Mya Stone Posted November 3, 2007 Share Posted November 3, 2007 Hey Bale -- you mind picking up a case of lager? Something like Sam Adams or the like. That would be totally awesome. On it like white on rice. See you soon! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alchemist Posted November 3, 2007 Share Posted November 3, 2007 Is it only Saturday? I didn't get here until 11 pm on Thursday night, but except for Worldcon I usually don't manage to arrive at a con until at least Friday afternoon, sometimes Friday night, so I'm usually not this exhausted until Sunday. It's been really awesome so far, and the BwB crowd has been small enough that I'll probably actually remember everyone I've met, unlike LAcon. Good to see everyone again! Let's see, who's here so far ... X-ray, Mr. X, Stego, Maureen, Yagathai, Regina, Fenryng, Jon Targaryen, Lugalirra, Bronn Stone, Sir Knight Somerville, Iceman of the North and Lany Cassandra (and GRRM of course). Did I get that right? I'm sorry if I forgot to mention any of you, but you've all seen that I look pretty out of it right now, so hopefully you'll forgive me. And others are supposed to join us tonight. Sorry Balefont, but Primordial Man has NOT, so far, made an appearance. However, there IS a scary con prowler who's taken a liking to X-ray, and insisted on following her down the hallway when she went for a walk to get some fresh air. I think he did clear off when he finally noticed her wedding ring. Scary con prowler is actually one of those people who can pass for almost normal for about 5 minutes if you're not paying real close attention. I met him at the Shimmer party across the hallway from ours; I had been talking to this Canadian woman named Amal (I forget her last name), and this guy comes up and looks at the name on her badge (and apparently NOT at the part that says where she's from), and says, "Are you from New Jersey? We hire a lot of consultants at work with weird Middle Eastern names, and they always seem to be from New Jersey." Pause. "Or Toronto." I then committed the unforgivable sin of leaving Amal cornered by this guy, rather than trying to help dilute the annoyingness. But I received some karmic payback later that night when one of my non-BwB friends abandoned me in a similar manner, to another annoying person. Bronn is right though; generally most of the people here are cool and interesting. It's a different sort of con. For those of you who were in Japan, Steve Segal is also here and hung out at our party for a while. He asked if any of the other BwBers from the Japan Worldcon were here, but no, I'm the only one. Thanks to Pod bailing on World Fantasy! (I knew we could blame Pod for something.) There were two other big parties last night. There was the Shimmer party. Shimmer is a small press magazine that just published a special Pirate issue (Aaarghh!), guest-edited by John Joseph Adams, the slush pile reader at F&SF. So they had a party to celebrate, serving this stuff they called "grog", which contained brandy, rum, grenadine and lime juice. I thought it was pretty decent, in a vaguely cough syrupish sort of way, but X-ray wrinkled her nose when I made her taste it. I liked it better than the blue wine of warlocks, though. And that vile lychee crap! (although Yagathai did manage to mix that into a drinkable drink, to everyone's great surprise) The other big party was co-hosted by Senses Five Press and Ekaterina Sedia (who edited the SFP anthology Paper Cities that just came out). Senses Five Press is a small press based in Hoboken run by writer friends of mine that I know from Readercon (they also have a magazine called Sybil's Garage). So I went back and forth a lot between that party and the BwB party. And I ended up there after we closed down the BwB party at 2 p.m. last night so that the fearsomely hard-drinking Brotherhood without Banners could get their beauty sleep. All the people actually involved with the Senses Five Press party and their friends finally decided to call it a night at 3:30, but just as we were leaving a bunch of drunk people who'd been kicked out when they closed the hotel bar showed up to see if there was any more beer to be had, so we left them in the room. I think some beer was left for them, but I'm not sure. Hal Duncan was there; it sort of morphed into the drunk British writers party, I think. A couple of the Senses Five Press gang actually decided to go out for breakfast at 3:45 a.m. with two other writers I didn't know, and they tried to convince me I really wanted bacon and eggs on top of the vodka I had just drunk to help kill the last bottle, but I remained unconvinced, and staggered downstairs to my room, where I promptly fell into bed and failed to fall asleep because of some bad combination of caffeine, alcohol and adrenaline. I didn't really sleep much. I stopped trying at about 9:30 this morning. Which is why I don't feel so good now. Random comments: My con roommate Julia (aka Farwing, whom some of you have met because she usually comes to the BwB party at Boskone) uses the expression "slobbering troll" for con weirdos, and I seem to have picked it up. X-ray and I were wearing almost the same outfit yesterday. Long black skirts that we think may have been made by the same French company, brightly-colored knee socks, and black clogs. Total accident. Fortunately not repeated today. I brought a bottle of home-distilled cachaca that I'd gotten at a farmstand in the middle of Brazil (Brazilian moonshine!). This farmer made it himself, packaging it in recycled local Brazilian vodka bottles. It's interesting stuff. I had tried it before on several occasions, and not gone blind, so I figured it was safe to share with the con. Of course, there was no information about how strong it was, or what was in it (though cachaca is generally made from fermented sugarcane). We guessed it was about 150 proof. Mr. X came across a cup that someone had taken to try and