So, I’m here at the Nebula weekend. It’s weird, and frankly I’m not sure I’ll ever entirely get used to talking to people I’ve been reading for years–Tad Williams said hello and I damn near lost the power to speak for a minute.
Hell, part of me gets all squee-y at writers whom I haven’t been reading for years. Case in point: sitting down in a panel on book research today, I looked up as someone came in and nodded at me in passing. I looked at her name tag and realized it was Naomi Kritzer, whose Sea Stead stories I’ve been enjoying for months in F&SF magazine. I damned near squeed.
I held back from being stupid at Steve Gould and Laura Mixon, and merely nodded to them as I passed (they seemed busy); I’m not even sure they saw me. Meh. There’ll be time to say hello tomorrow.
On the other hand, I am kind of annoyed with myself. A lot of these people are very friendly, and I’d like to take advantage of that–but I am SO VERY BAD at taking the first step to talking to people. If they talk to me, I can jump in. But I often have major difficulty in just starting a conversation. It’s a skill I never learned. It makes me really appreciate Steve Brust, at VP, just saying “Hi! I’m Steve!” when I walked up the stairs.
Speaking of tomorrow, I’m attending a panel on Diversity in SF. That will likely be a “preach to the choir” hour, but the only other offering is one on estate planning, and I haven’t even published one story yet, let alone a bunch of novels, so meh. Another I’ll be attending is a conversation with book editors, including Beth Meacham of Tor Books. Then a memoriam for those writers who’ve died this year (again, the other options for that hour aren’t really for me), then a discussion on how emerging science might change science fiction, and then I haven’t decided on the last panel: either “Keeping the Science in Science Fiction” or “Front Line Forensics: Tales of a Real CSI.” Then it’s some socializing, then the awards ceremony, then to bed, wake up, and go home.
On Sunday afternoon, I’m taking my daughter to her first grownup choral concert. Her mom is performing, but Tegan’s only been to the children’s concerts before, and I think she’s old enough to handle it now.
And now, I am going to get back to work on the writing.
Beth Meacham is a delight – we went to her kaffeklatsch at Boskone. Have fun and meet people! You’re too nice not to!
I will attempt this. I just wrote a few hundred words; now I’m going to go roam in search of folks to talk to. If no dice, then I’ll come write some more.