Part One: Friday
It was a series of close calls even getting to Montreal; someone T-boned a CHP on the 405 Freeway and one of the busiest stretches of road in the world got shut down to one lane. A normally 45-minute trip to LAX took nearly two hours, and I was grateful it wasn’t longer. Barely made the flight, barely made the connecting flight, got to my hotel in Montreal 30 minutes before my panel started. Found out my room wasn’t ready. Checked luggage, hurried to the Palais d’Congres, registered with the con, got to my first panel about two minutes before it started.
So I’m at around 30 hours with no sleep, I’ve been in Montreal for about 38 seconds, and I’m about to start my first panel at Worldcon — the New Media panel with Cory Doctorow, Neil Gaiman, Ellen Kushner, Melissa auf der Maur, and Tobias Buckell in a very packed room. It was a delight to meet Cory, whom I’ve enjoyed reading for years (though I’ve yet to read his fiction; almost entirely I’ve followed his wonderful writings on intellectual property in the 21st Century). I had only recently learned he was a fan of my first novel, Ariel, and I was enormously flattered by his quotes for the reprint and on the upcoming Elegy Beach.
I’ve been in books with Neil Gaiman (Midnight Graffiti) and know people who know him but had never met him before, and to be honest we only met briefly a few times at the con. I found him to be charming and gracious. I’ve been between the covers with Ellen Kushner before, too (Borderland), though I haven’t seen her in yadda-yadda years (as I said, I haven’t been to cons in a long time). Melissa auf der Maur, former bass player with Hole & Smashing Pumpkins, was an absolute delight and we hit it off immediately. The fact that she’s a babe and a half, and a redhead to boot (not that I would boot a redhead, but a booted redhead is a thing of beauty, but I digress; as you can see I’m rendered dirt-stupid by redheadedness) was an Added Bonus Attraction. She was also a welcome non-writerly voice on the panel (I kinda switch-hit between my writerly & my DJ self). I’ve always loved musicians. Hell, I married one.
A lot of people reported this was one of the better panels of the con, so in a certain sense the con was over for me about the time I showed up. My goal wasn’t to be a Rock Star Love God (which, I’ll admit, was my goal at cons a kerjillion years ago), but just to promote my upcoming books & the podcasts. From that standpoint the con was a great success.
After the panel I had time to check in to my hotel, get a shower, and run back to the Palais for my reading (on the same hour slot with James Alan Gardner and Peadar O Guilin), which naturally I had not had time to practice, but which I managed to (mostly) ace because I tend to do better under pressure. Hot water used to be my natural element. If pressured I’ll admit to occasionally making the water hot myself in order to gear up. I’m not so much like that anymore; life provides enough pressure as it is, thank you very much, and self-imposed drama sure takes up a lot of energy.
But the reading went well, and I got some very nice & much-appreciated compliments, and some bloggers reported wanting to buy Elegy Beach after hearing me read from it, so what more could you ask? Later on someone told me, “You didn’t read that story, you performed it.” Which made me feel great. I’ll admit I’ve spent a lot of time learning exactly that: how to perform instead of merely read. It helps that I am something of a ham.
I hear that Friday night was the best night for parties. I dunno. I went to the party floor, looked around, realized I was running on fumes, and went to my room and into a coma.