Boskone: Day 1

So I survived the first day of Boskone. Trip to Boston went well, nothing interesting to report. Lots of random chit-chat. Hit the con, registered, dropped off promo crap, and then pbray demanded beer. We wandered into the M.J. O'Connors, which is a new bar/restaurant here at the hotel. We've been the main restaurant downtown and loved it, but this extension was . . . disappointing. They did have beer, but their menu was WAY scaled down from the main restaurant and everything we wanted to order wasn't on there. So we got some food, which was good, but did not get Shepherd's pie or anything like that. After that, we had time to hit the dealer's room before it closed, so stopped by and said hi to Larry Smith and Jim Berlant.

Then it was panel time. pbray wandered off to her panel on What Do You Read For Pleasure?, which I couldn't attend because I had a Reading. Since it was the first day of the con and no one has had a chance to really look over the schedule much, I wasn't expecting anyone to show. scbutler came by, and at first it looked like that would be it. But then wenspencer wandered in and, us being writers, we were chatting about writing when two others showed up. So at that point, I went into my spiel about the books, settled in, and did a read from Well of Sorrows, since Sam and Wen hadn't heard me read from that yet.

Afterwards, I went to pbray's second panel, Keeping Your Series Fresh. This ended up being more about the pitfalls to avoid when writing a series, and what things happened in series that made readers abandon it completely, rather than tricks on how to keep the series fresh. But it was certainly a good panel. I may talk about my thoughts on this in a post later on. I know I wanted to jump in and say things as if I were a panelist myself, but restrained myself since I was in the audience.

And then we all hit the art show reception. Throughout the night I got to meet Ian Tregellis (who will have a series out from TOR eventually), Joel Shepherd, and Juliet E. McKenna. I found out Juliet has actually finished off her lastest series of four books . . . and I didn't know. This is because I kept watching for the hardcovers of books 2-4 to appear on the shelf, since I had the first book in hardcover . . . and they didn't publish books 2-4 in hardcover. *headdesk* In fact, the publisher appears to have changed hands. Book 1 was with TOR, book 2 with Orbit, and books 3 and 4 (according to Amazon) were with Little, Brown. Interesting. In any case, I guess I'll have to buy the other books in paperback now.

And that was day 1. I ate too much at dinner last night, so fasting today. I've got two panels and a kaffeeklatsch (with Juliet E. Mckenna!) today. Then dinner at the No Name Restaurant, which is famous for not being famous. It will likely be fish and chips tonight! And maybe clam chowder. *grin*

Who am I trying to run into today? Who's here at Boskone from LJ that I need to meet?