WorldCon Day 1, For Reals

It’s close to midnight in San Antonio, and I’m having trouble forming interesting words to recap today’s experiences. Don’t get me wrong; I’ve had a phenomenal day. I just might not have the words at hand to talk about it in an interesting fashion.

It started off with me getting up early enough to make it to the Walk with the Stars. This is basically just a morning stroll around the local area with some of the distinguished guests of the convention. This morning, there was Phil Foglio and Lawrence Shoen and one or two others that I don’t remember. The walk was around an hour long, and the San Antonio weather was warm and humid. By the time we got back to the convention center, my shirt was sticking to my skin from the sweat.

I went back to my room, cooled off and ensured that I wouldn’t offend anyone’s noses, and then went on to the con suite to get an apple for breakfast. I also drank a bottle of water. My wife would be proud of me.

I talked to lots of interesting people. The unfortunate thing for me is that I am fairly terrible with names. Everyone says that, but I really do struggle sometimes. I suppose meeting a large number of people in a short time exacerbates the situation a bit.

One person I ran into was Jim Doty, a fairly successful self-published author. I first met Jim at Westercon a few months ago. It was over dinner with Jim and Michael that I determined that I needed to stop whining about writing and start acting like a proper writer. In other words, it was partly because of Jim that I started this blog in the first place, so I was fairly pleased to run into him.

We talked for a little bit, went our separate ways, and I eventually wandered into the dealer’s room when it opened. To my surprise, Lee Harris from Angry Robot recognized me from last year and greeted me warmly. I chatted with him very briefly, but walked away feeling like a celebrity.

Wandering around a bit more in the dealer’s room, I found myself at the bookbaby.com table, where I ran into Julia, another person that I recognized from last year. We talked for a bit, and eventually I went to lunch with Julia’s assistant Christine. It was Christine’s first WorldCon, and either from the excitement of being at the con, or from travel fatigue, she forgot her bag at the lunch court. We had only stepped away from our table for a moment, but it was gone when she went back to get it. Fortunately, it had been turned in to lost and found, and she was able to get it back fairly quickly.

Then I was off to my first panel, which was all about how to get an agent. Like in Reno and Chicago, I took thorough notes. It was mostly a Q & A, and I wrote down some good information. It was mostly stuff I already knew, but it still kept my interest.

After the panel, I returned to my room for a few minutes. I dropped off my laptop before heading down for a Kaffeeklatsch with Shiela Williams. Shiela Williams was the celebrity I got to speak to at my very first Kaffeeklatsch in Reno. She was just as interesting to talk to this time as she was last time. When the Kaffeeklatsch was finished, I wound up walking her back to the Rivercenter hotel so that she could make it to Opening Ceremonies.

Shortly after that, I met up with Michael. I hung out with him as he went through registration, and then we went together into the Dealer’s Room to catch up with some more people. We wound up going to Howard Taylor’s booth, and met up with some absolutely fantastic people. They invited Michael and I to their room, where they had a kitchen and they made us dinner. It was a simple meal, but it was tasty, and it was made all the more delicious by their hospitality and generosity. I wish I could remember their names. I’ll have to see them again tomorrow so that I can commit their names to memory.

After dinner, Michael and I met up with Jim, and eventually went to the Booksworn party. Like most con parties, it was crowded and noisy and hot from all the warm bodies crowded together. There were drinks to be had, but I stuck with water. I’m not usually that comfortable at parties, to be perfectly honest, but I was relaxed and sociable at this one. I talked with dozens of people. I gave away bunches of business cards.

And now I’m back in my room, preparing to do the voodoo I need to do in order to post this. I wish I could add links for all of the people I mentioned, because they’re all amazing. WorldCon is fantastic. As I told some people earlier today, this con is like vitamins for me. I come here and just feel better. I’m going to be exhausted in the end, but it’ll be a good, well earned exhaustion.

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