So, Worldcon is over and it was a lot of fun. I got home Tuesday afternoon, about 24 hours later than I was supposed to and I have been catching up ever since, but things are finally starting to calm down. A few post-Worldcon thoughts:

1. Sleep. Last night I managed to get almost 8 hours of sleep, the first time since before Worldcon. I think I’ve pretty much caught up on the sleep I didn’t get at Worldcon. For those curious as to how much sleep I did get at Worldcon, here it is, Thursday through Monday, courtesy of my FitBit Flex. (All times are Eastern, and Worldcon was in the Central time zone.)

I was supposed to be home on Monday but my flight was cancelled and I spent the night at my friend Rich and Tricia’s house–I slept pretty well, all things considered.

I have now pretty much caught up on sleep. I’ve also discovered that as I get older, multiple consecutive nights of 4 or 5 hours of sleep can be pretty rough on me.

2. Hugo awards. There has been a lot of Tuesday-morning quarterbacking of the Hugos which is to be expected, I suppose, but some of it has been pretty mean-spirited, which is too bad, and which sheds a poor light all around. I watched the awards from the bar this year, and the biggest cheer in the bar seemed to come when Dr. Stanley Schmidt won the Hugo award for Best Editor, Short Form. I jumped up, screaming myself when that award was announced. I am so happy for Stan, who I was fortunate enough to sell stories to and work with before he retired from Analog last year.

And my friends at SF Signal won the Hugo award for Best Fanzine for the second time in a row. I am so happy for John and Patrick and J.P. and all of the contributors to SF Signal.

I was particularly pleased to see Ken Liu get the Best Short Story Hugo for “Mono No Aware.”

The toughest part about the Hugo awards for me these days is that I have quite a few friends who are nominated. I wish they could all win.

I would like to congratulate all of the Hugo winners as well as all of the Hugo nominees. You should all be proud of your accomplishments.

Continue reading Some Post-Worldcon Thoughts →

So I am having so much fun here in San Antonio that I didn’t manage to get a post up yesterday detailing just how much fun I am having. If I were to try and write a narrative of everything I’ve done over the last two days, it would take me hours to write this post and I just don’t have hours. In fact, today, Sunday, is my busy day. So I’m going to provide a bulleted list¹ with some commentary and remind you that you can also see some photos (a meager few at this point) over on Flickr.

Friday, August 30

• Woke up at 6:30 am and walked up to CVS to find some Red Bull. My phone said the CVS opened at 7 am, but it turned out it didn’t open until 8 am. I found caffeine elsewhere².
• Wrote in the lobby for an hour or so, while talking with Bud Sparhawk, who sat at the table with me. Actually, there are four of us who get down here at around the same time every morning. I think we are the hardest working writers at Worldcon.
• After Bud headed to breakfast, Saladin Ahmed took his place, making him one of the hardest working writers at Worldcon as well.
• Did the Day 1 blogging.
• Caught up with Jay Werkheiser and Lisa Montoya and then headed off to a panel on SIGMA, which is a science fiction think-tank. The panel was very interesting and panelists included Arlan Andrews, Bud Sparhawk, Chuck Gannon, Catherine Asaro and Marianne Dyson.
• I received my Analog Mafia button from Arlan Andrews, which was very, very cool. I think I may have received the last button he had on him.
• Headed to lunch with Trevor Quachri and Jay. We maintained our tradition of managing to walk in the direction where there are no restaurants. We wandered around aimlessly until we finally found a great Mexican restaurant on the river walk. We had a terrific lunch, stuffed avocado, which was amazing, good maragaritas, and of course, outstanding company.
• Afterward, Jay and I wandered about the convention center until Jay suggested he was ready for a beer, at which point we headed to The Bar. While there, we were joined by a small-press editor, Chester Hoster, and we swapped stories about our kids.
• I once again ran into Fran Wilde, but this time, Cards Against Humanity was not involved. We established, however, that I am not me, or at least, I am not who she thought I was, which makes perfect sense, but you had to be there.
• Back over at the convention center, I saw James Seals and Kate Baker once again.
• At this point, I decided a nap was in order and I headed back up to my room to rest for a little while. I didn’t actually sleep, but it was good just to lay down for a little while and take a break.
• Jay, Lisa and I headed to the Saltgrass Steakhouse for dinner and I had one of the best steaks I’ve had in my entire life. Yum!
• After dinner I headed back to my room, relaxed for a little while, showered, and then headed to the Analog/Asimov’s party and the TOR party.
• Finally managed to get Bryan Thomas Schmidt connected with Trevor while at the parties. Talked with a ton of people. Met the two graduate students, Megan and Mackenzie (if memory serves me correctly) that run the AboutSF program at the University of Kansas.
• Spoke to Stan Schmidt about how retirement has been treating him so far.
• Ended up calling it a night at about 1:30 am.

Continue reading LoneStarCon, Friday and Saturday, Days 2 & 3 →

I arrived at LoneStarCon 3, the 71st World Science Fiction Convention, yesterday. I always get a little anxious on travel days. It seems nearly everyone has at least one travel horror story, and while I have generally been lucky, I still worry a little. Each stage of travel is like a small gauntlet, and when I pass it, I feel increasingly relieved: get to airport, get checked in, get on board the plane, plane departs on time, etc.

Yesterday, I needn’t have worried. Arriving in San Antonio had to be one of the most efficient arrivals I’ve ever experienced. The plane touched down at about 11 am. We were at the gate at 11:05. By 11:15 I’d picked up my baggage, and by 11:30 I was checked in  at the hotel. It was remarkable! I’m staying at the Marriott Rivercenter and I’ve got a room with a fantastic view of San Antonio.