abandoned, and just shrugged his shoulders and adopted it as his own, figuring that the alcohol content was high enough to kill even the nastiest con germs. (I don't have any of the stuff left; it was pretty popular, despite comments about using it as paint thinner. I was drinking it earlier in the afternoon with some other friends, but I stopped pouring it into wax-lined paper cups when we noticed that the alcohol was starting to soak in and dissolve the cups. It seemed okay in plastic cups.) Doug Cohen, the slush pile editor from Realms of Fantasy, totally wants to fanboy GRRM, but keeps missing him at parties. I had my own fangirl moment when I ended up sharing an elevator just an hour ago with Guy Gavriel Kay, whose books I've loved since I was in highschool - I read the Fionavar Tapestry not that long after I read The Lord of the Rings, in fact. Of course I couldn't think of a single intelligent thing to say, though I did manage to awkwardly blurt out how much I love his books. I would have felt stupider if I hadn't said anything at all. I haven't gone to any panels yet. I went to the Paper Cities anthology reading yesterday at 3 p.m., but more because my friends published the anthology, not so much because I actually wanted to go. I don't really like going to readings, because I have a really short attention span, and get very fidgety after 5 or 10 minutes. But it was good. I missed George's reading yesterday morning. I know, I'm lame. I actually do enjoy his readings, because he's much better than average at reading aloud, but 11 am is kind of early, at a con. I'm trying to avoid the dealers room now so I don't spend more money. Saratoga seems like a really expensive town. I went out yesterday afternoon looking for some kind of corny souvenir shop so I could buy some Saratoga beer mugs for a friend, and it was a LONG walk before I found one. Designer clothing boutiques, expensive jewelry stores in spades. Not so strong on the gaudy American kitsch, at least not on the main drag. (which is usually a GOOD THING, but every so often you need to buy a cheesy souvenir beer mug or shot glass as sort of a joke gift, right?) Anyway, eventually I found some. Okay, got to go get changed for dinner and parties! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted November 4, 2007 Share Posted November 4, 2007 Cool stuff. Thanks all. Hmmm...tough competition if only because King Arthur is well known. Had an interesting thought (well, okay, my girlfriend did ): The ASoIaF pilot is already written and ready to go. They must have done a lot of other development work on the series as well. However it sounds like the King Arthur series is just an idea at this stage. So if the Writer's Strike hits and HBO wants to put one of the new series into production, it can't do Arthur (as there isn't a script) but it can do ASoIaF. Hopefully this will work in our favour. The con sounds awesome. Sorry I couldn't make it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Padraig Posted November 4, 2007 Share Posted November 4, 2007 Had an interesting thought (well, okay, my girlfriend did ): The ASoIaF pilot is already written and ready to go. They must have done a lot of other development work on the series as well. However it sounds like the King Arthur series is just an idea at this stage. So if the Writer's Strike hits and HBO wants to put one of the new series into production, it can't do Arthur (as there isn't a script) but it can do ASoIaF. Hopefully this will work in our favour. Heh. Indeed. One will use any advantage! Even a pilot would be great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xray the Enforcer Posted November 4, 2007 Author Share Posted November 4, 2007 George threw me under the fangirl bus last night. See, we all somehow got seated so that GRRM and I were back-to-back with Tim Powers and his wife, and I had mentioned to Lugalirra just how much I love Powers' books. George asked if I had actually told Powers this, and when I answered "No, I don't like to harass writers at Cons because they're probably mobbed at all hours" he said "nonsense!" and turned around, thumped Powers on the back, and said "She loves your books! (turns to me) Tell him how much you like his books!!" And so Mr. X and I got incredibly dorky and fannish with Tim Powers, and discussed his work teaching at a high school for the arts. He's incredibly friendly and very gracious, despite being accosted in the waning moments of his dinner. Other notable con guests who rolled on by the BwB party: Scott Bakker. I'm not sure he remembers it all that well -- all 8 feet of him was listing dangerously due to a fair run on the beer downstairs. Hal Duncan stopped by for an hour or so, too, as did a bunch of other people I'm forgetting. I did not bartend much last night (big props to Yags, Mr. X and Alchemist) and spent it wandering the party and the rest of the hotel. Oh shit -- my turn in the shower. Will post more later. (And I'll admit that Shade of the Evening ain't my kind of drink, either. But the pirate grog was way too unbalanced a cocktail for me to really enjoy. Just...not the right proportions of what should have been a decent swill.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mya Stone Posted November 4, 2007 Share Posted November 4, 2007 Other notable con guests who rolled on by the BwB party: Scott Bakker. I'm not sure he remembers it all that well -- all 8 feet of him was listing dangerously due to a fair run on the beer downstairs. Bakker update: he was spotted at the bar around 2AM pontificating about life with Scott Lynch. Evidently, Dub and Jay did NOT kill him like originally thought. And there was a collective sigh of relief from the BwB, and all was well in the world. I'm sooooo glad I got to see you guys! PS: How the HELL are you awake right now? PROPS! