I started Saturday at 8 with the Friends of Liad breakfast, catered by the Colorado Conference Center with a made-to-order omelet line and miscellaneous pastries. Had a nice time chatting with growlycub, Preeti, and several Liad list people: Elaine (ellayn), Angie, and Shawna. Chatted with kinzel in the food line and again when he shifted over to our table after a while, on topics of books and cats and living expenses and Maine and on. Looking back at pre-convention email, I'm ashamed to note how many FoL people I *didn't* meet at the breakfast, given what a small crowd it was. I think growlycub, Preeti, and I spent too much time chatting with each other so I didn't mingle and meet other people. My bad.

Having noted that the Bujold reading from the next Vorkosigan book was scheduled for a smallish room, several of us decided that we'd go to the panel in that room before the reading: "What SF editors are looking for" with David Summers (Tales of the Talisman, an SF magazine), Ginjer Buchanan (Ace/Roc), and Stanley Schmidt (Analog). Ended up on the front row with Mary Downs, mmegaera, and growlycub. The panel was mostly aimed at the roomful of aspiring authors (such as mmegaera), but still interesting to me for a look at how the process works and the realities of publishing.


Then the crowd piled in for the Bujold reading, to the point that someone had to clear the center aisle to keep the fire marshal happy. We saved a spot for mbernardi on "our" front row, and many other listees were to be found in the front of the room. I took some photos of the crowd (before the room got completely cram-full), for those who want to play "spot the listees": One Two Three Four. Oh, and after the reading I got this shot of 3 Dendarii mercenaries (Steve Salaba, Susan in Seattle, and Stellan L.)


Because of the line about chickens from Lois's GOH speech, Steve Salaba showed up with a chicken puppet to grace the reading table. And indeed we got to meet the chickens. That's all I'll say on the reading itself--I sent a long post to the Bujold list which I won't repeat here, for spoiler protection. One correction to the list post: the boy's name is Jin.



Next I walked to my hotel with mbernardi, who was still in search of lost items and wanted to ask at housekeeping. I swapped out stuff in my room, walked to Cooks Fresh Market and bought apples, dried cherries (to complement the roasted nuts I brought with me), and a few treats, swung by the hotel again, and then went back to the con. Chatted with Preeti about online communities and keeping up, then headed to the panel on book collecting called "A Bryant of Books". That panel I found most fun for the reaction of the other panel members to James Bryant's statement that he is converting most of his huge book collection to ebooks. As the rest of them were true collectors of one stripe or another, they were politely appalled.

From the book collecting I went to a panel on choosing religion as a setting for a novel, with Evan Friedman, SM Stirling, Louise Marley, Lois Bujold, PC Hodgell, and Sharon Shinn. Not immediately gripping, but interesting overall--I really ought to re-read some of the early Shinn like Archangel, and read her other stuff (I've been reading the Mystic and Rider set, plus some of her YA books). Louise Marley, whose books relevant to this panel sounded very Serious and perhaps Literary, turns out to also be Toby Bishop, who wrote the rather fluffly "flying horses which bond to humans" book I read recently. No photos of this panel or the next one, as the official photographer seems to have spent the afternoon at the Regency Ball.

After that I sat through part of Space Drives, moderated by Elizabeth Moon, with Larry Niven and John Barnes. Not bad, again, though it wasn't looking to be a lively discussion while I was there. Elizabeth Moon would ask a question, they all would answer, and that was generally it--on to next question. I left to go back to my room and post some of my notes to the Bujold list, grabbed a fast-food turkey wrap, and headed off to the Hugos. growlycub and stoutfellow found me there and we sat together. My major note on the Hugos was how many winners weren't there, even in the 'real' (non-media) categories. I confess that I had read so few of the nominated works that I didn't feel I could vote in any category.

growlycub and I dropped stuff at the hotel again, made some arrangements about room charges for Sunday night when her current 3 roommates were checking out and I would be moving to her room for my last night to help with the cost. Then we trekked to the Sheraton again and cruised the party floor. Found the semi-private Baen party (because we spotted Lois Bujold in a group headed purposefully down the hall, and followed), admired the cover flats that were displayed, and nibbled on the food, but both of us felt out-of-place there. Spent the most time in the Seattle bid party room because we managed to snag sitting space. If there was a Baen barfly gathering, we never found it. It didn't appear to be happening in the Baen party that we did find--that was clearly primarily for author and agent types.