The first person I saw on my list was The Brownshirt, who was sitting
on a couch in the lobby, getting ready for the day. When I gave her
the news, she told me to be sure to let others know, not to let the
information end with her. I showed her my list, and she seemed to approve.
I could tell she'd been having a rough weekend.
Next, I stopped into Ops to tell them about the situation, and they
made a note of it. The editor of the Philicon Rocket said to
wish him well and to thank him for getting her updates in a timely manner.
I tried then to call The Dormouse, who was going to be running a 10
a.m. game, but his phone wasn't on. By this time, it was nearly time
to meet The Game Designer, so I headed for the lobby. When he saw me,
he rushed to the restaurant entrance so that he could announce when
I arrived, "You're late!"
As we entered the restaurant, I gave him The Gryphon's apologies for
not making him. He joked, "Tell him I'll never forgive him unless
he goes to Boskone."
That's the SF convention in The Game Designer's neck of the woods. I
promised to relay the message.
Two other guys joined us for breakfast, both gamers, and I'm sure that
The Gryphon would have enjoyed meeting them. Still, they were very nice,
and we had an interesting conversation about the differences between
various conventions and the challenges with organizing them.
I excused myself as soon as I'd paid my check, because I had to try
one last time to contact The Dormouse. I walked toward the Gaming area,
figuring he'd probably be there by now. When I discovered he wasn't,
I called him again. Turns out he was running late. Since I had to get
upstairs to my panel, I stopped in at Ops again and apprised them of
the situation. Carolyn promised to make a sign so that any prospective
gamers would know to wait.
Stopping back just before I had to run up, I saw The Cheshire Cat and
arranged to meet him after our respective panels. I owed him coffee,
I told him, because I'd promised to get him some if he could convince
The Pop Junkie not to play a clip from the anime Frankenstein during
Saturday night's "Bad Anime, Bad!!!" panel. I don't know who's
influence convinced him — mine, The Cheshire Cat's, or The Dormouse's
— but the bad anime panel had been blessedly Frankenstein-free.
My panel was called "Whose Brain Do We Like to Pick?" and
was about what sources authors mine for ideas. My fellow panelists were
Victoria Janssen (moderator), Jim Reichert, and Genevieve Iseult Eldredge.
As we settled in, we agreed that we didn't expect the panel to be huge,
given the time and the subject. Before we got started, we chatted with
our few audience members about what makes a good panel. One woman, who
had short, curly hair and was wearing horn-rimmed glasses, said she
hates it when panels don't address the topic they're supposed to address.
She also hates it when panelists get into ugly arguments with each other,
especially if they're off topic.
About four audience members had arrived by the starting time. We first
introduced ourselves. Since The Gryphon wasn't there, I had no one to
snap a picture, so I used the timer and tried to take one as people
were introducing themselves. It didn't work terribly well, since I hadn't
brought my Gorillapod.
I did notice somebody else in the audience taking a picture or two.
Afterwards, she gave me her business card and told me she'd send me
the pictures.
Then we panelists went down the row, each discussing how
we find inspiration, as a writer. Everybody on the panel but me was
a fiction writer, and they emphasized research, discussing how that
can help to build an idea into a story. I added that, with poetry, research
sometimes factors in afterwards, if you want to incorporate specifics,
such as naming a flower rather than just saying "flower."
We all shared different methods of finding inspiration,
ranging from taking a walk to listening to music to reading newspapers
and clipping interesting articles. Jason Reichart had even brought a
few articles he'd clipped because he felt they might lead to a story.
I was a little surprised we had enough to say on the topic
to fill a whole hour, but we springboarded off each other to discuss
topics like writing on a deadline, writing with no inspiration, and
breaking through writer's block.
Afterwards, the audience member with curly hair and glases
came up to me and took some extra Wild Violet postcards. She told me
that this was the best panel she'd attended all weekend. In particular,
she liked that we all got along so well and stayed on topic.
From there, I headed down to the Gaming area, where I'd
arranged to meet The Cheshire Cat and The Dormouse to get some coffee.
Of course, The Dormouse was supposed to be running a game, so The Cheshire
Cat and I had agreed to bring him coffee if he was in the middle of
it. Sadly for him, no one had shown up (probably because of the short
notice).
Batman also joined us. He was there as The Dormouse's
guest for the day. Instead of me buying everyone coffee in the loby,
as I'd offered, The Cheshire Cat suggested we go to the Con su8ite and
grab some coffee there. Along the way, I mentioned that I hoped we'd
run into The Green Man, because I knew he was a Tim Powers fan, and
I wanted to find out if there was anything he'd like me to ask Tim Powers
when I interviewed him later in the day.
