So, WorldCon is awesome.

But you guys know that. At least, I hope you do.

I have attended panels on faith in SF/F, acquiring an agent, and rejectomancy. The rejectomancy panel was especially fun because they did it concurrently with DragonCon, so in addition to Lee Martindale and Connie Willis on our end, Toni Weisskopf from Baen and Chelsea Quinn Yarbro (along with another writer whose name, alas, I did not catch) were also there via video feed.

Dudes. WE LIVE IN THE FUTURE.

Also did a kaffeeklatsche with Stan Schmidt from Analog, who announced that he is retiring. Next week. So that was a bit of a shock. Got some books signed by Charlie Stross, who informed me that one of the ones I had, which I had picked up from a dealer's table, was originally meant to be one 600-page book, but the publisher decided to whack it in half. He advised me to read the first fifty pages to make sure I liked it, and then buy the second book immediately if I did. I'm attending a literary bheer with him tonight, which should be entertaining as hell. I could listen to him talk all day.

I also saw Robert Silverberg in an elevator and told him I grew up reading his books. He smiled and told me that he grew up writing them. I have also met the handsome and hard-working Jim C. Hines, whom I'm getting stuff autographed by today. The Roomies and I nearly had dinner with Paul Genesse last night, but the wait was long and he had a panel, so he couldn't join us. We had Chicago-style pizza at Giordano's, and it was fabulous, holy cow.

After we got back from dinner, we chilled in the room for a bit and then headed upstairs to some room parties. There was a Pratchett-themed one, which was cool, "Barfleet," where I nearly succumbed to the temptation to have a drink that would have knocked me on my ass, but I resisted, even though I wasn't feeling the alcohol I'd already consumed at all because of the vast quantities of pizza I consumed earlier. We hit up the London Bid Party, and then there was another one with a mix of fandoms, where I had a Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster, which seemed to be composed of gin and blue curacao and... something else. I don't know what. There was a definite bite to it, however.

All in all, I am having a great time. I will no doubt have more later.

(no subject)

Couple other things while I'm thinking about them and have time to breathe before the next panel starts...

They did dramatizations of two of Neil Gaiman's short stories, "Troll Bridge" and "Snow, Glass, Apples" for us, which were dark and gritty and highly entertaining. Nothing wrong with Snow White as a vampire, right?

I bought a calendar. Understand that my "normal" calendar behavior is to buy one in February when they're half price, and usually there's no way in hell I'll fork out twenty bucks for a damn calendar. This one, however, is glorious. It's called "Incandescent Art Unicorns," by Donna Waltz, and you can see some of the art here, which I strongly strongly strongly advise you to do because they are gorgeous.

And I also did a Ghost Tour, which will get its own post once I've done some research and have links for you all, because Chicago has been home to more than one disaster with amazing body counts, not to mention the St. Valentine's Day Massacre.