(For reasons of efficiency, I am posting the pictures I’m taking at Worldcon to Flickr. If you want to see the photos, go there.)

The convention is spread over two hotels on the Riverwalk: the Marriot Rivercenter and the Marriot Riverwalk. The convention center is next to the latter, and that is where the bulk of the programming is located. However, most of the parties are in the Riverwalk, as is the SFWA Suite, which is convenient for me. Still, given the locations of the hotels and convention center, I still managed to easily hit 15,000 steps on by FitBit.

Almost at once, I ran into Bill Lawhorn, walking between hotels in the 100 F heat. I checked in at registration and wandered the cavernous dealer’s room where I ran into Steven  Silver and chatted with him for a while. After my initial circuit of the dealer’s room, I headed back to the hotel and sat in the lobby charging my phone. While sitting there, I saw Patrick Hester. I’d been waiting to meet with some SFWA officials to talk about a volunteer opportunity, but they were stuck in meetings. So I accompanied Patrick back to the convention center. Of course, as soon as I arrived there I heard from the SFWA officials and had to head back to the Rivercenter to meet with them. It was a quick meeting.

I met Patrick over by Angry Robot books, and then we wandered. Almost at once, I ran into Liz Argall, with whom I attended Launchpad last month, and who was volunteering at the Locus booth. I introduced Patrick and we chatted for a while. Liz had handouts for her comic, Things Without Arms and Legs, which is an awesome web comic. If you’ve never seen it, you should definitely check it out. Patrick had to dash off to interview someone and I continued to wander.

No sooner had I turned around, I ran into Trevor Quachri and chatted with him for a little while. He has been editor of Analog for a year now, a time which seems to have gone by incredibly fast. (I feel like Chicon was last week.) After we parted ways I wandered some more, talking to Lawrence Schoen for a little while. Then I began winding my way out of the dealer’s room, but I ran into Robert Silverberg and Karen Haber.

“Your hair looks different,” Silverberg said. He was right. I’d gotten it cut extra short. And it was probably grayer than the last time I’d seen him.

Continue reading LoneStarCon, Thursday: Day 1 →

Tomorrow morning I head to San Antonio, Texas, for the 71st World Science Fiction Convention, LoneStarCon3. I’ve already posted a rough schedule. Here I wanted to mention some logistics for folks who are either trying to find me there, or folks who are living vicariously following along from home.

Arrival at Worldcon

If all goes smoothly, I arrive in San Antonio around 11:40 CDT tomorrow. Factoring in the usual airport obstacle course, I hope to be at the hotel by 1 pm.

I am staying at the San Antonio Marriott Rivercenter, which I believe is the hotel with all of the bars and night events but not the one with the actual programming. I could be wrong.

Blogging Worldcon

I do my best to blog about the conventions that I attend, as much for myself as for friends and readers who can’t make it but want to know what it is like. I’ll do the same this time. I expect to write one post per day related to the convention. Look for that post the morning of the following day. For example, look for the post about Thursday early Friday morning.

I’ll also be tweeting from Worldcon and if you are interested in following along and don’t already follow me on Twitter, you can find me at @jamietr. Look for the #LoneStarCon hashtag.

Writing at Worldcon

Folks following along with my writing might be wondering if I might break my streak while at Worldcon. My answer is: not if I can help it. To recap:

• I have written fiction for 180 out of the last 182 days
• My best consecutive streak so far is 140 days.
• That streak ended back in July.
• As of today, the streak is back up to 37 consecutive days.
• This evening, I passed 75,000 words on the novel
• I hope to come home from Worldcon with at least 80,000 words.

I plan to do my writing before blogging each morning. Yes, that means getting up early, but the truth is, I don’t sleep in, even when I am up until 2 am. I still find myself awake at 6 am the next morning, so it really isn’t much of a burden. And it feels good to get the writing done early when I will be distracted by other things throughout the day.

Interviews

I’m being interviewed a couple of times at Worldcon, and this is something new for me. One interview is as part of a group of writers, the other is a one-on-one. When those interviews are available, I’ll let you know.

Book signing

I’m not on official programming, but I will be pre-signing some copies of Beyond the Sun, the anthology that my story, “Flipping the Switch” appears in. Other authors with stories in the anthology will also be signing the books. If you will be at Worldcon and want signed copies of Beyond the Sun, you can look for them in the dealer’s room at the Book Universe booth. (If you grab a copy not signed by me and you want me to sign it, just find me, I’m happy to do it.)

Getting in touch with me

If you are at Worldcon and are trying to get in touch with me here are the best ways to do it, in order of preference:

• Text me (if you have my number)
• Tweet me (@jamietr)
• Email me (jamie [at] jamietoddrubin dot com)
• Call me (if you have my number)

When I’m not available

Here are a few times that I know for certain I won’t be available. If you are trying to find me, don’t expect to find me during these times:

• Friday, 1-2 pm
• Saturday, 10am – 2pm
• Sunday, 9 – 11 am, 2:30 – 3:30 pm, 6-7 pm

The above times are commitments I’ve already made. Beyond that, I’m around.

Departing Worldcon

I fly home late afternoon on Monday, September 2, but most of Monday is pretty much blocked out so that I can catch up with a good friend of mine. So if you are trying to catch up with me, best try doing it before Monday morning.

I look forward to seeing everyone in San Antonio. Be sure to stop and say hello!