Good day at Boskone

Saw a lot of familiar faces, heard some pretty good panels.

Saturday 10am Building a Great Battle -- Tamora Pierce has world-class moderation skills. (Makes me sorry I don't like her books, although we have most of them because Eliz likes them.) Fog of war, stealing from famous battles, avoiding the appearance of stupid commanders even when that's what really happened -- tip from a naval analyst in the crowd: sometimes stupid decisions only look that way in retrospect, because the action taken was the only one available at the time. Counterpoint: many officer ranks have historically been staffed by the noble sons who were not first born and not clever enough to find something else to do...

Saturday 11am Character Assassination for Fun and Profit -- I offered Charlie Stross two of his recent hardcovers to prop up as marketing material, but he misinterpreted it as a request for autographing (which I had intended to ask him later) and then put them down flat on the table. Well, I got them autographed, and I'm in _The Jennifer Morgue_'s thank-you section, so what more can I ask, really? Lots of chat about killing off characters: ones that the fans like more than the authors, ones that are dramatic necessity, and ones that are designated cannon-fodder.

noon - 1: had lunch, wandered in the con suite, talked with many people.

Saturday 1pm Do Sweat the Small Stuff: Writing Short Fiction -- everybody likes workshopping, it seems.

Saturday 2pm Who'd' a Thunk It? Unexpected Uses of Technology -- hardly anything gets used for the original (or inventor's) purpose anyway. Accelerated pace of adoption, Singularity, the Singularity already happened, "the street finds its own uses", solar power sats are orbital death rays, home fabs will kill off small-goods manufacturing, happy-slapping, the Deaf community uses YouTube as chatrooms.

3-4: zoned out, went to the con suite and chatted.

Saturday 4pm Battlestar Galactica Endings: Roll Your Own -- Nobody has a clue, but many people will commit violence if questions are not answered in this last seasons.

Saturday 5pm If You Liked X, You're Gonna Love Y -- librarians, editors and reviewers talk about the perils of making suggestions. Vis is recognizable but his voice is drastically changed.

Good day at Boskone

Saw a lot of familiar faces, heard some pretty good panels.

Saturday 10am Building a Great Battle -- Tamora Pierce has world-class moderation skills. (Makes me sorry I don't like her books, although we have most of them because Eliz likes them.) Fog of war, stealing from famous battles, avoiding the appearance of stupid commanders even when that's what really happened -- tip from a naval analyst in the crowd: sometimes stupid decisions only look that way in retrospect, because the action taken was the only one available at the time. Counterpoint: many officer ranks have historically been staffed by the noble sons who were not first born and not clever enough to find something else to do...

Saturday 11am Character Assassination for Fun and Profit -- I offered Charlie Stross two of his recent hardcovers to prop up as marketing material, but he misinterpreted it as a request for autographing (which I had intended to ask him later) and then put them down flat on the table. Well, I got them autographed, and I'm in _The Jennifer Morgue_'s thank-you section, so what more can I ask, really? Lots of chat about killing off characters: ones that the fans like more than the authors, ones that are dramatic necessity, and ones that are designated cannon-fodder.

noon - 1: had lunch, wandered in the con suite, talked with many people.

Saturday 1pm Do Sweat the Small Stuff: Writing Short Fiction -- everybody likes workshopping, it seems.

Saturday 2pm Who'd' a Thunk It? Unexpected Uses of Technology -- hardly anything gets used for the original (or inventor's) purpose anyway. Accelerated pace of adoption, Singularity, the Singularity already happened, "the street finds its own uses", solar power sats are orbital death rays, home fabs will kill off small-goods manufacturing, happy-slapping, the Deaf community uses YouTube as chatrooms.

3-4: zoned out, went to the con suite and chatted.

Saturday 4pm Battlestar Galactica Endings: Roll Your Own -- Nobody has a clue, but many people will commit violence if questions are not answered in this last seasons.

Saturday 5pm If You Liked X, You're Gonna Love Y -- librarians, editors and reviewers talk about the perils of making suggestions. Vis is recognizable but his voice is drastically changed.