Nebula Awards Weekend 2008 - My Trip Report
So here at last is my Nebula trip report.
First of all, I had a fantastic time, a much-needed chance to get away and finally see some of you after a long absence from conventions due to the family medical and financial situations. I didn’t win the Nebula (Karen Joy Fowler took the honors in our category) but then that was not the point anyway. In fact, at some point during the Nebs someone told me they had seen the Nebula trophies, and I just blurted out "I don't want to know! Don't tell me, don't tell me!" :-)
The lead-up to the moment of truth is what it's all about. The rest is just icing on the Nebula cake. The juicy cherry on the top. The…the... Well, you get the point, now read on!
The airport shuttle came to pick me up from my house at 9:50 AM on Thursday the 24th and then I got to go through the LAX security which was my first time flying since 9/11 so I'd been really terrified of things like body cavity searches, and dutifully put all my liquids in the plastic baggie, and got ready for anything. But it turned out much easier than I expected. No one pulled me aside and waterboarded me. I only had to remove my shoes at the x-ray machine and put all the stuff in a plastic tray thingie.
The American Airlines plane was only a bit more comfortable than the last time I'd flown (United, I believe) but still by the end of the flight my left leg was in agony and the sight of our plane coming down through fog and puffy clouds into verdant green Austin was welcome. I got out of the dry airplane air into a hot sauna of steamy Texas air and then, gasping like a fish, did the first thing most travelers do in a new place -- I ran to pee in the airport bathroom, in the process marking Austin, Texas as my own, canine style.
Then got my bag from baggage claim, got the shuttle to the hotel, got there around 8:00 PM, and since I'd done one of those online check-in thingies at home the night before, my keys were indeed ready for me. I headed to the 3rd floor, and got out of the elevator counting doors and praying, "Please, not near an ice machine, please, not near an ice machine," when lo and behold, my room was exactly next to the ice machine. I went in, and within seconds it started, people pumping ice like thunder and lightning. So I didn’t even bother to unpack, and called the front desk, asking to be reassigned to another room.
Well, they kindly upgraded me to a "newly remodeled" suite up on the 14th floor. I got there, but the suite had a funky leather musty smell (very nasty and stifling), and the shower had very low water pressure, but I decided to grin and bear it -- after all, I was "upgraded" so I must be now satisfied, right? ;-)
So, I collapsed in my new room for the evening, after taking a hot and long shower with almost no water pressure (which explains why it was hot and long). Of course that meant there was no actual sleep happening: the bed was nice and comfy but my insomniac superpowers took over, and within hours I turned it into a twisty funnel wormhole of bedsheets. Plus the downy monster comforter weighed a ton and it almost managed to strangle me, but I won the battle eventually, beating it down and sweating in exhaustion and terror. Just as I was drifting off around 4:45 AM, I got a hotel wakeup call -- a wrong number meant for someone else! Ah, what joy... I mumbled and sputtered and decided might as well haul my ass up and out of the bedsheets canole.
After getting dressed I made it downstairs to the hotel restaurant, Ancho's, and it was around 6:30 AM. I was the first person there and then moments later a very lovely and nice woman appeared. Tall and elegant, she headed directly to my table and asked if she could join me for breakfast, and introduced herself as "Kji" Johnson. Actually, it was Kij, but the letters got transposed on her badge, and so, we laughed and it was a real pleasure meeting her, a fellow Nominee, and apparently we were the first ones there. We both got the buffet and then chatted about everything and it was great fun to finally meet Kij after having seen her online. *waving to kijjohnson*
After breakfast we went to registration on the second floor, which just barely opened, and I got my Nominee badge and ribbon, plus two goodie bags of books, including some excellent stuff by fellow Nominees that I'd wanted to get my hands on, such as CRYSTAL RAIN by Tobias Buckell, SINGULARITY'S RING by Paul Melko, and GENTLEMEN OF THE ROAD by Michael Chabon, among others.
Afterwards Kij and I wandered off to the Chambers Hospitality room on the first level, and once again we were the only ones there yet, except for the kind and welcoming convention volunteers who radiated a wallop of Texas hospitality. I went up to my room, came back down again running into Peter Heck, which is always a pleasure (not literally running into like a pair of mountain goats, but you know what I mean), and soon enough other people started showing up and it got to be rather fun and crowded. I met -- and here is where the timing gets a bit fuzzy -- Sarah Beth Durst, an absolute sweetheart with lovely ringlets of hair, and a Norton Nominee to boot, my online friend Michael Ehart who was also a wonder and a teddy bear of a guy; ran into fellow SFWA Musketeer and swordsman extraordinaire David Watson, the marvelous Lee Martindale (we got talking promptly and did some publishing business -- more on that later). Jack McDevitt and Bruce Sterling and Gordon Van Gelder and Gay and Joe Haldeman came in and regaled us with stories. The extraordinary Jane Jewell came by, looking much more relaxed than she did at the previous Nebulas. Beth Meacham and Sheila Williams arrived, and at some point there was SFWA President Michael Capobianco and Writer Beware goddess Ann Crispin. The room got loud when Diane Turnshek and her boyfriend came in, and I did a double-take -- she had blond hair and those trendy thick-rimmed black techno geek glasses, and looked fabulous but completely unrecognizable since the last time I saw her at the Arizona Nebs! There were more folks coming in, but of course my poor memory cell has reached its recall capacity, so for now let's just say it got busy.