Just after I said that, The Cheshire Cat pointed and said,
"There he is." Sure enough, The Green Man was walking across
the hall, right in front of us. I called out to him and asked if he
wanted to join us in the Con Suite for a while. He said sure.
As we were standing in the hallway, chatting, who else
should walk by but Tim Powers! I took the opportunity to remind him
that I planned to stop by his reading time slot at 1. He had told me
that, since he doesn't do readings, he was just going to do signings
instead. Perhaps, he'd suggested, we'd be able to talk at that time,
if there weren't too many fans waiting for autographs.
Then, as we headed up to the Con Suite, we encountered
a surreal sight: a skunk playing a piano while Eric S. Raymond listened.
Raymond, by the way, is one of the most well-known spokesman for opensource
software. He wrote the paper "The Cathedral and the Bazaar."
Incidentally, the skunk actually didn't stink: he was good!
Upon arriving in the Con Suite, we looked for coffee.
We found a half-devoured cake on the table. At first I thought it was
left over from The Anthology Editor's book launch the night before,
but when I asked, a curly-haired father wearing a black T-shirt and
purple pants, whose boy and girl, about 7 and 8, were playing nearby,
told us the cake was from a group birthday party, to honor anyone who
had a birthday during Philcon.
Cake they had, but the only form of coffee was instant.
I discussed the issue allowed with a bleary-eyed woman next to me, who
suggested we try the Green Room instead. Our panelists badges, she assured
us, would get us in with no problem. So we headed upstairs, along with
The Cheshire Cat and The Dormouse, while The Green Man, presumably not
interested in coffee, took a seat in the corner to wait.
Along the way, I chatted with the woman, who told me that
one of her friends owns a small publishing company. We swapped business
cards. After all, it can't hurt, right? Our coffee quest was successful,
and while the woman enjoyed her coffee in the Green Room, the rest of
us took ours back to the Con Suite.
We pulled up chairs around The Green Man, who was paging
through a blank book he'd filled with some of his favorite poems. "Do
you want me to read one?" he asked. I told him sure, as long as
it was child appropriate. The two children were still playing nearby.
After flipping through the pages for a while, The Green Man chose a
poem by Yeats. The room hushed as a number of people gathered around
to listen.
When he finished, a guy with long, frizzy gray hair said
that he loved Yeats. He and I tried to remember one of our favorite
Yeats poems, "The
Cat and the Moon," reciting it in fragments. "Do you dance,
Minnaloushe, do you dance?" I said that, if I ever have a male
black cat, I'll name him Minnaloushe. Of course, as I type that, my
white kitty, Luke, is lying on my lap, purring. Luke (yes, as in Skywalker)
is a nice name, too.
After a relaxing chat, everyone but The Green Man checked
out the Dealers' Room, where I bought several books, including two by
Darrell Schweitzer, editor of Weird Tales. Turns out he also
writes poetry in addition to fiction.
I headed upstairs to Executive Suite 623, where the Tim
Powers reading was supposed to be held. A few people also showed. One
distributed chocolate, which he said he was trying to give away before
he headed home. After we'd waited a while, the editor of the Philcon
Rocket came and told us that Tim Powers had moved to a table outside
one of the ballrooms to do a signing.
We all headed downstairs. Along the way, I chatted with
the guy who'd given us chocolate. He was a game designer, so I took
his card to pass along to The Gryphon.
As soon as I neared the table, I could see Tim Powers
was busy and it would be a bad time for an interview. So I waited in
line with The Green Man, and when I got a chance, arranged to meet Tim
Powers after his 2 p.m. panel. Since that room would be unoccupied afterwards,
we figured we could talk there.
I looked at the schedule and decided to attend The Anthology
Editor's reading at 2. Since I had a little time to kill until them,
I headed for the nearby Gaming area. Sure enough, The Cheshire Cat,
The Dormouse and Batman were gathered at a table, where The Cheshire
Cat was talking over his ideas for his next panel, which unfortunately
would coincide with the time I was supposed to meet with Tim Powers.
The topic was "Making Money Off of Your Webcomic," and he
found it slightly amusing he was on the panel, since he hasn't actively
sought to make money off his two Web comic projects, A
Miracle of Science and Afterlife
Blues. But it sounded like he had some interesting thoughts to share,
and I assured him that he would do well.
As I arrived at the executive suite for The Anthology
Editor's reading, one older gentleman was already there. Two more showed
while we were waiting for her. When she arrived, I told her that I would
have to leave early for another commitment but would stay as long as
I could.
