WorldCon Mid-Convention Report

It’s generally a good thing to have a niche in any field. I would have loved to be the Dark, Cool Mysterious SF Writer like Neal Stephenson, or the Dapper, Quick-Witted Handsome SF Writer like Neil Gaiman. But it seems like if there’s any niche I’m destined for, it’s the SF Writer Who Does Dumb Things and Then Blogs Self-Deprecatingly About Them.

I just got back from the Pyr panel at WorldCon in which I was to give a three-minute promo for my novel Infoquake. I was sharing a stage with luminaries like Mike Resnick, Alan Dean Foster, John Picacio, Chris Roberson, Ian McDonald, etc… and among all of those people, my editor Lou Anders chooses to call on me first.

I opened my mouth to speak. My brain went into Hibernate mode.

About two minutes later, after blathering who knows what (I definitely remember saying a) there are no ninjas in the book, and b) it’s about office meetings), Lou grabbed the mike from my hand and said he would take it from there. If you’ve never had a room of about 75 people burst into laughter at your expense, I highly recommend it. Luckily Lou did a much better job representing the novel, and it’s a testament to Lou’s salesmanship that a number of people came up to grab the promotional CD afterwards anyway. One woman came up specifically to tell me I needed to take public speaking lessons.

In the bar afterwards, I got a lot of good-natured ribbing from the crowd about my non-performance. You can often tell if people are your friends when they make fun of you right to your face instead of behind your back. Today, I’m happy to report I’ve gotten made fun of both ways.

And now for the obligatory Name Dropping portion of the mid-con report:

Folks I’ve been hanging out with include:

  • The one guy you want to know in any room, Pyr editor Lou Anders;
  • Chris Roberson, who relayed the story of why a case of mistaken identity has caused some previous WorldCon attendees to think that Sean Astin is an asshole;
  • Israeli science fiction publisher Rani Graff, a very genial, unflappable guy;
  • Australian SF author Joel Shepherd, who has the uncanny ability of turning any discussion into a political discourse on something;
  • Agony Column head honcho Rick Kleffel, who gave my book a fabulous review, interviewed me for an NPR segment, introduced me to Anne McCaffrey, and then bought me lunch;
  • Chesley Award-winning artist John Picacio, who has been doing some of the best Pyr covers lately;
  • My fellow DeepGenre blogger Kate Elliott, who is not only a brilliant novelist, but witty and wise in matters of publishing;
  • British novelist (and Doctor Who screenwriter) Paul Cornell, who emceed a very entertaining gameshow panel of “Just a Minute” in which Jay Lake whipped the asses of me, Lou Anders, Chris Roberson, and Simon Brown;
  • The radiant Deanna Hoak, my copy editor, who certainly deserves a World Fantasy award and recognition from GalleyCat as a Hottie of Publishing

There are certainly more things to report, but it’s 8:30 P.M. now, the Tor party is in an hour, and I hear a Newcastle at the Hilton bar calling my name.