Worldcon Day 2

This day started frustratingly. I was supposed to have breakfast with Connie Willis and Sheila Williams "and we'll meet at the main hotel registration desk." But this con has no main hotel. People are scattered across five or six hotels, and although there is a party hotel, Connie and Sheila were not there, nor at the other four hotels I tried. They were at the sixth, and we had to reschedule.

The rest of the day was an improvement. I did a reading, a signing, and a whole lot of eating. This is a small Worldcon -- someone told me there are about 3,000 attendees -- and a correspondingly small dealers' room. The room does, however, feature a great display of former masquerade-winning costumes. Here is an absolute knock-out costume for Shakespeare's Titania:



My dinner group included two people who had just learned they are on the World Fantasy Ballot, Daryl Gregory and John Picaccio, plus Elizabeth Bear, Jack Skillingstead, and the irrepressible Ellen Klages, so dinner was lively. Less successful were the post-dinner parties. The SFWA suite, in addition to the usual crowding and heat, was raided by Security for too many people and too much noise on a non-party floor of the hotel. People got thrown out. Many oozed back in later, but by the time I attempted this (after spending time at the Astronomicon party), the elevator situation was hopelessly jammed. I gave up and went to bed.