WFC, Part II
Friday was a day of readings and signings.



Lois McMaster Bujold read a passage from book 4 of her Sharing Knife series. Since I haven't even read the first book, I think a lot of it was lost on me, but the writing was strong and there were some funny bits. I enjoyed the Q&A period, where Bujold admitted that Netflix had made her into a huge anime fan and that she'd recently finished watching Full Metal Alchemist. :-)

Later that morning, George RR Martin read the prologue to Dance of Dragons for us. It was creepy and violent and tragic, just as an Ice and Fire prologue should be. We weren't sworn to secrecy, but I'll avoid publishing the details here in case people are avoiding all spoilers--contact me if you want to know.

He also mentioned several other projects he has coming out, including a new volume of his shared world anthology, Wild Cards, and a retrospective collection of his short stories. "I'm going to find out if I have many thousands of George Martin fans, or just many thousands of Ice and Fire fans," he said. Having read a little of his short work, I'm definitely going to be looking for these.

I went to lunch with Amy Tibbetts and Andrea Kail (recently of Writers of the Future fame--her story in the current volume of WOTF is magnificent) at a hole-in-the-wall diner that had cheap food and lousy service. One of the cool things about this weekend was how often I'd end up hanging out with friends just by sitting down alone in the lobby for ten minutes or wandering the halls.

Scott Lynch gave a fantastic reading later that afternoon. He's the author of The Lies of Locke Lamora, another debut that's garnered much critical acclaim, and after hearing this excerpt of book 3, I can understand why. He was already in the To Be Read pile, but he's now moved up considerably. :-)

The Big Event(tm) of the evening was the mass autographing. Imagine, if you will, a ballroom with tables lining each wall, and half a dozen aisles of tables in the center. Now imagine that nearly all of the people on this list: http://www.lastsfa.org/wfc2007/membership.php are sitting at those tables with pens for two hours. Finally, the weight of all those books I'd been carrying around for two days became worth it.

Some random thoughts from the autograph lines:
I asked Bujold for a good research title on rivers, something that she mentioned earlier she'd been reading about.

People should really tell me that the con web site is wrong about Stephen Donaldson attending BEFORE I lug his giant hardback across the country!

Tamora Pierce is a small, plump, motherly woman who's sporting her first set of tattoos on her arms--mystical symbols from one of her Circle of Magic books.

Elizabeth Bear and Scott Lynch kept teasing each other about stealing the other's autograph line. Lynch is in his late 20s (which makes me want to lock myself in a room and not come out until I have a trilogy written!) and has long blond hair past his shoulders.

David Anthony Durham (a longtime literary and historical writer whose first fantasy novel, Acacia, you all should read) had the uneviable task of sitting next to George RR Martin, who of course had the longest line. I listened to Acacia on audiobook so I had nothing to sign, but I stopped by just to tell him how much I enjoyed it.

Sharon Shinn, a tall woman who seemed about my mother's age and whom I'd spoken to briefly at the airport, is a sweetheart. I picked up the first book of her latest series in the dealer's room and got her to sign it.

Garth Nix has a thick Australian accent, and came across as a great gentleman when I asked him to autograph Sabriel.

Even after the autographing was over, my day wasn't over by far. I ran into several Odfellows at the Brotherhood Without Banners (the Martin fan club party), and got to know the class of 2007 better.

At midnight, Jeanne Cavelos had a reading where anyone could read their five minute ghost stories. Several quite good ones, including Susan Winston's and Jeanne's own, about the ghosts of dead words. Unfortunately, it ran far too long, and I finally gave up around 2:15 AM and managed to beg a ride back to my hotel from the Winstons, as the last shuttle was gone and it was subfreezing.

At the hotel I changed as quietly as I could and collapsed into bed. Morning came far too soon.