Diane Turnshek suggested we all do lunch, and so a large group of us, including Michael Ehart (who was sweetie enough to cover my lunch as he'd promised weeks beforehand), Sarah Beth Durst, Cheryl DuCoin (a wonderful energetic Texan writer who I am thrilled to have met), Jane Jewell and Peter Heck (who caught up with us later at the restaurant), and possibly some other folks (I forget now, apologies for my poopy ole' brain) headed out of the hotel and walked about a block to Roux, a great Cajun place. Here I got the chance to try and enjoy my first Fried Green Tomatoes (which before I’d thought was only a movie title), and a marvelous Cajun pasta dish which was vegetarian and plain delicious. Cheryl told hilarious stories of snakes in a truck, geological adventures, gators, meteorites, science fiction, and we all had us a blast.
Afterwards we got back to the Omni hotel and I caught most of Sean P. Fodera's excellent presentation on contracts. Then, it was time to head back to my room and get ready for the mass autographing session and Nominee Photo-Op that has been organized by Bookpeople. Which of course meant that I had to get all spiffy and put on this funky gauzy bright red blouse, and shoes, and put on makeup and the works. (They did say, photo-op! My pictures will be all over Teh Internets!)
You can see some of it here in a photo taken by the incomparable Keith Stokes (Jennifer Pelland, me):
I wobbled into the third floor Longhorn room on my teeny red-heeled shoes (for some people that's not any cause to wobble, seeing the heels were about a quarter inch, but for me who wears no heels they were twin Kilimanjaro Peaks), long earrings with bling and rings and makeup, etc. I ran into the glamorous fellow Nominee Robin Wayne Bailey (the man is studdly, and an awesome pool player!) and then the fun began. They did a small fun(ny) ceremony with Nominee Certificates and Pins, with Michael Capobianco and Jane Jewell training us in Nominee etiquette then herding us and then handing out the Certificates and us shaking hands (a dramatic feat in itself, but somehow we Nominees managed to perform like Stooges), then Cheryl DuCoin pinning us (ahem, not like that, but with Nominee Pins, but you know what I mean), then Elizabeth Moon's gorgeous signed calendars, then past the Cerberus guard of Paul Melko, a group photo of each category, then all of us in one shot, which you can see here (photo by Keith Stokes):
Note that there were a number of Nominees not here yet (they came only the following day for the Banquet).
Here is where I got a chance to meet the fabulous Jennifer Pelland, a tall and gorgeous fellow Nominee and fellow Helix author, whom I’d been looking forward to catching up with. And then there was the gracious fellow Nominee Mary Turzillo (later in the weekend Mary and I had an absolute blast talking insider stuff), her hubby Geoff Landis, and Nominee David Levine and several others. We all stood in a circle for a moment, probably contemplating our Nominee-licious fates and throwing each other pointed looks, to, you know, measure the competition. ;-) Having measured ourselves we then proceeded to have normal fun.
After the Pinning and the Certifying and the Pics, we all sat down around the tables with nametags and waited for adoring (ahem) fans to come to us in fawning droves. Alas, there were no droves. Jen Pelland and I sat together and also with Nancy Jane Moore and spent a lot of time chatting it up and having a good time. Jen got more autographs than either of us! Now, compared to other Nebula events, there were not too many attendees, but that was the only low point. Otherwise the evening was fun and we got to mingle.
When the whole mass signing thingie was over, I made dinner plans with Elizabeth Moon and then ran upstairs to change out of the glam outfit (the shoes were killing me and the earrings and… and…) and came back down and waited for Elizabeth then we waited for Mel Tatum and the three of us decided to just eat dinner in the hotel restaurant, since Elizabeth was very tired and hungry. That turned out to be a smart idea, because moments into our dinner the skies broke open and a great glorious thunderstorm hit, with flashes of sky-white lightning, thunder, hail, and torrential monsoon rains. All of this, when witnessed from that food court area, was magnificent, with the great wall of windows providing a panoramic framing view.
The moisture-starved Californian in me perked up and I sat there going, "Goo-gaa, rain good!" We ate (I had no real entrée since the hotel did not have a vegetarian option for dinner, but had a salad and a mushroom appetizer which turned out fine) and we chatted about wonderful choral music and other fun things, and then after dinner was over Elizabeth and Mel kindly took me outside so that I could breathe the air and watch the rain. There I found another Californian who had apparently the same idea and we had a laugh about that.
Then my dining companions went upstairs to their rooms to retire early and I went up, freshened up a bit, then decided on a whim to come back down and check out the action in the Chambers Hospitality Room.
Oooh boy. This is where you get to witness the birth of a poolshark. :-) There were people playing pool at the very wonky old table in the back of the room, and I sorta watched them in curiosity. Peter Heck, Robin Wayne Bailey, Sean P. Fodera, Jack Skillingstead, Michael Marano, Chris McKitterick, Michael Capobianco, and possibly some others variously were engaged in the games, single and doubles, eightball or whatever.
Now, you gotta understand at that point I had no idea what they were doing; I've never played pool before.
But it looked fun…
So I had to get in on the games!
And so the guys patiently showed me. And I managed to hit balls... the other team's balls! And made them bounce then land in impossible configurations blocking everyone! And made them jump! And hit spins and curveballs -- oops, I mean wrong sport. In short, I sucked and in a funny way. There were plenty of ball jokes being said (shut up, Bailey and Fodera!). But it was very compelling, so we played doubles and I did manage to get in a hit or two for the right team… Sort of. Okay, maybe just one. On second thought maybe not really any.
Yeah, don't laugh, you audience people such as Keith Stokes and everyone else watching and snapping pictures! Had this been ping pong I’d have creamed your butts!
