Worldcon day three

Yesterday (Friday) was very busy, but very enjoyable. It started with an excellent 10:00 a.m. panel [note to self: stop agreeing to do 10:00 a.m. panels] on "Giving Good Interview," moderated by the wonderful Evo Terra from the Slice of Sci-Fi podcast. After, I was approached by the producer of Escape Pod, who actually had a contract and check for me for doing a podcast of my short story "The Shoulders of Giants."

Then it was off to lunch with old friend Roger MacBride Allen -- a long-standing Worldcon tradition for Rog and me, during which we catch each other up on our so-called careers, and discuss the state of the field.

After that, I wandered the dealers' room, and had a nice five-minute chat with BarBara Luna, who had played Captain's Woman Marlena Moreau in the classic Trek episode "Mirror, Mirror." She's still stunning at 67. Later in the day, I had second-row seats for the "Women of Star Trek" panel, featuring BarBara, Susie Plakson, Marina Sirtis, and Chase Masterson, which was a blast -- all four are really witty.

I had to leave that to attend my kaffeeklatch, at which a tableful of people sat with me for an hour to just chat informally; it was great.

In the dealers' room, I saw a prototype of the MasterReplica's 33-inch Enterprise from classic Trek -- they're making 2,000 of them, and they sell for US$1,199. It was beautiful, and I'm trying to decide if I want one (and where I'd put it if I did get one).

Then it was dinner with high-school buddy Asbed Bedrossian and his wife Laura, poolside at the Marriott.

In the evening, I escorted new Asimov's writer Susan Forest (one of my writing students) to the Asimov's / Analog party, and to the very-hard-to-find Tor party, and I made the rounds to a lot of other parties. I didn't get to bed until 2:30.

Denver beat Chicago for the right to hold the 2008 Worldcon, in very close balloting.

Well, it's time for another day ... :)