Day one of WorldCon went well — I wasn’t sure if I’d be up for socializing, given the stupid cold, but I took DayQuil, popped cough drops like candy, tried not to hug people, and ended up having a nice time. Met a Strange Horizons author I hadn’t met before, Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam (along with her delightful (and Campbell-award-winning) friend, Mur Lafferty), which is always a nice little bump to my convention — although it did make me realize that I founded Strange Horizons sixteen years ago, which is long enough ago to have a very lost-in-the-mists-of-time feeling about it.
Also got to talk to Wild Cards author Michael Cassutt for a while — we’ve met before, but this was, I think, the first time we’d actually had a chance to talk. He’s a delight, and if you’re at all interested in screenwriting, you might want to talk your local institution (school, con, etc.) into having him out to give a talk. He worked with George on The Twilight Zone, back in the day, and has worked on a host of other things since, including The Outer Limits. He’s currently producing Z Nation, on the SyFy channel, which I’m going to check out.
Dinner was organized by Arin Komins — thanks, Arin! — with a bunch of people from Skiffy, my college SF club. It’s generally great hanging out with U of C people anywhere, because they are a smart, weird bunch, in the best ways. My only regret is that I ended up seated at the wrong end of the table for talking to my college roommate, Ingrid de Beus, but I’m hoping to catch up with her for tea this afternoon. And we did have a moment outside the restaurant where we got to recount to the group the most exciting moment of our rooming together, when I woke up in the middle of the night to a strange man racketing around my bedroom, shouting, and Ingrid standing in the hallway saying, very firmly, “Mary Anne. Come here.” If Ingrid ever tells you firmly to come here, you should go.
From there, the Marriott bar, where I chatted with various and sundry and tried to stay up long enough to get onto a later schedule; I have no early morning stuff this con, but quite a few late-night things. I managed to stay up ’til midnight, which I consider a triumph. Would’ve been nice to sleep in a bit more this morning, but I was up at 8 — oh well.
I’m planning to hide in my room and work until noon; I have Tremontaine copyedits on chapter 3 that are due, and edits on chapter 6. Lunch with Tessa Gratton (of Tremontaine) and her wife, and then back to the room, probably, to revise my Wild Cards story.
George asked me last night when he’d have my revision, and I told him “tomorrow,” and he was startled and said he admired my discipline. 🙂 George is, by the way, an excellent editor, if any of you are wondering — one of the best I’ve had. He doesn’t futz with you on the sentence level, but he’s just terrific at helping you draw out the strongest emotional arcs of the story. Well, if you’re following Game of Thrones, you’re probably not surprised to hear that.
Dinner at 7:30 with the Wild Cards writers, and then probably more hanging in the Marriott bar afterwards, so feel free to come say hi to me then if you’re around. Friday, my heavy scheduling starts, but today, I write! (And cough.)