Here is one photo (of the following evening after the Nebs banquet with Steven Gould gently helping me put my finger on the cue stick properly, photo by Keith Stokes):
Anyway, then I think I finally left and went to bed since I really needed to get some rest before the big day.
Saturday came way too early and I hauled myself off to breakfast around 8:00 AM, after dowsing myself with Airborne the wonder supplement of choice, and knowing that a good first meal was important to prevent con crud especially if sleep was not going to be an option for most of the time.
As I was finishing up breakfast, Michael Ehart arrived with his friend the wonderful Kyrinn S. Eis, and we had a good long publishing chat. It was good to get to know Michael better and we all had a nice long breakfast and it was worth it.
When we finally got out of breakfast, I realized I'd missed Paul Melko's Griefcom talk which was a bummer, but then I did hang around talking to various people in the hospitality suite, including the always excellent Keith Stokes and Michael and Kyrinn and Cheryl DuCoin, while waiting for the SFWA Meeting to begin which was scheduled for 1:00 PM.
The SFWA Meeting was not particularly eventful dramatically (i.e. no one died, but we did have to send out runners to herd more Active members into the meeting to meet the necessary quorum for voting), but it did some interesting business and the results of the election were announced, with the winners of the contested elections being Russell Davis and Mary Robinette Kowal, both very nice individuals (but then so were the other candidates). Since this is basically internal SFWA stuff, I cannot comment much more in public, but I did find the meeting useful and entertaining as I always do.
After the SFWA meeting I stuck around for several minutes to see if the Amazon Kindle presentation would happen, but the presenter was not here due to a death in the family, so I decided to just go back to the hospitality room, chatted some more with various folks, which I did, and I did a bit of show and tell with ARC copies of various Norilana Books anthologies current and forthcoming, including Lace and Blade, Clockwork Phoenix, and Warrior Wisewoman.
Then I headed upstairs to my room to shower and change for the banquet. On the way there I saw Toby Buckell in the bar and Scott Edelman and Paul Melko and some others, and waved and headed up to dress.
Ok, here is my Nebula outfit! First photo is by Cheryl DuCoin cherylducoin:
And here is one by Keith Stokes:
I headed to the banquet room on the second floor, and everyone looked sharp! There was Connie Willis and Cynthia Felice and Sheila Williams and Michael Chabon looking very Neil-Gaiman-hot and Karen Joy Fowler and Diane Turnshek stunning in her cream-white dress, and we all mixed and mingled. Soon it was time to go inside and sit down. Since I had no publisher-assigned table I ended up in one of the back tables right between a very nice older local fan whose name I forget now, and Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman, a fellow Nominee in other categories. We also had Cynthia Felice and Connie Willis and John Moore and it was a very fun table.
They started bringing out the wonderful food, and my vegetarian entrée, a portobello mushroom risotto was absolutely delicious, the best banquet entrée ever, and the spinach and orange with cranberry dressing salad with cheese was yummy and for desert a very nice chocolate and raspberry cheesecake and real nice tray of hot tea selections.
Ok, you remember that before all this I’d said that winning the Nebula didn’t really matter and the whole point was being Nominated? Well, I suddenly got nervous. And I mean, NERVOUS.
I started to put away the food on my plates -- nervous eater! -- like a hungry bunny in a patch of cabbage and carrots. And I kept on turning to Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman then to Connie Willis across the table, raising my brows like Charlie Chaplin tweaking his mustache, and saying "NERVOUS EATER!" as though that would excuse my gluttony. I was mowing away the food like it was the last meal I’d have on this earth. Usually when I am nervous (and when most normal people get nervous ) we can’t eat. Well, today I was EATING EVERYTHING IN SIGHT! I wanted to call over a waiter and tell them to take away the table centerpiece before I tore into it with my teeth.
Connie and Ellen -- bless their souls -- started to console me. Cynthia Felice told me to have a speech ready just in case, to start thinking it up RIGHT THERE AND THEN, since there was still time. I told her how I suck at speeches and that I can only do improv. In any case, as the moments got closer, I was feeling lightheaded and genuinely praying for them NOT to call my name so I wouldn’t have to go up there….
Meanwhile Joe R. Lansdale gave a very long but very funny speech, while I and some other Nominees were going into hyperventilation shock. Then there was the Author Emeritus announcement and Ardath Mayhar, a real sweetie, got multiple standing ovations, very well deserved. It was a very poignant moment when she said at one point, "Take a good look at me because you will not see me again, I don't travel well."
Then, John Picacio introduced, in a very moving way, his hero and inspiration (and a hero and inspiration to so many of us) Michael Moorcock, for the Grandmaster Award.
Michael Moorcock was helped along by several people, since he was on crutches, to the podium, and he gave a truly historic speech about the changing genre. We gave him multiple standing ovations also, and I really wish I’d been able to listen more and actually HEAR what he had to say, but I was going into apoplectic shock from terror, since they were soon going to start calling the award categories.
Ellen patted me on the back several times to snap me out of it. And then I handed her my camera and asked her to take a picture of me up there in case they call me, and she -- smart and wise woman -- suddenly just snapped me in that very moment as I was waving "no, no!" and here is the funny photo of me by Ellen Kushner, minutes before the categories were called:
Then, it was time.
They read the Norton and J.K. Rowling won. No comment.
They read something else -- can't remember anything except I was seeing my life pass before my eyes and the tunnel of bright white light was right there in my head -- then the SHORT STORY CATEGORY presenters Lee Martindale and Stanley Schmidt opened the envelope and read the name of...
