Astronomicon

Yesterday I attended a local con in Rochester, NY: Astronomicon. Guest of Honor was Mike Resnick, and his GOH speech was hilarious. He talked about past Worldcons, including the one where the Hugo bases had arrived in time for the ceremony but not the metal rocket ships which screw onto the bases. R.A. Lafferty won one. Later Mike and friends found him crawling under the table, very drunk, saying plaintively, "I think I might have won a Hugo, but i lost part of it!"

I did three panels, including one on "Alien Languages" and one of technology that SF promised us but which has not yet arrived ("Twitter My Jetpack.") I also attended a panel by Jill Nicholas and Alicia Henn called "Main "em Right." Jill, an ER and ICU nurse and Alicia, a microbiologist, answered questions from the audience on how to correctly injure your characters: What happens if someone is struck by lightening? Gets shot (various caliber guns)? What can pass the blood-brain barrier? What are emergency wilderness methods for dealing with a wound? The latter included peeing on it or, more appealingly, using honey. Both will help deal with infecting bacteria. You can also pack a wound with spider webs to give the blood something to clot over. First remove the spider.

Drinks in the bar with a crowd that included Rob Sawyer, who reported that he's very happy with the TV series based on his novel, Flash Forward. Indications are strong that it will be picked up for another season.

Dinner with Mike and Carol Resnick, Nick DiChario, and other friends. Mike told more stories; nobody knows more about the inner workings of the byzantine SF business community. Then, exhausted and happy, I drove home and lay awake pondering honey, spider webs, and alien languages.