Boskone summary

February 19th 2007 at 6:11 pm

My main memory from this weekend’s con was the gift of a series of gastro-intestinal distress due to some bug I caught that at several points forced me to retire to my hotel room to dose up on drugs and curl up on my bed and whimper due to stomach cramps (all the more ironic considering Friday night at the con I watched the episode of Mythbusters where they force baking soda and soda-pop down a pig stomach until it explodes, which seemed like a mystical prediction of what I would be enduring within a day of seeing that). I’m dead serious. At this point I know of four or five other people who were ill with the same thing within a day of being at the convention. I don’t know what was going around, but I don’t ever want it again. Ever.

While that could have ruined a perfectly good con, I did have a wonderful Boskone. I got to catch up with various writers that I enjoy hanging around with. Cons are often water-cooler times for me to get out and be social with fellow tradesmen. I had some great panels I sat on as well. And after the plane ride back with John Scalzi as a chatting partner across the aisle, it was nice to be back home with Emily.

Some highlights from the con:

Briefly meeting Chris Howard, and Todd Wheeler and Skott.

Catching up with Jarla Tangh.

Rooming with Karl Schroeder.

Seeing Allen Steele, who’s always been just super-nice to me for no particular reason.

Getting a free dinner off my agent, Joshua Bilmes.

Getting to talk to Elizabeth Bear a bit more briefly than the ‘hi/bye’ we usually say in passing.

Running in Daniel Abraham (but not getting to hang out more was sad)

Late long night conversation with Lou Anders about all sorts of crazy and weird crap.

Talking to Neil Clark of Clarkesworld Books about his future plans after closing his bookstore. Meeting Bruce Passey, who dies in page 175 of Ragamuffin since he won the Clarkesworld tuckerization contest when he purchased a copy of Crystal Rain.

Meeting Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, who know way more about grassroots marketing and being in touch with their readers than I do. We talked about architectural room additions instead. It was interesting at the time, trust me.

Shooting the breeze with Judith Berman about following your inner geek with writing.

Saw Lawrence Schoen.

Chatting with Jim Mann and Laurie Mann (tireless convention organizers that they are!)

Best literary beer ever. John Scalzi and I had somewhere between 10-20 people at our table when we joined forces, and opportunities to monologue about all sorts of different things.

At my autographing session, having the folks at Larry Smith booksellers come out and ask if I had more copies of Crystal Rain because they’d sold out. Okay, they’d only had a few, but it was still a nice ego boost. Larry told me it’s unusual for them to carry books a year after it’s out, so I’ll still take it with a smile.

Running into Nick Mamatas, Kate Nepevu, Chad Orzel, Andy Wheeler, Laura Anne Gilman, Hannah Wolf Bowen and others (Elizabeth Bear) in the bar. The bar, where all SF writers/editors/etc seem to end up.

The hotel was out in the middle of freaking nowhere, by the way. No restaurants nearby that I could detect. Not a problem, if it wasn’t for the fact that it was a) windy and b) cold…

I’m forgetting things and people, forgive me. (Oh, yeah, like having a great lunch with Irene Gallo).

I put Boskone on my list of favorite cons. I had a blast last year, and I’m certainly hoping to get invited again for next year.

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