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stoutfellowOkay, this will be a long one, so I'm putting it under a cut. For non-listie readers: "Lois" is Lois McMaster Bujold, one of my favorite authors, the Guest of Honor at this year's Balticon, and the reason why so many people I e-knew were going to be at the convention.
Friday My flight got into Baltimore at a little after 4PM; by the time I got to the hotel, checked in, and picked up my convention packet, it was 5:15. (Newbie Note: Get there early!) Lois was moderating a panel on "Research and Your Writing" which had begun at 5, so I slipped in at the back. It was an interesting panel. Lois, discussing the value of consulting experts, mentioned that serendipity was a major plus, and revealed the origin of the quaddies. It seems that, while researching for Falling Free, she talked to an astrobiologist about decalcification in orbit, and the fellow casually mentioned that, though astronauts often lose bone mass in their legs, their arms often become fatigued from overuse. It struck her that what they really needed was an extra pair of arms rather than those useless dangly legs, and the rest is history. (Newbie Note: Though I was fascinated by the discussion, I was rather worried that I might not be able to make contact with the other listies, and so I spent a good deal of time scanning the audience for Robert Parks - tall, gangly Robert, he of the waist-length hair, the one listie I was reasonably sure I could identify on sight. I was unsuccessful until the talk ended and he stood up. I came up and introduced myself, and found myself in the midst of a small swarm of listies.) After the talk, some of us went out to dinner: Marty and Jerrie Adkins, Margali, Ginnilee Berger, Sasha Wagner-Adamo, Jerrie's friend Irene Harrison, and me. Dinner was enlivened by a singer, who had a passable voice and a good repertoire but unfortunately also had an amplifier, which hampered conversation a bit. By the time we finished dinner, it was time for the closed party Cat Meier and Elizabeth Twitchell were hosting. (The party was restricted to listies, here defined as anyone who'd ever signed up for the list or who had ever lived with anyone who'd ever signed up for the list.) (Newbie Note: It's an interesting experience to have someone you've never met walk up, smile brightly and say, "Oh, you're Jim Parish! Hi!" At least two people were apparently surprised by my hair.) I don't recall who-all was at the party, but in addition to Cat and Elizabeth, I met Ase (who did manage to get to the con, if only for the one night) and Nicholas Rosen. Now, I'm one of those people who can participate in a conversation, but have difficulty initiating one, and Nick seems to be another, which caused some difficulty when we came face to face. He made a valiant effort, though. I, on the other hand, was seized by a fit of idiocy, and found myself showing him a picture of - no, not Murphy or Ben, but myself. I had what seemed to be a good reason for doing this, but for the life of me I don't recall what it was. Conversation was diverse; I recall a couple of people - Ginnilee was one, but I don't recall who the other was - one-upping each other with stories of bizarre injuries, and there was also a discussion of peculiar accents (Southern USAn with a British overlay, and the like). Lois showed up around 10PM, but I was already fading and left at about 10:30.
Saturday I got up around 6AM, and discovered that Balticon really didn't cater to early risers. (I grumbled about this to Jerrie later; she told me that of course they did - there were events scheduled as early as 10AM! I pointed out that I was talking about things to do at, say, 7; her response was that the thing to do then was to go back to bed. I don't think Jerrie understands morning people...) I breakfasted at the hotel restaurant, then wandered around looking for people. Eventually I found a few people in the Con Suite and hung around with them until it was time for another of Lois' panels, "Personality flaws in a character and why/how they warp the weave in a story". That was likewise entertaining; Lois got off several good mots, such as "One of the jobs of parents is to keep their kids from having adventures." She pointed out that this helped explain the popularity of orphans in novels. (It occurred to me that this shed light on The Warrior's Apprentice; Admiral Naismith was, for practical purposes, an orphan in that book.)
Afterward, another clutch of us went off for lunch; after our first choice proved inadequate, Jerrie asked a cabbie for a recommendation, and he directed us to a cafe a few blocks away. I think the crowd consisted of Natalie Getzoff, Julian Redditt, Robert, Sasha, Margali, Jerrie, Cat, Elizabeth, a non-listie friend of Natalie's, and me. Again, conversation was lively; I recall that Oliver Sacks was one topic of discussion, but there were many others.