I was suspended in an odd moment of sharp bright clarity, between the heaven and the earth and between the past and the future, and I was simultaneously praying, "Call me! Don’t call me! Call me! Don’t call me…!"
And the winner is… Karen Joy Fowler.
RELIEF!!! Strange crazy relief came to me in a huge walloping wave. It seriously overpowered the tiny twinge of regret that was there for about three heartbeats. I let out my breath, the world came back into normal focus, and I sat back in my chair and clapped while Karen went up to receive the short story Nebula and give her speech. It was okay. Everything was suddenly okay....
I survived! :-)
There were the rest of the winners called, and I sympathized with fellow loser Delia Sherman at my table and then thought of Mary Turzillo and Jen Pelland, etc.
They raffled off the funky miniature swords at out table centerpieces, then the hall started emptying, as the banquet was over.
Tired and relieved, I talked to several other folks, who congratulated me on the loss etc. I approached Karen Joy Fowler who was standing somewhat modestly off to the side, and I congratulated her and shook her hand. Karen is a nice woman and at that point, I told her, I wasn't feeling anything but good stuff, and I wished her well on her great achievement. I told her, "I have my 20th college reunion next weekend, and I get to tell my classmates that I lost the Nebula to no less than Karen Joy Fowler of THE JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB!'
Then I went upstairs to drop off my beaded purse and headed back down.
On the way to the hospitality suite I again saw Toby Buckell and Paul Melko in the bar. I dropped by and Toby turned out to be very, very sick with a raging cold, just barely hanging in there, nursing a beer. His lovely wife Emily, a real sweetheart, was right there too, and it was nice to meet her at last. We all compared out Neb Nominee Pins, then it occurred to me that while I had Paul Melko's book signed (I got it signed earlier that afternoon), I hadn’t had Toby's. So I told him to not go anywhere and I'd get the book. And then it occurred to me I’d bring him some of my Airborne stuff that just might help him with a cold.
In full Mom Mode I told him to stay right there and I'll be right back. So I went up to my room, got his CRYSTAL RAIN and the Airborne, (and a copy of Michael Chabon's book too since we were at it), then came back down and Toby got himself a glass of water and I dropped the Airborne tablet in for fizzy fast absorption action that always works wonders for me. He drank it down dutifully and I am hoping it helped even a bit. In any case he then signed my copy of his book, and I headed to the hospitality suite to try and catch Michael Chabon for his sig.
Michael Chabon was indeed inside talking to a bunch of people, and I went all fangirl on him and he was very gracious and signed my copy of his book, and even said that he'd read a story of mine online -- I bet he was just saying that to be nice *grin* (Though it sure is a nice thought to imagine that Michael Chabon read my stuff!).
Then I migrated on over back to the pool table and spent the rest of the evening watching other people like Nancy Kress and Diana Bailey and the guys play and then shooting the balls myself several times, and when Peter Heck and I paired up for a team we even won a couple of games!
They finally kicked us out of the room at 2:00 AM closing.
I went upstairs to bed, exhausted, got into bed, fell asleep sort of at some point, and then was woken up promptly by huge terrifying blasts of thunder and more rain that echoed in the metal grate of the air conditioning unit. Awww! No rest for this Neb Loser!
The next morning, Sunday, was the day of my flight back home, but I did give myself until 9:00 AM to sleep in and then made it downstairs to a solo breakfast in the hotel restaurant. Then I checked out before the noon deadline, and rolled my suitcase down to the hospitality suite. Here is when I saw Mary Turzillo also waiting around with Geoff Landis and some other folks, and we had a great long gossip and publishing chat session.
It was lovely to talk to Mary, and then Scott Edelman came in and he told me he got his boarding pass at the front desk. I had no idea you could do that so I ran and got mine printed out, and then continued waiting around for my airport shuttle due at 4:55 PM for my 6:40 PM flight, and there was Jack Skillingstead (who'd also been one of my pool game partners the night before), so we also chatted. And I told Jack about the boarding pass, and he also had no idea you could do that and so he went up to the front desk to get his printed. Then we ended up on the same shuttle to the airport were we blabbed all the way to our American Airlines check-in. Then I separated to check in my bag while Jack went on ahead through the x-ray area.
When I was done checking my baggage I went in through the security and saw Jack again at the gates. Then we separated for our various planes. My own flight was uneventful except for the same cramped conditions and the horrible pain in my left leg (I cannot sit in the same position too long and this was many hours of agony).
When we finally arrived in LAX, Los Angeles, California, I waited around for a shuttle, then got on one, and the driver turned out to be Russian. It was funny to chat with him in Russian sort of behind the other passengers' backs, and he said there had been a heat wave that day, so again I was coming into a heat wave from a cooler place, as had happened when I arrived in steamy Austin after leaving cool L.A..
One of the other shuttle passengers was talking loudly on her cell phone and it turned out her dogsitter did not watch the dog properly so it pooped all over her house for the week she was gone. She kept on saying, "Shit! Shit!" and… talk about your double meaning! All in all, a long but amusing ride.
Finally the shuttle dropped me off at my house at around 9:30 PM, and I was very happy to be home. Mom came out, the dogs went all wild and bouncy and the cats ran every which way not recognizing me at first, and probably thinking, "Alien invasion!"
Everything was okay and mom managed without me for the duration, bur there was one sad bit of news -- our next-door neighbor had cut down the most beautiful great tall tree in the neighborhood that provided a glorious lacework of shade over our and at least six other houses.
Well, the tree mourning was for later, but now, I was home!
Before I finish the trip report I'd like to THANK all of you kind friends both known and anonymous, without whom this fantastic Nebula trip would not have been possible.
