Over the Labor Day weekend I attended my very first Worldcon, conveniently held in nearby Boston. I returned home late Monday evening both poorer and darned tired, but I'm really glad I went.



Thursday:

Jennifer (aka arcaedia) and I headed out early in the evening, with me driving through the better-than-expected traffic to get to the end of the T, which we then took into the city itself. By the time we made it to the Marriot, and checked in, there wasn't time for dinner if we were going to make it to Jim Butcher's reading on time, so we decided to wait and eat afterwards. That ended up working out pretty well, as, after a very good reading, we ended up heading out to the nearby Marche for dinner with Jim and his wife Shannon. In case you were wondering, yes, Jim's a really cool guy (and Shannon is pretty darned cool too). It was a late dinner though, and we decided to skip stopping by the bar, so as to be better rested for the rest of the con.

Friday:

While Jenn headed off to a breakfast meeting, I took my time getting myself in gear, eventually meeting up with her at a group reading for The Thackery T Lambshead Pocket Guide to Eccentric & Discredited Diseases. I was mainly there to see Cory Doctorow and Jay Lake read, but all of the authors ended up being really entertaining. I had planned on also going to a few other panels and readings that day, but instead I spent much of the afternoon looking through the dealer's room, before a late lunch with Jenn at Cafe Jaffa.

That evening I went with Jenn to attending the Avon party out at the New England Aquarium. The party itself was situated in the jellyfish exhibit, which was pretty interesting in and of itself, and I got to meet several publishing people that I'd heard Jenn talk about in the past. Oh, and I got to smell Neil's jacket too. *grin*

After that it was back to the Sheraton bar for the first "Two Beers and a Short Story" contest, the brainchild of Laura Anne Gilman (aka suricattus), in which five authors all wrote short stories while drinking two beers. Jay Lake (aka jaylake) was the first to finish both his beers and his story, which ended up being by far the weirdest of the five, but I thought everyone did a fine job, and Laura Anne ended up with a good start to a longer piece. Oh, and in case you're thinking that watching five writers type away at their keyboards sounds pretty boring, let me assure you that with this crowd it was not. There was plenty of singing and random silliness to liven things up. Once that was over, we followed the very patient Alison (Frank Wu's lovely wife) up to their room for one of Frank's always fun parties. When Jay arrived things got a bit zany, as Frank got out the rocket pinata, and, as we had no stick to hit it with, Jay broke it over his head, spraying candy around the room.

Saturday:

I went to the art show with Jenn, and, like her, was impressed by art that was well out of my price range. Another pass through the dealer's room and general wandering took up a chunk of the afternoon, and then, while Jenn went off to meet with clients, I attended a panel called "Postcapitalist Social Mechanisms," which ended up being an example of one way that panels definitely should not be run. I was there because both Cory Doctorow and Charlie Stross were on the panel, and it was about a topic I was interested in, but the academician who had been chosen to moderate the panel decided that his job was to constantly tell the writers that they were wrong. It was maddening, and Charlie was AWOL, so it was definitely not a good time.

Then came Sarah's (aka matociquala) reading, and after that I joined Jenn, Laura Anne and Sarah for dinner at Elephant Walk. The food was excellent, as was the company, and it was a very enjoyable way to spend the first part of the evening.

Next up was the launch party in the sff.net suite for Laura Anne's Staying Dead, as well as Jay Caselberg's (aka James) Metal Sky and Keith's (aka kradical) Dragon Precinct, which went very well, and then we went back down to the Sheraton bar in time to congratulate Jay Lake on winning the Cambell and Frank Wu on winning a Hugo. Both awards were truly well-deserved.

Sunday:

The day started off with brunch at the Marriot with Jenn, Jim Butcher and Shannon. Then Jenn was off to meet with a client while I took yet another swing through the dealer's room (which netted me a couple more books), and met up with her at a panel about "fantasy noire" (or "fantasy noir"), which we mainly went to because Jim was on it. Jenn went off for more meetings (and yes, she did have a very busy convention), while I wandered about the con some, and then went to a panel called "The Pains (and Promises) of Rejection Slips." It was run by the always great Teresa Nielsen Hayden, and was both as entertaining and informative as I'd hoped it would be. Dinner was a definite step down from the night before, with me grabbing a couple of slices of pizza in the Prudential Mall food court, and then I went to a couple of readings. The first was by Tanya Huff, but I'll admit that I only sat in on it because I was early for Jay Lake's reading. Tanya read a short piece that was fairly entertaining, and she's definitely a good reader. Then it was time for Jay's reading, which consisted of two excellent short stories from a recent issue of Realms of Fantasy, and then one from Greetings from Lake Wu. In addition to being a brilliant writer, Jay's a very good reader too, and I'd highly recommend going to see him at a con (or wherever) if you have the chance, whether or not you've previously read any of his work. After that, I met up with Jenn again....and discovered that she'd lost her voice. This sort of scaled back our partying plans for the evening, but fortunately her friends Ric and Anne were having a small gathering not far down the hall, at which there was some really excellent single-malt to be had, so we hung out there and watched the masquerade on the televsion.

Monday:

I'd intended to go to a panel or two, but instead the day mainly consisted of packing up, gathering our books from Larry Smith's table in the dealer's room, and saying goodbye to all sorts of people that we just happened to run into at various points. The trek home was a pain, as the fine people at the T had decided that it was a good weekend to shut down part of the subway line that led to our car out at the end of the red line, making the trip a real project. The weather was gorgeous, and we decided to take long, relaxing drive out through northern Massachusetts, making it all the way out to Northampton, where we had an excellent dinner at an Italian place called Spoleto before heading back to Connecticut.

It was an excellent way to spend a weekend, and I'm looking forward to attending another Worldcon someday.