After lunch, I wandered away from the group - I'd met enough people that I felt confident I could find them again - to spend some time in the Dealers' Room. (Newbie Note: Bring more money!) I had to hold myself to only buying three books: Cabell's Jurgen, Dunsany's Don Rodriguez, and Lafferty's Sindbad: The Thirteenth Voyage. (I'd already read The Charwoman's Shadow, and Don Rodriguez is an earlier story in the same setting. Oddly, the spine title of the Lafferty book was The Seventh Voyage of Sindbad.) Later, I briefly dropped in on a panel titled "Resolved: A trilogy should contain no more than 3 books", but left after about fifteen minutes. At 3PM, Lois gave a reading - Chapter One of The Hallowed Hunt, and an excerpt from Chapter Two. It sounds very intriguing. Unfortunately, I found myself micronapping during the reading, so I went up to my room and slept for about forty-five minutes.
Next came a marathon - two panels and a lecture, taking up three hours and keeping me away from dinner. The first was on "World Creation in Science Fiction and Fantasy", mainly centering on different strategies. For example, one of the panelists had begun her most recent series of stories with an image - a monk, exiled to a lighthouse on the edge of civilization. This led her to a series of questions: why was he there? What kind of society would put a lighthouse in such a place, and why? Answering those questions guided her worldbuilding and her story-plotting. The second was "When History Repeats Itself - Sort Of", discussing the various uses of history in writing F/SF. (Robert Chase, who should write more novels, was on the panel.) The lecture centered on "The Current State of Ignorance in Time and Quantum Mechanics"; the general theme was that we can calculate anything, but we understand nothing. I know how that feels...
By that time it was time for the nightly party, which was a good thing, as I was starving. The main culinary attractions were a wine-garlic roast (one of Ginnilee's recipes), a large variety of liqueur-based brownies, and two different batches of messy but irresistible baklava. Again, I don't recall everyone who showed up, but Janet Bruesselbach and Jim Reynolds were among them. So was Sasha; after learning that she was an intermittent fan of "Gilmore Girls", I filled her in on the season finale. (She was gravely disappointed in Rory.) Lois came in at about 10PM, insisting that she was tired and was only going to stay for a few minutes. She was still there when I left at 11:30. I think it was because people kept giving her back rubs.
Sunday At 10AM, I went to a panel on "Portrayal of the Military in SF"; several of the panelists were present or retired military, and the consensus was that the portrayal is grossly inaccurate. Among the shortcomings mentioned were the overuse of psycho- and sociopaths (David Drake took flak here), problems of scale (Jerry Pournelle), the "unified service" concept, and gender-integrated forces. At 11, there was a panel on "Writing a Continuing Character in an SF Series"; the panelists were Lois, Catherine Asaro, and Jane Lindskold. (Newbie Note: Look for Jane Lindskold's books!) Asaro kept forgetting Lindskold's name, and took quite a bit of good-natured ribbing from the other two. That panel was a lot of fun.
Afterward, Natalie had arranged to take Lois to brunch (oddly, at the same cafe we'd gone to the day before). Unfortunately, I found myself down at the far end of the table, and so missed most of Lois' conversation. On the way back, Lois had an encounter with a cicada. She seemed rather taken with it; its coloring - an iridescent green - went well with the outfit she was wearing. I think someone took a picture of her gazing in wonder at the cicada perched on her finger. (She confirmed afterward that butterbugs are considerably bigger and uglier than cicadas.)
After brunch, I spent a little time in the Dealers' Room; I decided I'd just have to get some ATM money at the airport, and bought a couple of books by John Clute - a collection of reviews, and the Encyclopedia of Fantasy. (I already had his Encyclopedia of Science Fiction.) Then I went back to my room for a nap and a bit of reading (Connie Willis' Passage; as a result, I had "Nearer, My God, To Thee" stuck in my head for the rest of the day.) Then it was time for another three-hour marathon. The first panel was "SARS, ebola, influenza and mad cow: pandemics in the modern age". That was quite interesting; there was general agreement that, of the diseases named, the only one which had any chance of achieving pandemic status was flu, and that we were way overdue for a flu pandemic. There was also some discussion of prion diseases, West Nile, and some of the others that have been in the headlines lately. Then came "Jackson's LOTR and Tolkien's", which was fun; the panelists pointed out the artistic reasons for many of the points where Jackson's treatment of the story differed from Tolkien's. (There was also discussion of some of the flaws in Jackson's version, including disagreement as to which of those were actually flaws. There was agreement, though, that the virtues of the films far outweighed the flaws.) (Newbie Note: Get the extended version DVDs!)
