Readercon Report

July 10, 2006 @ 8:58 pm

Readercon 17 was indeed a fabulous time. Infoquake CDs, flyers, and business cards were distributed; hands were shaken; and I discovered the pleasures of Smithwick’s beer (pronounced “Smitticks”). For those who were not present, here’s a quick rundown of the highlights from my perspective:

• Bumping into John Scalzi at Dulles Airport (he recognized me long before I recognized him), and getting to share two taxicabs and innumerable schmoozing sessions. John is a true class act, who had much wisdom about the industry to dispense and must have introduced me to two dozen different people.
• Meeting my copy editor, the sleek, smart, and sexy Deanna Hoak, in person for the first time and getting to sing happy birthday to her.
• Gabbing with China Mieville for all of three minutes, during which I was privileged to hear his imitation of Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons.
• Having my mind blown by a reading of China’s upcoming, as-yet-untitled work (think Perdido Street Station meets Hyperion).
• Attending a truly remarkable reading by Jeffrey Ford (author of The Emperor of Ice Cream), who may look a little bit like Comic Book Guy but reads like James Gandolfini if James Gandolfini was a little more, you know, intense.
• Listening to the radiant Mary Robinette Kowal discuss how puppetry suffers from a similar lack of respect as science fiction (and snagging a copy of Shimmer, a magazine for which she is the art director).
• Discussing comic books, book promotion, Star Wars, why Hollywood needs to hire me to write a Dr. Strange screenplay, and many other topics both large and small with Slush God John Joseph Adams.
• Watching a peculiar onstage performance by legend Thomas Disch, who alternately broke into tears, berated his fellow panel-mates about acoustics, and attempted to drown out convention guest of honor James Morrow.
• Listening to Slush Master and all-around funny, interesting guy Douglas Cohen perform some of his phat rhymes.
• Attending the late-night “stealth reading” for the Twenty Epics anthology (stand-out performance by Christopher Barzac).
• Getting to rub elbows however briefly with other SF folk such as R. Scott Bakker, Alan DeNiro, David Barr Kirtley, Paul Di Filippo, Matthew Kressel, Jim Freund, Yves Meynard, Scott Edelman (no relation), Adam Golaski, and a number of others who didn’t have their names listed on the ReaderCon guest list and who therefore will have to go anonymous for now.