Norwescon 34

Yesterday was my first day at Norwescon. I would have more pictures of this except for technological glitches with camera, computer, and me. Today I will get pictures of some of the great costumes, since this is a big costuming con. It is a large con, and a fun one.

The day began with dropping off Cosette at the dog boarders. She was not happy about this. Jack and I had Mary Robinette Kowal with us, since she is staying at our apartment for the con. During the day I sat on a panel with Mary, Jack, and Claire Johnson on "When Writers Don't Get Paid." This covered two issues: piracy, and the changing publishing environment in which electronic publishing is in the ascendancy and print publishing is (maybe) in some sort of (possibly temporary) decline. I resolved to get more of my work up on Kindle, Nook, iPad, and Sony eReader.

Later I did a reading, reading for the first time from the YA fantasy I published under a pseudonym. More on this later in the week.

The high point of the day was dinner with Michael Swanwick, Eileen Gunn, John Berry, Ted Kosmatka, Jack, Brenda Cooper and Leslie Howle. The hotel cocktails all include dry ice, so our table foamed quite a bit. Here is Michael with a martini, looking very Punk Riviera:
During dinner there was much discussion of autobiographies by writers. The question was raised: If you wrote an autobiography, would you be completely honest about your past actions and thoughts? Even if your children might read it? Everybody at the table said no. Which says something about us all -- but what?