The third panel, "Forensic Science and Science Fiction", was just a mess. First, the panelists didn't seem sure what it was they were supposed to be talking about. Then, about halfway through, someone asked a tangential question, and the discussion turned to questions of worldbuilding - which might have been interesting, but I'd already been to a couple of panels on that subject. Also, Lillian Cauldwell, who was the most forceful and talkative of the panelists, was argumentative, rude, and not altogether coherent. All told, that one was an unpleasant experience.
At that point, I went up to that night's party. It was early yet, but I thought I could help with the setting up. There were a couple of special events that night - a regency dance and a film festival - so, at least to begin, the party was sparsely attended. I did get into an amusing conversation with Cat and someone without a name tag. (I have her mentally tagged as Purple Cat Lady; I say this without malice or intent to offend.) The subject was pets; Cat told a story about Tucker, and PCL launched into a description of her family's four cats, none of whom seemed remotely normal. Among others, there was the one male, a white cat named Spike who, despite having been declawed by his previous family, has achieved some sort of dominance. PCL gave a wonderful impression of Spike's behavior on being introduced to one of the females ("You're cute", accompanied by an endearingly goofy grin). (The female was emphatically not interested, and eventually spent three days cowering under an armchair.) Baboons, bonobos, sea otters, and elephants also entered into the discussion. At about this point, Jerrie came in to announce that they had Lois at a restaurant table downstairs and there were empty chairs, including one next to Lois. I made my apologies to Cat (though I promised to return) and went back down with Jerrie. Finally, I got a chance to hear and take part in a conversation with Lois! This time, at least, I managed to refrain from banality. I think. Topics included relatives (I told a story about my great-nephew Christopher), mental instability, and cats. I did make it back to the party, but only stayed long enough to redeem my word before heading back to my room.
Monday Monday was relatively uneventful. I attended a lecture on Mars, which built a towering structure of supposition on some rather tenuous evidence; the thesis involved exploding planets, an alternative theory of gravitation, and intelligent Martians. Verdict: crackpottery. Afterward, there was a small gathering of listies at which the concept of Lois' Lounge (AKA Yeltar's Den) was discussed, but I'll leave that to the people who were actually involved in planning it. Being, as usual, worried about being late for the airport, I left soon afterward. (Newbie Note: stay later!)
And that was my first con. I'll have to do that again sometime...
Friday My flight got into Baltimore at a little after 4PM; by the time I got to the hotel, checked in, and picked up my convention packet, it was 5:15. (Newbie Note: Get there early!) Lois was moderating a panel on "Research and Your Writing" which had begun at 5, so I slipped in at the back. It was an interesting panel. Lois, discussing the value of consulting experts, mentioned that serendipity was a major plus, and revealed the origin of the quaddies. It seems that, while researching for Falling Free, she talked to an astrobiologist about decalcification in orbit, and the fellow casually mentioned that, though astronauts often lose bone mass in their legs, their arms often become fatigued from overuse. It struck her that what they really needed was an extra pair of arms rather than those useless dangly legs, and the rest is history. (Newbie Note: Though I was fascinated by the discussion, I was rather worried that I might not be able to make contact with the other listies, and so I spent a good deal of time scanning the audience for Robert Parks - tall, gangly Robert, he of the waist-length hair, the one listie I was reasonably sure I could identify on sight. I was unsuccessful until the talk ended and he stood up. I came up and introduced myself, and found myself in the midst of a small swarm of listies.) After the talk, some of us went out to dinner: Marty and Jerrie Adkins, Margali, Ginnilee Berger, Sasha Wagner-Adamo, Jerrie's friend Irene Harrison, and me. Dinner was enlivened by a singer, who had a passable voice and a good repertoire but unfortunately also had an amplifier, which hampered conversation a bit. By the time we finished dinner, it was time for the closed party Cat Meier and Elizabeth Twitchell were hosting. (The party was restricted to listies, here defined as anyone who'd ever signed up for the list or who had ever lived with anyone who'd ever signed up for the list.) (Newbie Note: It's an interesting experience to have someone you've never met walk up, smile brightly and say, "Oh, you're Jim Parish! Hi!" At least two people were apparently surprised by my hair.) I don't recall who-all was at the party, but in addition to Cat and Elizabeth, I met Ase (who did manage to get to the con, if only for the one night) and Nicholas Rosen. Now, I'm one of those people who can participate in a conversation, but have difficulty initiating one, and Nick seems to be another, which caused some difficulty when we came face to face. He made a valiant effort, though. I, on the other hand, was seized by a fit of idiocy, and found myself showing him a picture of - no, not Murphy or Ben, but myself. I had what seemed to be a good reason for doing this, but for the life of me I don't recall what it was. Conversation was diverse; I recall a couple of people - Ginnilee was one, but I don't recall who the other was - one-upping each other with stories of bizarre injuries, and there was also a discussion of peculiar accents (Southern USAn with a British overlay, and the like). Lois showed up around 10PM, but I was already fading and left at about 10:30.
