At WorldCon

I’m sitting here in the lobby of the Sheraton Boiston, using Nomi Burstein’s laptop, checking e-mail and taking a moment to catch you up on activity here at WorldCon. A laptop and wirelss, is just so neat a concept. Sitting beside me, pounding away on his laptop and wireless is our webmaster Glenn. Hi Glenn.Took Amtrak up here on Thursday to avoid traffic and high parking fees. It arrived late and still got me to Boston early. Meandered my way to the hotelk, dropped off my stuff in the room I’m sharing with the Bursteins and then registered.Even though there are some 6000 people here, it doesn’t feel crowded. The con facilities are spread out and while full, there’s no congestion which is nice. I keep running into old friends along the way which is nice, especially the out-of-towners. Registrtation was a breeze and I was surprised to be handed a pocket program that resembled a fulls-zed magazine, Every room has been filled with activities from knitting to discussion on quantum physics. And lots about science fiction.I had nothing scheduled but attended a few discussions and then wandered the dealers room where I was happy to see a table witht he debut of Red Jacket Press’s facsimiles of David A. Kyle’s books from the 1950s. David’s a great guy, one of the founders of science fiction fandom, and his daughter Kerry and her husband (and old pal) Brian Peace created the company to resurrect some of these great books that people can rediscover.The Con Suite is well-appointted with games, books, and tons of munchies. I keep looking for someone to play chinese checkers with,m but hey, the weekend is just beginning.I watched lots of silly programming featuring the Bursteins and/or Keith DeCandido that even and was finally fallinjg asleep so went back to the room.This morning we got up late and as I was finally getting my coffee, ran into an ex-coworker of Deb’s, who is a big fan. I then went to read in the Con Suite when I ran into Lawrence Watt-Evans. We haven’t chatted since, he claims, 1986, so we spent two hours catching up along with his delightful wife Julie.I then attended an interesting panel on researching your work and knowing when enough is enough. Afterward, I had lunch with Charles Adair and his wife Naomi. Charles is one of those guys who has done lots of different things including help found Juno, but you never heard of him. He’s cool, though. Naomi just sold a fantasy trilogy to DelRey so she’s thrilled with the world right about now.At 3, I went to the SFF.net suite for my autographing, only to discover that they had been posting an older version of the schedule so no one knew about it so no one came. So, I spent the hour having a lively political chat with those in the suite, including an old con buddy of mine, Mitch, who I tend to see only at the Baltimore cons as well as I-Con. Speaking of Baltimore, I then ran into Marty Gear, another old pal. He started talking about being at the 1953 Hugo Awards, the first time they were presented. He’s got such an amiable style, I just love listening to his stories.After a brief visit with author Janna Silverstein, I went to heckle the How to Write Comics panel, only to have Scott Edelman invite me on the stage as the most qualified person in the room to discuss the topic. So, I shared the stage with Scott, Keith, and Kevin J. Anderson, whom I had never met before. Afterwards, I thanked Kevin and his wife Rebecca Moesta for the Young Jedi series of novels that was a staple of my bedtime reading ritual with Robbie.I then stole Nomi’s computer and began e-mailing and blogging until it was time for dinner. When Gwen David, daughter of Peter, read here that I was coming, she suggested dinner. Afer much haggling with various parties, we were going out tonight. It was Gwen, Keith, Glenn, and we were joined en route by a hungry (and well dressed) Janna. Gwen took us a few blocks away for some very good Thai food and a lively conversation.WorldCons tend to stand out from other shows, including comics conventions, with the abundence of parties. There are parties for groups trying to woo your vote fro a future WorldCon selection; there are publisher parties, a birthday party in Klingon, a couple gettging married soon but celebrating now, and much more. The nearly hourly Triplanetary Gazette has a complete listing of tonight’s parties, all in the Sheraton’s north tower. (The currewnt edition just announced the results of the 1953 Retrospective Hugo Awards [making up for the lack of awards in 1954] and Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 took best novel with James Blish nabbing bith the Best Novella and Best Novelette nods.)So, it’s off to the parties. More reports as time permits.