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Balefont Posted November 4, 2007 Share Posted November 4, 2007 Yes, I'm thrilled with the fact that the hundreds of thousands of Scott Bakker fans will NOT be breaking down my door with murderous intent. <breathes sigh of relief> It was fantasitc to see you all again. I didn't realize how much I've missed you all and am looking forward to Boskone. I'm even looking to stay up in Boston this time instead of driving home. Best moment of my evening: I wanted to get my chapstick out of my coat pocket which was in the closet. George was sitting so that if I opened the closet door I would hit him with it. So I asked him, "Are you the gatekeeper? Or the keymaster perhaps?" His reply: "I am Gozer the Barbarian." My jaw dropped because no one ever gets my movie quote referrences and to have George just throw that line with nary a second's hesitation to his reply. George +1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Time for Wolves Posted November 4, 2007 Share Posted November 4, 2007 It sounds like it was amazing! And interesting that there were further changes made to the prologue from how it was at the con at Indy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lany Freelove Cassandra Posted November 4, 2007 Share Posted November 4, 2007 I have pictures I am uploading of the dinner and some from the party including "JetBoy" I'll post more a bit later Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Padraig Posted November 5, 2007 Share Posted November 5, 2007 George was sitting so that if I opened the closet door I would hit him with it. So I asked him, "Are you the gatekeeper? Or the keymaster perhaps?" His reply: "I am Gozer the Barbarian." My jaw dropped because no one ever gets my movie quote referrences and to have George just throw that line with nary a second's hesitation to his reply. George +1 Sounds great all round. I wonder is GRRM going to go to Boskone this year. He often adds it late in the day to his list of appearances. But then, there was some difficulties last year... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mya Stone Posted November 5, 2007 Share Posted November 5, 2007 Let me set the scene for my favorite interaction with George: Stego and Bale are sitting on the couch with him. I sit on Bale's lap. (She's a ninja, she can handle the pregancy weight. ) Stego: Hey George, this is Sarah. She's pregnant because of you. George: (shocked) I think I would have remembered that!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regina Posted November 5, 2007 Share Posted November 5, 2007 Just wanted to report that it did not, I repeat NOT, take three different vehicles to get us back home. Vermont is a very pretty state, but I never again wish to be stranded in the land that cell phone companies forgot. Fen and I will try to write more about the con itself when we catch up on our sleep a wee bit. It was wonderful seeing everyone again! *emo hugs for all* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Balefont Posted November 5, 2007 Share Posted November 5, 2007 I'm so tired, I can't sleep. ETA: <fangirl> Scott Lynch is hot. Scott Bakker is hotter than I expected and is hot as well. </fangirl> I'm so glad Stego didn't throw me under the fangirl bus the way he did to me with George back at Boskone 2006. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xray the Enforcer Posted November 5, 2007 Author Share Posted November 5, 2007 I'm so tired, I can't sleep. ETA: <fangirl> Scott Lynch is hot. Scott Bakker is hotter than I expected and is hot as well. </fangirl> I'm so glad Stego didn't throw me under the fangirl bus the way he did to me with George back at Boskone 2006. (He did that to me, too. This time, it was Mandy and Scott Lynch) I'll write up a proper con report later -- we just rolled back into NYC and I need to devour some pizza and sleep for about 50 hours. My winning move of the day: yammering about alien anal probing (the price for losing at blackjack) while George was innocently trying to pitch a winning idea for an SF-themed casino in Vegas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. X Posted November 5, 2007 Share Posted November 5, 2007 Simply put: It was a wonderful weekend. The crowd was mellow and the parties were a good time. The BWB peeps rule. Tim Powers is incredibly nice and down to earth. And I'm tired. Oh yeah... JETBOY LIVES! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bazzlebane Posted November 5, 2007 Share Posted November 5, 2007 Sounds like everyone had a great time! Cheers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LugaJetboyGirl Posted November 5, 2007 Share Posted November 5, 2007 I'll try to get in a report as soon as I can, but until then, pictures!! http://flickr.com/photos/katierask/sets/72157602922900116/ Be forewarned that my camera and I don't necessarily know how to communicate with one another. Some interesting pics nonetheless. I had a great time, by the way. BwB, thanks for existing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kat Posted November 5, 2007 Share Posted November 5, 2007 I so wish I hadn't had to look at rocks over the weekend. I didn't know Erikson was actually going to be there. If I had known, I would have tried to corner him and....er....talk to him about the rocks in his books. And Tim Powers too...I didn't get to talk to him in person in LA, so I swear this weekend would have been me exploding of fangirlism had I been in Saratoga. Sounds like a fun time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yagathai Posted November 5, 2007 Share Posted November 5, 2007 Oh god, oh god. I'm home, no thanks to Xray and Stego, who attempted to poison me with meat. Nice seeing/meeting everyone. I'll need a few months to recover before the next party. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bronn Stone Posted November 5, 2007 Share Posted November 5, 2007 Home safe. JETBOY LIVES! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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