Celebrate Readercon with 15 guests eating 12 donuts in a “lightning round” episode of E
Originally published at Scott Edelman. Please leave any comments there.
Readercon, which concluded its 27th incarnation yesterday in Quincy, Massachusetts, is consistently my favorite convention of the year. Since it’s always been special to me, I thought I’d do something special in return. And once I learned that back in 1950, Dunkin’ Donuts was born just a few miles from our hotel, and the first restaurant still stood, I knew exactly what that something would be.
I paid a visit to that original location-which is decorated with a retro flair-
-and returned to the con with a fresh dozen.
I planted myself in the lobby (as captured in the photo below by Ellen Kushner), where I offered free donuts to the first 12 random passersby willing to give brief interviews about their favorite Readercon memories.
I had no idea who might wander over, but knew that something entertaining would surely come out of this sugary experiment. And it did! I ended up with 15 guests digging into those 12 donuts-the differential being because there were three who eschewed-in a “lightning round” 13th episode I’ve decided to call the Readercon Donut Spectacular. Surprise visitors included Greer Gilman, Maria Dahvana Headley, Rajan Khanna, plus a dozen more.
Guests-some of whom had attended nearly every Readercon, and some for whom this was their first-shared their peak Readercon moments, many of which revolved around Samuel R. Delany.
Here’s how you can join us for a sugar rush-
1) Subscribe at the iTunes store.
2) Use the RSS feed of http://eatingthefantastic.libsyn.com/rss to download episodes on the device of your choice.
3) Or … just click and listen below.
And here are the esteemed personages who shared anecdotes from Readercons past.
Yves Menard
Warren Lapine
Victoria Janssen
Connie Hirsch
Terence Taylor
Grimlock
Eric M. Van
Jennifer Gunnels
Joel Adamson
Greg Bossert
Faye Ringel
Maria Dahvana Headley
Greer Gilman
Matt Switliski
Rajan Khanna
This very special episode means my Balticon interview with Fran Wilde, which I’d earlier mentioned as going live on July 20, will likely be pushed back another week so I don’t wear out my welcome with you. That will be followed by an episode with Cecilia Tan (also recorded at Balticon), and then the episodes I snagged at Readercon with guests Resa Nelson, Jeffrey Ford, and F. Brett Cox.
And with Worldcon coming next month in Kansas City, who knows what tasty treats I’ll be able to bring you?