Saturday I got up around 6AM, and discovered that Balticon really didn't cater to early risers. (I grumbled about this to Jerrie later; she told me that of course they did - there were events scheduled as early as 10AM! I pointed out that I was talking about things to do at, say, 7; her response was that the thing to do then was to go back to bed. I don't think Jerrie understands morning people...) I breakfasted at the hotel restaurant, then wandered around looking for people. Eventually I found a few people in the Con Suite and hung around with them until it was time for another of Lois' panels, "Personality flaws in a character and why/how they warp the weave in a story". That was likewise entertaining; Lois got off several good mots, such as "One of the jobs of parents is to keep their kids from having adventures." She pointed out that this helped explain the popularity of orphans in novels. (It occurred to me that this shed light on The Warrior's Apprentice; Admiral Naismith was, for practical purposes, an orphan in that book.)
Afterward, another clutch of us went off for lunch; after our first choice proved inadequate, Jerrie asked a cabbie for a recommendation, and he directed us to a cafe a few blocks away. I think the crowd consisted of Natalie Getzoff, Julian Redditt, Robert, Sasha, Margali, Jerrie, Cat, Elizabeth, a non-listie friend of Natalie's, and me. Again, conversation was lively; I recall that Oliver Sacks was one topic of discussion, but there were many others.
After lunch, I wandered away from the group - I'd met enough people that I felt confident I could find them again - to spend some time in the Dealers' Room. (Newbie Note: Bring more money!) I had to hold myself to only buying three books: Cabell's Jurgen, Dunsany's Don Rodriguez, and Lafferty's Sindbad: The Thirteenth Voyage. (I'd already read The Charwoman's Shadow, and Don Rodriguez is an earlier story in the same setting. Oddly, the spine title of the Lafferty book was The Seventh Voyage of Sindbad.) Later, I briefly dropped in on a panel titled "Resolved: A trilogy should contain no more than 3 books", but left after about fifteen minutes. At 3PM, Lois gave a reading - Chapter One of The Hallowed Hunt, and an excerpt from Chapter Two. It sounds very intriguing. Unfortunately, I found myself micronapping during the reading, so I went up to my room and slept for about forty-five minutes.
Next came a marathon - two panels and a lecture, taking up three hours and keeping me away from dinner. The first was on "World Creation in Science Fiction and Fantasy", mainly centering on different strategies. For example, one of the panelists had begun her most recent series of stories with an image - a monk, exiled to a lighthouse on the edge of civilization. This led her to a series of questions: why was he there? What kind of society would put a lighthouse in such a place, and why? Answering those questions guided her worldbuilding and her story-plotting. The second was "When History Repeats Itself - Sort Of", discussing the various uses of history in writing F/SF. (Robert Chase, who should write more novels, was on the panel.) The lecture centered on "The Current State of Ignorance in Time and Quantum Mechanics"; the general theme was that we can calculate anything, but we understand nothing. I know how that feels...
By that time it was time for the nightly party, which was a good thing, as I was starving. The main culinary attractions were a wine-garlic roast (one of Ginnilee's recipes), a large variety of liqueur-based brownies, and two different batches of messy but irresistible baklava. Again, I don't recall everyone who showed up, but Janet Bruesselbach and Jim Reynolds were among them. So was Sasha; after learning that she was an intermittent fan of "Gilmore Girls", I filled her in on the season finale. (She was gravely disappointed in Rory.) Lois came in at about 10PM, insisting that she was tired and was only going to stay for a few minutes. She was still there when I left at 11:30. I think it was because people kept giving her back rubs.
