right to all the back-brain guilt I felt about not being there when Gleek needed me. I needed that laugh. It was wonderful to have all my hidden guilt dragged out into the open and made funny. Both Phil and Kaja Foglio are wonderful people. If you’re not already reading Girl Genius, you should be.

We walked Phil and Kaja to their after party, then we went in search of the the Baen Books party. Howard had been invited to go by Toni Weiskopf. I finally got to meet her, but didn’t really get a chance to talk because the party was so loud and crowded. I can tell I’d love to talk with her at length. All the Worldcon parties I attended were crowded, hot, and noisy. It was a little frustrating because the room was full of interesting people, but it was hard to talk to anyone. Fortunately we found space to sit and the rooms cleared out after awhile. That was when we were able to relax and really talk to people. I have many people with whom I want to keep in touch. Thank goodness for business cards. Once I’m home I’ll go through my stack.

I have not read blogs or comments since my first day in Denver. In fact, I’ve hardly had time to sit at the computer. Most of these blogs are being hand written in a notebook during quiet spaces at the booth and being typed in later. (You know you’re really a blogger when you hand write blog entries.) I had to stop reading stuff on the internet. The convention is providing so much food for thought that I’m having trouble processing it all. Adding information from blogs to my brain would result in a total overload. I wouldn’t be able to retain it all. Fortunately blogs are patient. They will wait for my brain to be quiet again.

I haven’t been calling the kids daily. I did on the first couple of days, but they were having too much fun to come talk to me. After that, the quiet spaces in my day were either before the kid got up or after they’d gone to bed. In some ways that was easier on all of us. today I finally got the meltdown phone call. Gleek was crying that she just wanted to go home and have me there. I spent 20 minutes on the phone talking with her, being sympathetic. After she wound down a little bit, she told me that my aunt, who raises pigeons, wouldn’t let her keep an egg. Then Gleek lay out plans for building a cage around our spruce tree so that the pigeons could build nests and raise babies. Then we could make scrambled eggs with the extra eggs. After detailing her plans, Gleek was happy again and tripped off to watch a movie. It took me a little longer to pull myself back together. I’ll be glad to get home too.

People keep asking me why I don’t just bring the kids with me to the convention. I know I could. There is on site child care. The kids would love to come. I’m fully capable of managing the logistics. The primary reason I don’t is that I get stressed by having to wear multiple hats simultaneously. I can’t be full-on business woman if I have kids nearby. I end up fractured, feeling like time spent on the kids is wasted for business and time spent on the business feels stolen from the kids.

We intended to go to three parties. We found enough people to talk to that we only made it to two. The Tor party was afflicted with a horrible smell. This was not the fault of Tor or anyone at the party. The entire room smelled like someone had murdered broccoli and left the body to decay. We did not stay long. Instead we camped at the SFWA hosted Analog/Asimov’s party. Larry Niven made an appearance there and Howard got the chance to talk to him for awhile. Larry is not a conversationalist in the same way the Phil Folio is, but he was charming and Howard was able to tell a joke that made Larry laugh out loud. I’m so glad we got a chance to meet him and shake his hand.

I love the conversations I have at this convention. I love being able to talk and listen to other adults who are passionate about the same things that I am passionate about. I love the amazing people we meet. And I can not deny how satisfying it is to watch some people, who looked right past us on the first day, now focus on us with respect for what we’ve accomplished. Howard is not a big fish in this ocean, but he is not a guppy either. That is nice. My position is mostly secured by being Howard’s right hand. But last night I got the chance to talk about my projects and accomplishments that are separate from Howard’s. That was a nice ego boost.

It was past midnight when we returned to our room. I didn’t want to leave the party. It was still in full swing and I was having fun. But I knew that if I did not get sleep today would be miserable. I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to settle into sleep, but I crashed quickly once I lay down. In the few quiet minutes before sleep claimed me, I reviewed conversations and events. This has been a marvelous trip. I’ve many many new friends that I’ll need to follow up with after the con is over. But no matter how wonderful all of this is, I’m starting to feel ready to go home. This is beautiful and glorious, but it is not my life. I don’t want to stay here forever. I will enjoy today and tomorrow as much as I can, but I will be glad to get back home.

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.