I love you all!
First of all, I had a fantastic time, a much-needed chance to get away and finally see some of you after a long absence from conventions due to the family medical and financial situations. I didn’t win the Nebula (Karen Joy Fowler took the honors in our category) but then that was not the point anyway. In fact, at some point during the Nebs someone told me they had seen the Nebula trophies, and I just blurted out "I don't want to know! Don't tell me, don't tell me!" :-)
The lead-up to the moment of truth is what it's all about. The rest is just icing on the Nebula cake. The juicy cherry on the top. The…the... Well, you get the point, now read on!
The airport shuttle came to pick me up from my house at 9:50 AM on Thursday the 24th and then I got to go through the LAX security which was my first time flying since 9/11 so I'd been really terrified of things like body cavity searches, and dutifully put all my liquids in the plastic baggie, and got ready for anything. But it turned out much easier than I expected. No one pulled me aside and waterboarded me. I only had to remove my shoes at the x-ray machine and put all the stuff in a plastic tray thingie.
The American Airlines plane was only a bit more comfortable than the last time I'd flown (United, I believe) but still by the end of the flight my left leg was in agony and the sight of our plane coming down through fog and puffy clouds into verdant green Austin was welcome. I got out of the dry airplane air into a hot sauna of steamy Texas air and then, gasping like a fish, did the first thing most travelers do in a new place -- I ran to pee in the airport bathroom, in the process marking Austin, Texas as my own, canine style.
Then got my bag from baggage claim, got the shuttle to the hotel, got there around 8:00 PM, and since I'd done one of those online check-in thingies at home the night before, my keys were indeed ready for me. I headed to the 3rd floor, and got out of the elevator counting doors and praying, "Please, not near an ice machine, please, not near an ice machine," when lo and behold, my room was exactly next to the ice machine. I went in, and within seconds it started, people pumping ice like thunder and lightning. So I didn’t even bother to unpack, and called the front desk, asking to be reassigned to another room.
Well, they kindly upgraded me to a "newly remodeled" suite up on the 14th floor. I got there, but the suite had a funky leather musty smell (very nasty and stifling), and the shower had very low water pressure, but I decided to grin and bear it -- after all, I was "upgraded" so I must be now satisfied, right? ;-)
So, I collapsed in my new room for the evening, after taking a hot and long shower with almost no water pressure (which explains why it was hot and long). Of course that meant there was no actual sleep happening: the bed was nice and comfy but my insomniac superpowers took over, and within hours I turned it into a twisty funnel wormhole of bedsheets. Plus the downy monster comforter weighed a ton and it almost managed to strangle me, but I won the battle eventually, beating it down and sweating in exhaustion and terror. Just as I was drifting off around 4:45 AM, I got a hotel wakeup call -- a wrong number meant for someone else! Ah, what joy... I mumbled and sputtered and decided might as well haul my ass up and out of the bedsheets canole.
After getting dressed I made it downstairs to the hotel restaurant, Ancho's, and it was around 6:30 AM. I was the first person there and then moments later a very lovely and nice woman appeared. Tall and elegant, she headed directly to my table and asked if she could join me for breakfast, and introduced herself as "Kji" Johnson. Actually, it was Kij, but the letters got transposed on her badge, and so, we laughed and it was a real pleasure meeting her, a fellow Nominee, and apparently we were the first ones there. We both got the buffet and then chatted about everything and it was great fun to finally meet Kij after having seen her online. *waving to kijjohnson*
After breakfast we went to registration on the second floor, which just barely opened, and I got my Nominee badge and ribbon, plus two goodie bags of books, including some excellent stuff by fellow Nominees that I'd wanted to get my hands on, such as CRYSTAL RAIN by Tobias Buckell, SINGULARITY'S RING by Paul Melko, and GENTLEMEN OF THE ROAD by Michael Chabon, among others.
Afterwards Kij and I wandered off to the Chambers Hospitality room on the first level, and once again we were the only ones there yet, except for the kind and welcoming convention volunteers who radiated a wallop of Texas hospitality. I went up to my room, came back down again running into Peter Heck, which is always a pleasure (not literally running into like a pair of mountain goats, but you know what I mean), and soon enough other people started showing up and it got to be rather fun and crowded. I met -- and here is where the timing gets a bit fuzzy -- Sarah Beth Durst, an absolute sweetheart with lovely ringlets of hair, and a Norton Nominee to boot, my online friend Michael Ehart who was also a wonder and a teddy bear of a guy; ran into fellow SFWA Musketeer and swordsman extraordinaire David Watson, the marvelous Lee Martindale (we got talking promptly and did some publishing business -- more on that later). Jack McDevitt and Bruce Sterling and Gordon Van Gelder and Gay and Joe Haldeman came in and regaled us with stories. The extraordinary Jane Jewell came by, looking much more relaxed than she did at the previous Nebulas. Beth Meacham and Sheila Williams arrived, and at some point there was SFWA President Michael Capobianco and Writer Beware goddess Ann Crispin. The room got loud when Diane Turnshek and her boyfriend came in, and I did a double-take -- she had blond hair and those trendy thick-rimmed black techno geek glasses, and looked fabulous but completely unrecognizable since the last time I saw her at the Arizona Nebs! There were more folks coming in, but of course my poor memory cell has reached its recall capacity, so for now let's just say it got busy.