Sunday At 10AM, I went to a panel on "Portrayal of the Military in SF"; several of the panelists were present or retired military, and the consensus was that the portrayal is grossly inaccurate. Among the shortcomings mentioned were the overuse of psycho- and sociopaths (David Drake took flak here), problems of scale (Jerry Pournelle), the "unified service" concept, and gender-integrated forces. At 11, there was a panel on "Writing a Continuing Character in an SF Series"; the panelists were Lois, Catherine Asaro, and Jane Lindskold. (Newbie Note: Look for Jane Lindskold's books!) Asaro kept forgetting Lindskold's name, and took quite a bit of good-natured ribbing from the other two. That panel was a lot of fun.
Afterward, Natalie had arranged to take Lois to brunch (oddly, at the same cafe we'd gone to the day before). Unfortunately, I found myself down at the far end of the table, and so missed most of Lois' conversation. On the way back, Lois had an encounter with a cicada. She seemed rather taken with it; its coloring - an iridescent green - went well with the outfit she was wearing. I think someone took a picture of her gazing in wonder at the cicada perched on her finger. (She confirmed afterward that butterbugs are considerably bigger and uglier than cicadas.)
After brunch, I spent a little time in the Dealers' Room; I decided I'd just have to get some ATM money at the airport, and bought a couple of books by John Clute - a collection of reviews, and the Encyclopedia of Fantasy. (I already had his Encyclopedia of Science Fiction.) Then I went back to my room for a nap and a bit of reading (Connie Willis' Passage; as a result, I had "Nearer, My God, To Thee" stuck in my head for the rest of the day.) Then it was time for another three-hour marathon. The first panel was "SARS, ebola, influenza and mad cow: pandemics in the modern age". That was quite interesting; there was general agreement that, of the diseases named, the only one which had any chance of achieving pandemic status was flu, and that we were way overdue for a flu pandemic. There was also some discussion of prion diseases, West Nile, and some of the others that have been in the headlines lately. Then came "Jackson's LOTR and Tolkien's", which was fun; the panelists pointed out the artistic reasons for many of the points where Jackson's treatment of the story differed from Tolkien's. (There was also discussion of some of the flaws in Jackson's version, including disagreement as to which of those were actually flaws. There was agreement, though, that the virtues of the films far outweighed the flaws.) (Newbie Note: Get the extended version DVDs!)
The third panel, "Forensic Science and Science Fiction", was just a mess. First, the panelists didn't seem sure what it was they were supposed to be talking about. Then, about halfway through, someone asked a tangential question, and the discussion turned to questions of worldbuilding - which might have been interesting, but I'd already been to a couple of panels on that subject. Also, Lillian Cauldwell, who was the most forceful and talkative of the panelists, was argumentative, rude, and not altogether coherent. All told, that one was an unpleasant experience.
At that point, I went up to that night's party. It was early yet, but I thought I could help with the setting up. There were a couple of special events that night - a regency dance and a film festival - so, at least to begin, the party was sparsely attended. I did get into an amusing conversation with Cat and someone without a name tag. (I have her mentally tagged as Purple Cat Lady; I say this without malice or intent to offend.) The subject was pets; Cat told a story about Tucker, and PCL launched into a description of her family's four cats, none of whom seemed remotely normal. Among others, there was the one male, a white cat named Spike who, despite having been declawed by his previous family, has achieved some sort of dominance. PCL gave a wonderful impression of Spike's behavior on being introduced to one of the females ("You're cute", accompanied by an endearingly goofy grin). (The female was emphatically not interested, and eventually spent three days cowering under an armchair.) Baboons, bonobos, sea otters, and elephants also entered into the discussion. At about this point, Jerrie came in to announce that they had Lois at a restaurant table downstairs and there were empty chairs, including one next to Lois. I made my apologies to Cat (though I promised to return) and went back down with Jerrie. Finally, I got a chance to hear and take part in a conversation with Lois! This time, at least, I managed to refrain from banality. I think. Topics included relatives (I told a story about my great-nephew Christopher), mental instability, and cats. I did make it back to the party, but only stayed long enough to redeem my word before heading back to my room.
Monday Monday was relatively uneventful. I attended a lecture on Mars, which built a towering structure of supposition on some rather tenuous evidence; the thesis involved exploding planets, an alternative theory of gravitation, and intelligent Martians. Verdict: crackpottery. Afterward, there was a small gathering of listies at which the concept of Lois' Lounge (AKA Yeltar's Den) was discussed, but I'll leave that to the people who were actually involved in planning it. Being, as usual, worried about being late for the airport, I left soon afterward. (Newbie Note: stay later!)
And that was my first con. I'll have to do that again sometime...
