World Fantasy, Day 3 (Saturday)

[klwilliams]

Saturday morning began with breakfast with Alis and Ann, with more interesting conversation and catching up. This also began a theme for the day, which was pretty much a day of long meals with friends, that ended shortly before the next long meal with friends. In other words, a great day.

After breakfast, we went to Joe Haldeman's reading. At first he couldn't find the room (it was well hidden, and had been a trick for us to find, too) or find the chapter of his novel that he wanted to read (Gay saved the day in both cases), but he amused us while Gay found the chapter by describing the novel in general (Old Twentieth, which should be out soon). The reading was very good, unsurprisingly, and I went up afterwards to reintroduce myself to Joe and Gay. (I know him from sff.net and dm.net, but I rarely get to talk to them in person.) Joe invited me over to the bar for a beer, so he and Gay and Ann and I went over to the bar and hung out for an hour. I ordered red wine, since Joe did, too, and that's the one alcoholic drink I actually like. I got a merlot, but Joe let me taste his Cabernet and it was better.



Yes, right after that it was lunch time, and we went off with Janni, Larry, Greer, Debbie M. (someone else very nice I met for the first time at this con), and someone else I don't know. That was another fun time of catching up with old friends and (I hope, anyway) making new ones.

After that was the charity auction for Charles Grant, at which I bid on a few things but only won one. I won a promissory from Louise Marley that she will critique a story of mine. That should be interesting.

After that was dinner with Ann, Meg Turville-Heitz (which I probably spelled wrong), Lena, and someone else who my poor memory can't remember. We went to My Big Fat Greek Restaurant, which had excellent food and scorch marks on the ceiling from their flaming dishes. Jules said that the night before they had spilled a flaming substance on her, but she wasn't burnt (nor did they give her a free meal, alas).

At 9:00 a bunch of people gathered for the memorial for kathlaw. We all introduced ourselves, and I got to meet a couple of people in person that I had only known from the net. We remember the good things about Kath together, then afterwards discussed some of the bad things (like not getting treatment for depression) and how to avoid those traps ourselves. I felt good about it, and I still miss Kath, but I'm not quite as mad at her. ("A glass of wine with you, ma'am.")

I visited the Tor party briefly, but didn't know anyone, and the room was crowded, so I went down to the room where Charles de Lint, his wife Mary Ann, Nina Hoffman, and PNH and TNH were singing and playing music. Not only do they all sing and play well, but the energy from their playing is so happy that it was a great followup to the memorial gathering. I stayed there for an hour, then went to bed.