Diane Turnshek suggested we all do lunch, and so a large group of us, including Michael Ehart (who was sweetie enough to cover my lunch as he'd promised weeks beforehand), Sarah Beth Durst, Cheryl DuCoin (a wonderful energetic Texan writer who I am thrilled to have met), Jane Jewell and Peter Heck (who caught up with us later at the restaurant), and possibly some other folks (I forget now, apologies for my poopy ole' brain) headed out of the hotel and walked about a block to Roux, a great Cajun place. Here I got the chance to try and enjoy my first Fried Green Tomatoes (which before I’d thought was only a movie title), and a marvelous Cajun pasta dish which was vegetarian and plain delicious. Cheryl told hilarious stories of snakes in a truck, geological adventures, gators, meteorites, science fiction, and we all had us a blast.
Afterwards we got back to the Omni hotel and I caught most of Sean P. Fodera's excellent presentation on contracts. Then, it was time to head back to my room and get ready for the mass autographing session and Nominee Photo-Op that has been organized by Bookpeople. Which of course meant that I had to get all spiffy and put on this funky gauzy bright red blouse, and shoes, and put on makeup and the works. (They did say, photo-op! My pictures will be all over Teh Internets!)
You can see some of it here in a photo taken by the incomparable Keith Stokes (Jennifer Pelland, me):
I wobbled into the third floor Longhorn room on my teeny red-heeled shoes (for some people that's not any cause to wobble, seeing the heels were about a quarter inch, but for me who wears no heels they were twin Kilimanjaro Peaks), long earrings with bling and rings and makeup, etc. I ran into the glamorous fellow Nominee Robin Wayne Bailey (the man is studdly, and an awesome pool player!) and then the fun began. They did a small fun(ny) ceremony with Nominee Certificates and Pins, with Michael Capobianco and Jane Jewell training us in Nominee etiquette then herding us and then handing out the Certificates and us shaking hands (a dramatic feat in itself, but somehow we Nominees managed to perform like Stooges), then Cheryl DuCoin pinning us (ahem, not like that, but with Nominee Pins, but you know what I mean), then Elizabeth Moon's gorgeous signed calendars, then past the Cerberus guard of Paul Melko, a group photo of each category, then all of us in one shot, which you can see here (photo by Keith Stokes):
Note that there were a number of Nominees not here yet (they came only the following day for the Banquet).
Here is where I got a chance to meet the fabulous Jennifer Pelland, a tall and gorgeous fellow Nominee and fellow Helix author, whom I’d been looking forward to catching up with. And then there was the gracious fellow Nominee Mary Turzillo (later in the weekend Mary and I had an absolute blast talking insider stuff), her hubby Geoff Landis, and Nominee David Levine and several others. We all stood in a circle for a moment, probably contemplating our Nominee-licious fates and throwing each other pointed looks, to, you know, measure the competition. ;-) Having measured ourselves we then proceeded to have normal fun.
After the Pinning and the Certifying and the Pics, we all sat down around the tables with nametags and waited for adoring (ahem) fans to come to us in fawning droves. Alas, there were no droves. Jen Pelland and I sat together and also with Nancy Jane Moore and spent a lot of time chatting it up and having a good time. Jen got more autographs than either of us! Now, compared to other Nebula events, there were not too many attendees, but that was the only low point. Otherwise the evening was fun and we got to mingle.
When the whole mass signing thingie was over, I made dinner plans with Elizabeth Moon and then ran upstairs to change out of the glam outfit (the shoes were killing me and the earrings and… and…) and came back down and waited for Elizabeth then we waited for Mel Tatum and the three of us decided to just eat dinner in the hotel restaurant, since Elizabeth was very tired and hungry. That turned out to be a smart idea, because moments into our dinner the skies broke open and a great glorious thunderstorm hit, with flashes of sky-white lightning, thunder, hail, and torrential monsoon rains. All of this, when witnessed from that food court area, was magnificent, with the great wall of windows providing a panoramic framing view.
The moisture-starved Californian in me perked up and I sat there going, "Goo-gaa, rain good!" We ate (I had no real entrée since the hotel did not have a vegetarian option for dinner, but had a salad and a mushroom appetizer which turned out fine) and we chatted about wonderful choral music and other fun things, and then after dinner was over Elizabeth and Mel kindly took me outside so that I could breathe the air and watch the rain. There I found another Californian who had apparently the same idea and we had a laugh about that.
Then my dining companions went upstairs to their rooms to retire early and I went up, freshened up a bit, then decided on a whim to come back down and check out the action in the Chambers Hospitality Room.
Oooh boy. This is where you get to witness the birth of a poolshark. :-) There were people playing pool at the very wonky old table in the back of the room, and I sorta watched them in curiosity. Peter Heck, Robin Wayne Bailey, Sean P. Fodera, Jack Skillingstead, Michael Marano, Chris McKitterick, Michael Capobianco, and possibly some others variously were engaged in the games, single and doubles, eightball or whatever.
Now, you gotta understand at that point I had no idea what they were doing; I've never played pool before.
But it looked fun…
So I had to get in on the games!
And so the guys patiently showed me. And I managed to hit balls... the other team's balls! And made them bounce then land in impossible configurations blocking everyone! And made them jump! And hit spins and curveballs -- oops, I mean wrong sport. In short, I sucked and in a funny way. There were plenty of ball jokes being said (shut up, Bailey and Fodera!). But it was very compelling, so we played doubles and I did manage to get in a hit or two for the right team… Sort of. Okay, maybe just one. On second thought maybe not really any.
Yeah, don't laugh, you audience people such as Keith Stokes and everyone else watching and snapping pictures! Had this been ping pong I’d have creamed your butts!
