Balticon report

Amy and I went down to Balticon this weekend.  We hung out with kathy_the_geek and Bryan, plus our friends John, Linda and Nicki.  Chatted with msmemory and met her friend  tpau.

We barely made it to the hotel in time to catch the Ookla the Mok concert, due to needing a different room from the one they first gave us (it hadn't been cleaned, and had food lying around).  We did get to hear most of the concert though.  The sound wasn't the greatest - the instruments kept drowning out the lyrics.  I picked up their latest album, "Oh Okay LA", after the show.

Lois McMaster Bujold was the writer guest of honor, and I got to hear her read from her next book (which sounds really good!) and speak on a few panels.  I forgot to bring anything to get signed, but I did that the last time I saw her, so I wasn't too put out.  My only complaint were all the fans asking variants on: "Do you have any plans to write about character X?" forcing her to respond over and over again that she only works on one book at a time and doesn't plan out or think about the next book until the current one is finished.

The musically guest was Heather Alexander - a favorite of mine.  She had a concert on Saturday afternoon - thankfully without any sound problems.  Great show - but no new CDs for me.  *sigh*

Sunday evening was their film festival.  They had eight short independent films to show us and then had us rank them.  They were going to announce the winner on Monday, but I forgot to check.  My personal favorite was "Fall of a Saga" one man's take on exactly what happened to cause George Lucas to make episode one the way he did.

The rest of the con was spent either running around the dealer's room, checking out the art show or sitting in panels.  I didn't get around to playing any games (*gasp*!), but still had a good time.

I got away with only getting nine new books:
  Manna From Heaven - Roger Zelazny  - previously uncollected short stories by one of my favorite authors
  The Complete Paratime - H. Beam Piper - because Bryan was talking about it and I liked Piper's other stuff
  Nightside the Long Sun - Gene Wolfe - I've got other books in the series and want them all before starting them
  The Last Hawk - Catherine Asaro - Got to meet the author and hear her speak a few times
  Janissaries - Jerry Pournelle - I've got book 2, wanted to start with book 1
  No Phule Like and Old Phule - Robert Asprin - Fun stuff from Asprin
  Myth-ion Improbable - Robert Asprin - More fun stuff from Asprin
  Red Thunder - John Varley - I've loved everything of John Varley's I've read
  The Dawn of Amber - John Betancourt - based on Zelazny's Amber series so it could be interesting.

I didn't get any this time, but everyone should have a link to Nancy Button's :)

Balticon report

Amy and I went down to Balticon this weekend.  We hung out with kathy_the_geek and Bryan, plus our friends John, Linda and Nicki.  Chatted with msmemory and met her friend  tpau.

We barely made it to the hotel in time to catch the Ookla the Mok concert, due to needing a different room from the one they first gave us (it hadn't been cleaned, and had food lying around).  We did get to hear most of the concert though.  The sound wasn't the greatest - the instruments kept drowning out the lyrics.  I picked up their latest album, "Oh Okay LA", after the show.

Lois McMaster Bujold was the writer guest of honor, and I got to hear her read from her next book (which sounds really good!) and speak on a few panels.  I forgot to bring anything to get signed, but I did that the last time I saw her, so I wasn't too put out.  My only complaint were all the fans asking variants on: "Do you have any plans to write about character X?" forcing her to respond over and over again that she only works on one book at a time and doesn't plan out or think about the next book until the current one is finished.

The musically guest was Heather Alexander - a favorite of mine.  She had a concert on Saturday afternoon - thankfully without any sound problems.  Great show - but no new CDs for me.  *sigh*

Sunday evening was their film festival.  They had eight short independent films to show us and then had us rank them.  They were going to announce the winner on Monday, but I forgot to check.  My personal favorite was "Fall of a Saga" one man's take on exactly what happened to cause George Lucas to make episode one the way he did.

The rest of the con was spent either running around the dealer's room, checking out the art show or sitting in panels.  I didn't get around to playing any games (*gasp*!), but still had a good time.

I got away with only getting nine new books:
  Manna From Heaven - Roger Zelazny  - previously uncollected short stories by one of my favorite authors
  The Complete Paratime - H. Beam Piper - because Bryan was talking about it and I liked Piper's other stuff
  Nightside the Long Sun - Gene Wolfe - I've got other books in the series and want them all before starting them
  The Last Hawk - Catherine Asaro - Got to meet the author and hear her speak a few times
  Janissaries - Jerry Pournelle - I've got book 2, wanted to start with book 1
  No Phule Like and Old Phule - Robert Asprin - Fun stuff from Asprin
  Myth-ion Improbable - Robert Asprin - More fun stuff from Asprin
  Red Thunder - John Varley - I've loved everything of John Varley's I've read
  The Dawn of Amber - John Betancourt - based on Zelazny's Amber series so it could be interesting.

I didn't get any this time, but everyone should have a link to Nancy Button's :)