Half way through the con [08/08/08]

[mbernardi]

So I woke up late this morning 7am! and got to the favoured Corner Bakery Cafe at 1147 16th St. later than I wanted. Had a regular coffee with Baked French Toast, which came with fruit salad and 3 strips of bacon, one of which was crispy, but the other two were nearly as floppy as I asked. This is one of the divides between the US and the UK. Those on this side of the pond think that if you can't snap the bacon in two it's under done, whereas we on the other side of the pond prefer to be able to taste the texture of the meat rather than eating wood chips!

Anyway I spent an hour on my eeePc updating stuff and had to leave before I finished as it was nearing 9am and I wanted to sign up for a Kaffeeklatch. But I also needed provisions so went to Walgreens where I got half a dozen KrispyKreme donuts, some gum and a belated birthday card.

I got to the signup sheet at 9:10 only to discover that the one I wanted was fully signed up, and the queues had started at 7:30! Fortunately they was a reading at 10am with the same author Patricia C Wrede and when she arrived early there were fewer in the audience than on the signup sheet, so we got a chance to ask a few questions. Pat read from her new book "The 13th Child" out in April 2009 her first original novel in 11 years! She read selected highlights, rather than the first x chapters and it was really cool, I really wish I didn't have to wait eight months to read the whole novel. This will be the first part of a trilogy of stories set in this new world. She hopes to write a book each year.

After the reading I got a chance to chat, this was the first time I'd managed to meet Pat in person, despite corresponding via email for years. We walked back to the CCC together when we parted.

I had a few words with madrobin on my way to the dealers room, where I finally succumbed and bought 4 books from Larry Smith (he has a minimum $30 purchase requirement for Credit Card purchases) and given the no access to ATMs I need to conserve my cash.

At 1pm Lois gave her Guest of Honor Speech, it lasted about half an hour and was followed by 45 mins of Q&As, and fortunately her voice held out. Out in the foyer after Frank K, Franz T, growlycub, little egret and a couple of other listies clumped together for a few minutes before I split for Trailer Park, where trailers for forthcoming movies were shown, inc Bond, Harry Potter. This finished in less than an hour so I was able to update my offline blog,

Then Sufford moderated "The ages of a writer's life" a panel of Bob Silverberg, Connie willis, Lois Bujold and Larry Niven. After an hour the panel answered questions from the floor, though Bob a to leave early.

I met nlbarber after this and got a spare signed Analog from her, realised I'd left a bag of books in the previous panel room! Dashed back and found them, followed her to a panel ""After the day job goes" with Steve Miller (kinzel), Robin Owens, Russel Davis and Colin Harvey. Found growlycub there too.

Afterwards we dashed to Arby's on 16th St for a meal, which we intended to take back to the CCC to eat there. But just as we started to leave a thunderstorm rolled in and it started to rain. So we ate in the shop (I'd put the meal on my card, and got cash back from the two ladies, eeking out my ca$h, Arby's was the only place that used chip and pin). I had a regular beef sandwich, curly fries, and a jamocha shake.

By the time we had finished it had stopped raining and we got back to the CCC just before the Masquerade started. When it finished I discovered my shoulder bag containing my passport amoungst other things was missing. Some time between 5:30 and 9:30 I mislaid it! I left at once to check at Arby's, with no luck, then back to the hostel, where I was able to get a photo copy of my passport just in case. Further blog entries were added, but without the pocket program there may be timing and titling errors. (I later realised I had an electronic copy in my Palm, but I wasn't really thinking straight by then. Bed 11:20pm