Here is one photo (of the following evening after the Nebs banquet with Steven Gould gently helping me put my finger on the cue stick properly, photo by Keith Stokes):
Anyway, then I think I finally left and went to bed since I really needed to get some rest before the big day.
Saturday came way too early and I hauled myself off to breakfast around 8:00 AM, after dowsing myself with Airborne the wonder supplement of choice, and knowing that a good first meal was important to prevent con crud especially if sleep was not going to be an option for most of the time.
As I was finishing up breakfast, Michael Ehart arrived with his friend the wonderful Kyrinn S. Eis, and we had a good long publishing chat. It was good to get to know Michael better and we all had a nice long breakfast and it was worth it.
When we finally got out of breakfast, I realized I'd missed Paul Melko's Griefcom talk which was a bummer, but then I did hang around talking to various people in the hospitality suite, including the always excellent Keith Stokes and Michael and Kyrinn and Cheryl DuCoin, while waiting for the SFWA Meeting to begin which was scheduled for 1:00 PM.
The SFWA Meeting was not particularly eventful dramatically (i.e. no one died, but we did have to send out runners to herd more Active members into the meeting to meet the necessary quorum for voting), but it did some interesting business and the results of the election were announced, with the winners of the contested elections being Russell Davis and Mary Robinette Kowal, both very nice individuals (but then so were the other candidates). Since this is basically internal SFWA stuff, I cannot comment much more in public, but I did find the meeting useful and entertaining as I always do.
After the SFWA meeting I stuck around for several minutes to see if the Amazon Kindle presentation would happen, but the presenter was not here due to a death in the family, so I decided to just go back to the hospitality room, chatted some more with various folks, which I did, and I did a bit of show and tell with ARC copies of various Norilana Books anthologies current and forthcoming, including Lace and Blade, Clockwork Phoenix, and Warrior Wisewoman.
Then I headed upstairs to my room to shower and change for the banquet. On the way there I saw Toby Buckell in the bar and Scott Edelman and Paul Melko and some others, and waved and headed up to dress.
Ok, here is my Nebula outfit! First photo is by Cheryl DuCoin cherylducoin:
And here is one by Keith Stokes:
I headed to the banquet room on the second floor, and everyone looked sharp! There was Connie Willis and Cynthia Felice and Sheila Williams and Michael Chabon looking very Neil-Gaiman-hot and Karen Joy Fowler and Diane Turnshek stunning in her cream-white dress, and we all mixed and mingled. Soon it was time to go inside and sit down. Since I had no publisher-assigned table I ended up in one of the back tables right between a very nice older local fan whose name I forget now, and Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman, a fellow Nominee in other categories. We also had Cynthia Felice and Connie Willis and John Moore and it was a very fun table.
They started bringing out the wonderful food, and my vegetarian entrée, a portobello mushroom risotto was absolutely delicious, the best banquet entrée ever, and the spinach and orange with cranberry dressing salad with cheese was yummy and for desert a very nice chocolate and raspberry cheesecake and real nice tray of hot tea selections.
Ok, you remember that before all this I’d said that winning the Nebula didn’t really matter and the whole point was being Nominated? Well, I suddenly got nervous. And I mean, NERVOUS.
I started to put away the food on my plates -- nervous eater! -- like a hungry bunny in a patch of cabbage and carrots. And I kept on turning to Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman then to Connie Willis across the table, raising my brows like Charlie Chaplin tweaking his mustache, and saying "NERVOUS EATER!" as though that would excuse my gluttony. I was mowing away the food like it was the last meal I’d have on this earth. Usually when I am nervous (and when most normal people get nervous ) we can’t eat. Well, today I was EATING EVERYTHING IN SIGHT! I wanted to call over a waiter and tell them to take away the table centerpiece before I tore into it with my teeth.
Connie and Ellen -- bless their souls -- started to console me. Cynthia Felice told me to have a speech ready just in case, to start thinking it up RIGHT THERE AND THEN, since there was still time. I told her how I suck at speeches and that I can only do improv. In any case, as the moments got closer, I was feeling lightheaded and genuinely praying for them NOT to call my name so I wouldn’t have to go up there….
Meanwhile Joe R. Lansdale gave a very long but very funny speech, while I and some other Nominees were going into hyperventilation shock. Then there was the Author Emeritus announcement and Ardath Mayhar, a real sweetie, got multiple standing ovations, very well deserved. It was a very poignant moment when she said at one point, "Take a good look at me because you will not see me again, I don't travel well."
Then, John Picacio introduced, in a very moving way, his hero and inspiration (and a hero and inspiration to so many of us) Michael Moorcock, for the Grandmaster Award.
Michael Moorcock was helped along by several people, since he was on crutches, to the podium, and he gave a truly historic speech about the changing genre. We gave him multiple standing ovations also, and I really wish I’d been able to listen more and actually HEAR what he had to say, but I was going into apoplectic shock from terror, since they were soon going to start calling the award categories.
Ellen patted me on the back several times to snap me out of it. And then I handed her my camera and asked her to take a picture of me up there in case they call me, and she -- smart and wise woman -- suddenly just snapped me in that very moment as I was waving "no, no!" and here is the funny photo of me by Ellen Kushner, minutes before the categories were called:
Then, it was time.
They read the Norton and J.K. Rowling won. No comment.
They read something else -- can't remember anything except I was seeing my life pass before my eyes and the tunnel of bright white light was right there in my head -- then the SHORT STORY CATEGORY presenters Lee Martindale and Stanley Schmidt opened the envelope and read the name of...
I was suspended in an odd moment of sharp bright clarity, between the heaven and the earth and between the past and the future, and I was simultaneously praying, "Call me! Don’t call me! Call me! Don’t call me…!"
