Day 2 Thursday

[mbernardi]

Woke up at 5, couldn't get back to sleet so got up at 6:30, walked to 16 St. Mall caught free bus to Arapahoe Street and back at the original Corner Bakery Cafe, 1147 16th St. (with many power points). Only had an apple and coffee, as breakfast is with Lois McMaster Bujold! when I went to pay I discovered my leather money bag, containing my change had disappeared, sometime between 5pm and 7am.

Anyway plugged eeePC in, connected to Wifi and checked email and added LJ user links to yesterday's upload (Tuesday). Spent an hour writing updates then left for the Hyatt for breakfast with Lois and daughter,

nlbarber , Megaera, Mary D, and filkferengi , who arrived last despite having a Hyatt room, though just before the 9am original meeting time, outside the Altitude Restarant at 650 15th St.

Most of the table choose the buffet, but Meg and I had pancakes which were pretty good, but not as good as those from IHOP! After an hour of chat and eating we dispersed, but before that Lois handed out signed copies of the original Analog magazine that contained the first part of Falling Free.

I returned to the Crowne Plaza to see if my money bag had been handed in, to no avail, then to the CCC where I continued to update my conrep.

later.... went to panel "How do ebooks change writing" James B was there and I gave him the signed Analog from Lois. Then followed this with the unaired "Heroes" pilot. The biggest change being the loss of the Molly thread and instead having a nuclear terrorist threat instead.

I then went up to 16th St Mall and has an Arby's beef sandwich for lunch, before rushing back to the Hyatt for a

rolanni  & kinzel  reading, which didn't happen, where expected. Apparently it moved to a larger location but there were no signs at the original site or in the newsletter, so I missed it.

 At 4pm Lois was reading from The Sharing Knife: Horizon, the 4th book in the series, due out in Feb 09. The Golden Compass (the movie) was playing next door, and at the start it was a bit difficult to hear, especially as Lois' voice was not at it's best. But the sound system was tweaked and the film reached a quieter level after a while. Lois started with a few Q&As to allow stragglers to arrive. She read sections from the first three chapters, (she missed out Whit & Berry getting married), but we did see the end of the party afterwards. and we ended with Dag's troop meeting a new Maker. There were a few points where the whole room laughed at a scene, or comment, the worst thing was knowing we can't find out what happens next until next year! Lois finished off with some more Q&As. Most were about the Wide Green World series (that Horizon is part of) but the most Frequently Asked Question was posed "Will Ivan get his own book?" to which the answer "maybe" was not satisfying but...

By the time Lois had finished, it was nearly 5:30 and I had an appointment with Irene, outside the convention center by the blue bear we waited until nearly six and only one other person (Julian) had arrived so a pick-up call was made and Irene's Dad arrived to take us to his home.

The traditional James B sponsored Worldcon curry was held mostly outside and the first half dozen or so arrivals fell to chopping onions (and other ingredients. More people turned up, discussion occurred and drinks were drunk. Then James arrived to start the process of turning misc ingredients into excellent curry Most of us had seconds (some even had thirds) then we were called back for desert. Things started winding down around 11 and Sufford and I got a lift from a local listie, to our respective hotel/hostel. I was in bed by 11:30.