She read both from her new book and from an upcoming book
project about vampires, and because the audience was so small, she sat
close to us, in a chair. It was like story time, except the stories
were considerably darker than those you might hear in a children's library.
While she read, a thin guy in the front row busily worked
on some sort of intricate craft, involving taking things out of a plastic
container and manipulating small objects..
I got to hear two entire stories before waving good-bye
and ducking out of the room. The panel in Crystal Ballroom Two, "The
Devil Is in the Details," was just winding up. I walked next door
and let Ops know that I'd be interviewing Tim Powers for Wild
Violet in that room. Then, I simply waited for people to clear
out so that we could talk. A book dealer, who had made a prior arrangement,
brought in a stack of book, which Tim Powers signed during our initial
discussion.
Instead of going through most of the questions I'd written
ahead of time, I directed the discussion around topics he'd addressed
in his key note speech, since he brought up interesting thoughts about
the differences between SF and mainstream fiction, as well as about
his writing process. His wife entered about halfway through the interview
and sat quietly, listening to us as we talked. We had a nice discussion,
and when I notified him that we'd hit the half-hour mark, he told me
we could extend the conversation a little longer. We talked for about
ten more minutes, and I thanked him for his time.
Before he left, because I've had issues in the past with
getting photos after the fact, I took a quick snapshot of him. He did,
however, point me towards a Web site where he says they have a good
photo of him that I can probably get permission to use.
Afterwards, I met up with The Cheshire Cat, The Dormouse
and Batman, and we discussed the possibility of going to dinner. While
we were standing around, trying to figure out what to do, The Cheshire
Cat and I agreed that The Dormouse should be the leader. Normally, either
The Cheshire Cat or I step up and lead the group, so The Dormouse seemed
a little hesitant at first. But as soon as he realized that we really
meant it and were going to follow him on a path of his choosing, he
made a quick decision: we would go up to the Anime room, where the final
anime panel was ending, and find out who wanted to join us for dinner.
I guessed, correctly, that the anime panel would still
be going, despite the fact that it was supposed to be over at 4. Remembering
that The Dormouse had bought a Dr. Who laser screwdriver in the Dealers'
Room, I suggested that he might have to zap The Pop Junkie with it in
order to force him to stop the panel.
Despite my efforts to egg him on, and even though he'd
actually removed the laser screwdriver from his bag, The Dormouse didn't
forcibly end the panel. Instead, we stood in the back of the room, making
snarky comments, until all the audience members had quietly snuck out,
and the only people left were the panelists!
The Dormouse asked who'd like to go to dinner, and most
everyone agreed to come, once we got the equipment put away. This took
quite a while, since the anime panels rely on showing video clips, all
on equipment The Pop Junkie provides. While we were waiting, I ran into
the guy who'd been engaged in a mysterious activity during The Anthology
Editor's reading. Turns out he was a friend of hers and had been making
her a beautiful pair of beaded earrings.
Finally, close to 5:30 or so, we had gathered all the
equipment and settled on a restaurant: Chili's. We split up into several
cars and made our separate ways. The Cheshire Cat, who was beginning
to yawn, excused himself and drove home, fearing that he'd fall asleep
on the road if he had dinner first. Batman also parted ways with us,
leaving The Dormouse, me, The Pop Junkie, Robert Fenelon, and all three
voice actors: Amy Howard Wilson and Dave Wilson III (who's taken to
calling me "cousin," due to our last names), along with Kris
Nelson.
As if they knew we were going to be boisterous, they set
us at two conjoined tables in a little nook, separated by a hallway
from the rest of the restaurant. The Pop Junkie was last to arrive and,
when he did, took a seat on the end.
The dinner conversation was wide-ranging and silly, encompassing
everything from our commentary on SF series to voice acting stories
to funny personal stories. In particular, Robert Fenelon and The Pop
Junkie traded stories back and forth, almost as if they were in a story
competition. Since they were at opposite ends of the table, it was a
little bit like watching a ping-pong match. Those of us in the middle
made asides, often in funny voices or accents.
In the ultimate compliment, Amy Howard Wilson liked so
much the way I said, "Oh, noooo!" in response to one story
that she insisted I record an MP3 of it. She wants to use it as an error
sound on her computer, she says. I've recorded it twice, just for fun.
You can listen to it in the players below and download the WAV file
by right-clicking on the links below.
Alyce
Wilson - Ohh nooo! (version 1)
Alyce
Wilson - Ohh nooo! (version 2)