And the winner is… Karen Joy Fowler.
RELIEF!!! Strange crazy relief came to me in a huge walloping wave. It seriously overpowered the tiny twinge of regret that was there for about three heartbeats. I let out my breath, the world came back into normal focus, and I sat back in my chair and clapped while Karen went up to receive the short story Nebula and give her speech. It was okay. Everything was suddenly okay....
I survived! :-)
There were the rest of the winners called, and I sympathized with fellow loser Delia Sherman at my table and then thought of Mary Turzillo and Jen Pelland, etc.
They raffled off the funky miniature swords at out table centerpieces, then the hall started emptying, as the banquet was over.
Tired and relieved, I talked to several other folks, who congratulated me on the loss etc. I approached Karen Joy Fowler who was standing somewhat modestly off to the side, and I congratulated her and shook her hand. Karen is a nice woman and at that point, I told her, I wasn't feeling anything but good stuff, and I wished her well on her great achievement. I told her, "I have my 20th college reunion next weekend, and I get to tell my classmates that I lost the Nebula to no less than Karen Joy Fowler of THE JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB!'
Then I went upstairs to drop off my beaded purse and headed back down.
On the way to the hospitality suite I again saw Toby Buckell and Paul Melko in the bar. I dropped by and Toby turned out to be very, very sick with a raging cold, just barely hanging in there, nursing a beer. His lovely wife Emily, a real sweetheart, was right there too, and it was nice to meet her at last. We all compared out Neb Nominee Pins, then it occurred to me that while I had Paul Melko's book signed (I got it signed earlier that afternoon), I hadn’t had Toby's. So I told him to not go anywhere and I'd get the book. And then it occurred to me I’d bring him some of my Airborne stuff that just might help him with a cold.
In full Mom Mode I told him to stay right there and I'll be right back. So I went up to my room, got his CRYSTAL RAIN and the Airborne, (and a copy of Michael Chabon's book too since we were at it), then came back down and Toby got himself a glass of water and I dropped the Airborne tablet in for fizzy fast absorption action that always works wonders for me. He drank it down dutifully and I am hoping it helped even a bit. In any case he then signed my copy of his book, and I headed to the hospitality suite to try and catch Michael Chabon for his sig.
Michael Chabon was indeed inside talking to a bunch of people, and I went all fangirl on him and he was very gracious and signed my copy of his book, and even said that he'd read a story of mine online -- I bet he was just saying that to be nice *grin* (Though it sure is a nice thought to imagine that Michael Chabon read my stuff!).
Then I migrated on over back to the pool table and spent the rest of the evening watching other people like Nancy Kress and Diana Bailey and the guys play and then shooting the balls myself several times, and when Peter Heck and I paired up for a team we even won a couple of games!
They finally kicked us out of the room at 2:00 AM closing.
I went upstairs to bed, exhausted, got into bed, fell asleep sort of at some point, and then was woken up promptly by huge terrifying blasts of thunder and more rain that echoed in the metal grate of the air conditioning unit. Awww! No rest for this Neb Loser!
The next morning, Sunday, was the day of my flight back home, but I did give myself until 9:00 AM to sleep in and then made it downstairs to a solo breakfast in the hotel restaurant. Then I checked out before the noon deadline, and rolled my suitcase down to the hospitality suite. Here is when I saw Mary Turzillo also waiting around with Geoff Landis and some other folks, and we had a great long gossip and publishing chat session.
It was lovely to talk to Mary, and then Scott Edelman came in and he told me he got his boarding pass at the front desk. I had no idea you could do that so I ran and got mine printed out, and then continued waiting around for my airport shuttle due at 4:55 PM for my 6:40 PM flight, and there was Jack Skillingstead (who'd also been one of my pool game partners the night before), so we also chatted. And I told Jack about the boarding pass, and he also had no idea you could do that and so he went up to the front desk to get his printed. Then we ended up on the same shuttle to the airport were we blabbed all the way to our American Airlines check-in. Then I separated to check in my bag while Jack went on ahead through the x-ray area.
When I was done checking my baggage I went in through the security and saw Jack again at the gates. Then we separated for our various planes. My own flight was uneventful except for the same cramped conditions and the horrible pain in my left leg (I cannot sit in the same position too long and this was many hours of agony).
When we finally arrived in LAX, Los Angeles, California, I waited around for a shuttle, then got on one, and the driver turned out to be Russian. It was funny to chat with him in Russian sort of behind the other passengers' backs, and he said there had been a heat wave that day, so again I was coming into a heat wave from a cooler place, as had happened when I arrived in steamy Austin after leaving cool L.A..
One of the other shuttle passengers was talking loudly on her cell phone and it turned out her dogsitter did not watch the dog properly so it pooped all over her house for the week she was gone. She kept on saying, "Shit! Shit!" and… talk about your double meaning! All in all, a long but amusing ride.
Finally the shuttle dropped me off at my house at around 9:30 PM, and I was very happy to be home. Mom came out, the dogs went all wild and bouncy and the cats ran every which way not recognizing me at first, and probably thinking, "Alien invasion!"
Everything was okay and mom managed without me for the duration, bur there was one sad bit of news -- our next-door neighbor had cut down the most beautiful great tall tree in the neighborhood that provided a glorious lacework of shade over our and at least six other houses.
Well, the tree mourning was for later, but now, I was home!
Before I finish the trip report I'd like to THANK all of you kind friends both known and anonymous, without whom this fantastic Nebula trip would not have been possible.
I love you all!