It's Friday I'm in Love
Friday I woke up at Ahna's, went back to my place, packed clothes and a camera, printed the stories I wanted to read and my intinerary flyers, and swung back to pick up Ahna. I'd told her that I wanted to leave her place at 11:30 to make my 1:00 panel, and she was rarin' to go at 11:29. Ahna, you rock. We even got to site a little early, so we had time to get something to eat. Ahh, there's nothing else quite like Taco Bell for breakfast, thank God.
Anyway, my first panel was "Weird movies of which you've never heard," which despite its grammatically torured title, was pretty entertaining. I was a little worried about the fact that I hadn't prepared adequately for this panel, but I shouldn't have been; most people showed up wanting to share what they knew, rather than simply receive information, so the panel practically ran itself. The other panelists (Leopold Marino and Edward Martin III) and I quickly and easily fell into banter back and forth as if we were old friends. Pretty awesome.
My next panel was at 3:00 -- I don't know what we did with the hour in between, but I feel sure it was reasonably entertaining. "Psychology of Horror" featured myself, Eric Morgret, and Arinn Dembo, and they were bright, sharp, well-spoken people I was perfectly happy to be sharing a panel with. My only complaint about the panel is that the audience seemed a little, well, humorless, and my usual sparkling bon-vivant panelist vibe seemed to fall a little flat. Oh, well. There were good points raised all around, on why we write and read and watch horror, and it was a good time. Someone came up afterward and bought one of my books, so I must have made a good impression.
That took care of my obligations until 10:00, so we bopped around the con, had fun hanging out with people, until it was time for Ahna and Sally and I to head over to Claim Jumper's for Max's birthday party. Gettting there was kind of entertaining -- I knew where it was, but I didn't know how the roads connected up between our starting point and our destination -- but we weren't terribly late, so it's all good. I didn't know practically anybody, but they all seemed be gaming, anime and comic book geeks -- you know, good people -- so it was almost like we hadn't left the con. Good times. I like Max lots and wish I had more excuses to hang out with him.
We got back to the con and went to the Cult of Scott Bakula party. These guys are fun and have a lot of good energy. The highlight of it was watching theda dance to "Baby Got Back," which she 0wnz0rs. We did leave before the party's wet T-shirt contest, an event that represents the kind of crass pandering bullshit the other parties seem to feel they have to resort to. It made me miss the Merchants party something fierce.
My reading was at 10:00 -- actually, it was supposed to be me and one other guy, but he didn't show, so it was all me, baby. I read, let's see, "Orpheus", "Running Time", "Playworld" and "The Wolf's Tale". Not heavily attended, but an enthusiastic audience. (Well, aside from a couple of people who left during "Orpheus," presumably because I don't get right to the eviscerations, I guess.)
Then I meant to go to the dance, but instead ran into Karen, a.k.a. Kaisa, my best friend in EEPer days. This is only the second time I've seen her in about ten years. I got to introduce her to Ahna. (That was one of my great pleasures of the weekend, actually -- introducing Ahna to several of my old friends, watching her get to put faces to all my stories, watching them be charmed by her beauty and humor and grace. Several of them commented on how happy I seemed to be with her. I'm glad it's so obvious.)
Ahna went on ahead to the dance so Karen and I could hang out in the lobby and catch up as best we could on our lives and the lives of people we both knew. She apparently reads my journal, so if you're reading this, hi! Send me mail!
I caught up with Ahna and went to the dance for a while, danced some, mostly sat and watched her dance, which is always a pleasure, and then started to get sleepy, so we cut things short and went home around 2:00am. A much, much better day than Thursday.
Anyway, my first panel was "Weird movies of which you've never heard," which despite its grammatically torured title, was pretty entertaining. I was a little worried about the fact that I hadn't prepared adequately for this panel, but I shouldn't have been; most people showed up wanting to share what they knew, rather than simply receive information, so the panel practically ran itself. The other panelists (Leopold Marino and Edward Martin III) and I quickly and easily fell into banter back and forth as if we were old friends. Pretty awesome.
My next panel was at 3:00 -- I don't know what we did with the hour in between, but I feel sure it was reasonably entertaining. "Psychology of Horror" featured myself, Eric Morgret, and Arinn Dembo, and they were bright, sharp, well-spoken people I was perfectly happy to be sharing a panel with. My only complaint about the panel is that the audience seemed a little, well, humorless, and my usual sparkling bon-vivant panelist vibe seemed to fall a little flat. Oh, well. There were good points raised all around, on why we write and read and watch horror, and it was a good time. Someone came up afterward and bought one of my books, so I must have made a good impression.
That took care of my obligations until 10:00, so we bopped around the con, had fun hanging out with people, until it was time for Ahna and Sally and I to head over to Claim Jumper's for Max's birthday party. Gettting there was kind of entertaining -- I knew where it was, but I didn't know how the roads connected up between our starting point and our destination -- but we weren't terribly late, so it's all good. I didn't know practically anybody, but they all seemed be gaming, anime and comic book geeks -- you know, good people -- so it was almost like we hadn't left the con. Good times. I like Max lots and wish I had more excuses to hang out with him.
We got back to the con and went to the Cult of Scott Bakula party. These guys are fun and have a lot of good energy. The highlight of it was watching theda dance to "Baby Got Back," which she 0wnz0rs. We did leave before the party's wet T-shirt contest, an event that represents the kind of crass pandering bullshit the other parties seem to feel they have to resort to. It made me miss the Merchants party something fierce.
My reading was at 10:00 -- actually, it was supposed to be me and one other guy, but he didn't show, so it was all me, baby. I read, let's see, "Orpheus", "Running Time", "Playworld" and "The Wolf's Tale". Not heavily attended, but an enthusiastic audience. (Well, aside from a couple of people who left during "Orpheus," presumably because I don't get right to the eviscerations, I guess.)
Then I meant to go to the dance, but instead ran into Karen, a.k.a. Kaisa, my best friend in EEPer days. This is only the second time I've seen her in about ten years. I got to introduce her to Ahna. (That was one of my great pleasures of the weekend, actually -- introducing Ahna to several of my old friends, watching her get to put faces to all my stories, watching them be charmed by her beauty and humor and grace. Several of them commented on how happy I seemed to be with her. I'm glad it's so obvious.)
Ahna went on ahead to the dance so Karen and I could hang out in the lobby and catch up as best we could on our lives and the lives of people we both knew. She apparently reads my journal, so if you're reading this, hi! Send me mail!
I caught up with Ahna and went to the dance for a while, danced some, mostly sat and watched her dance, which is always a pleasure, and then started to get sleepy, so we cut things short and went home around 2:00am. A much, much better day than Thursday.