Bill

To be added.

Derek

Whew...well hell, I'm back from ConJose, and it was a lot of fun.  I roomed with Mike Jasper, and met a lot of cool people that I'd only seen on-line.  I met Greg van Eekhout, Tim Pratt, Heather Shaw, and David Moles.  I saw people I knew before, like Sam Ling and Erin Cashier-Denton, and Clarion classmates Aynjel, Jennifer Baumer, and Chris Evans.

Bill, Gloria, and Melanie from my writers group were all there.  Melanie snuck us into the HarperCollins party (thanks Mel!), and Bill and I hung out a bit and caught some pretty cool panels (and one or two not so cool).

I talked to agent Joshua Bilmes for the first time.  He'd read a partial of mine but didn't remember my name (oh well), but he did say to send something along to him when I finish it.  I also exchanged a sentence with Gardner Dozois, who said he would "look for my stuff" in the slush, right after he went back to eating some Cheez-Its and talking to somebody more important.

I also managed to smuggle myself into the SFWA suite and talk a little with one of my instructors from Clarion, Sean Stewart, who was talking to Ted Chiang (who won the Nebula for best novelette this year).  Just as Sean said, "Derek, have you met Ted Chiang?" someone ran us out of the halls for making noise, blowing my chance to have a real conversation with one of the best short story writers working today.  Crapola.

Last year I left before the Hugos ceremony, but I was able to stick around this time for them, and it was a really nice ceremony.  I hadn't voted, but I'd like to actually read all the nominees this year and vote next year.

Damn...that's enough for now.  Maybe I'll post more on WorldCon later, or maybe that's enough.  Anybody have any questions about anything?.

Gloria

11:30am Believable Fantasy Worlds

Guests: Sherwood Smith (25 books plus short stories), LE Modesitt Jr (Authored 36 novels, short stories, and technical and economic articles), George RR Martin (Writer, story editor for Twilight Zone, story-consultant), PC Hodgell (3 book Fantasy novelist)

Modesitt basically asked questions of the panel and each panelist gave their thoughts. Got almost ugly toward the end when a fan seemed to accuse Martin of some of the very things he espoused not to do. (Too much caffeine?)

More. . .

Melanie

It's the end of the con, and you can feel it. People are moving a little slower today (although from tiredness or a hangover is a moot point), being a little more huggy, trying not to feel wistful as everything winds down. You know that there'll alway be next year, but there's a certain sadness when the party breaks up and the tribe scatters. *sigh*

We did have a bit of excitement this morning, trying to track down a rental car and get everything out of our room and into it. Somehow, the prospect of hauling two computer bags, a sword bag, a huge mothering suitcase, a smaller suitcase and overnight bag and an air mattress up to San Francisco via Caltrain just didn't appeal.

We finally managed to get the car reserved around noon, and were driven to the Alamo office at the SJ airport by a taxi driver who used to work for the Russian military rocket force. Serendipitously, Lyndon had just come from a panel on the Russian space program, and spent the trip talking with Sergey about it. Sergey (who was also decidedly babelicious) seemed more than a bit disgusted with his former employers (which isn't surprising -- if he's a rocket scientist and driving a taxi in San José, there had to be something seriously wrong with his former job). At Alamo we got a lovely fire engine red Pontiad Grand Am (whee!), and back at the hotel Lyndon successfully disimpacted the room and got everything loaded into it while I checked out. It then turned out that the parking lot behind the convention center was free on major holidays -- double whee!

Back at the convention center for final events, I managed to stop in and see Kris Smith during her signing, ran into Eugene, Pterry, Selina and Laura yet again, and did a final turn around the dealer's room (got another pair of flashy thingies, this time in blue) while Lyndon headed off to one last panel. At the moment, I'm sitting on the concourse, listening to a group of fen sing and taking the odd picture here and there while I wait for him.

In the words of the Bodacious Brit, "I'm hot, I'm tired, and I want me tea." But it's been an adventure, people -- hope you enjoyed following it along here.

And now, on to San Francisco! Check http://www.io.com/~hoosier/journal for vacation updates.