I guess I should update my journal, huh?

So, as many of you know, I spent last weekend in Boston at WorldCon. There were lots of highlights, so I'll try to list them briefly. Friday night we went to the Harper Collins party where I loaded up on free books (which I had to then stash in a corner) and got to have *really good* chats with cool folk such as Kelly Link, John Joseph Adams (who had lost so much weight I seriously didn't recognize him and didn't believe his name tag at first; go John!), Gavin Grant, Juliet Ulman, Jonathan Strahan and Neil Gaiman. Ok, so that last wasn't that long a chat, but I was tipsy by that point (two glasses of wine and not much food) and was dancing to the jazz trio when I saw him and walked right up to him. Neil not only recognized us, but he introduced Tim to John Clute as "a very good writer". Very good moment.

We foolishly decided to take the train back to the hotel (we'd taken a cab over) and that was the worst time of the con. The guy at the ticket booth was barely helpful, the entire system is hot, dirty dirty dirty and there are NO seats for people waiting for the trains. This became an issue as we waited for about twenty minutes for the transfer train, standing on a smelly, dirty platrom, holding a huge armful of books. In heels (short heels, but still). Bleah.

ANYway, we went to a lovely dinner hosted by Bantam at Summer Shack. We dined on fabulous seafood and even managed to get the restaurant to turn off the blaring speakers above our table. We sat across from George R. R. Martin and his wife, Paris (I think that's her name?), and we just chatted idly about this and that. Occasionally someone else would join us at the end of the table, so I got to chat with Ellen Kushner and Connie Willis, which was nice (Ellen and I talked wedding talk, as she and Delia Sherman were recently legally wed in MA and she had photos to share). I also got to know Juliet Ulman (who is Tim's editor at Bantam) better, which was cool.

Later Friday night we hooked up with Jenn and Greg (yay cell phones!) and hung out in relative quiet in Greg's room. We actually ended every night this way, which was wonderful, relaxing and probably why I didn't come down with a horrible, debilitating case of the con crud (I did get a little sick, but not too bad).

See why I said I wanted to be brief? I'm only up to Saturday!

Saturday I slept in a bit, then got up to go to lunch with Tim and his agent, Ginger Clark. Oh, man, do I love Ginger! We had a fabulous brunch at this little french restaurant, and the conversation was witty, fun and a tiny bit gossipy. Fabulous! In fact, by the end of the evening I had spent so much time with Ginger that I was already treating her like an old friend, and when I remembered that I'd just met her that morning it seemed impossible. I'm sending her my YA novel when it's done; I hope she'll want to be my agent too.

We actually had some free time on Saturday, so we cruised the dealer's room and part of the art show. I took a nap, then got up for the first of two pre-Hugo receptions Tim was invited to. The first one I was still kind of groggy during, though I did manage to chat with Lyda Moorehouse, Jonathan and Liza.

We got all dressed up for the official reception, where we were promised enough hor d'oerves to "make a light meal". Perhaps I was more in the mood for a big meal, because I felt like I was stalking the appetizer tray girls like a cat, pouncing whenever I saw the chicken skewers or mushroom puffs. My feet hurt so I mostly sat and chatted with Ginger at this, though there were no shortage of fancy sf stars to talk to if I'd felt up to it. It got kind of crowded anyway, so I was just happy to be sitting with someone so fun to talk to.

We were ushered into the auditorium where got to sit in the fancy, Hugo-nominee seats. Greg and Jenn were in the balcony waving like lunatics, which made me very happy. Ginger asked me, "You know those people?" and I said, "Yeah, totally! They're our peeps!" She seemed amused.

The Hugos were reasonably entertaining, even if Tim didn't win. I really pissed off the old guy in front of me when Frank Wu won Best Fan Artist, though, what with my uncontrolled hollering and whoo-hooing. Yay, Frank! That was so cool; I can't help but think that this is just a taste of the future, when more and more of our age group are up for, and winning, these awards. It's so groovy when your friends win something that big.

The Hugo losers party was lovely -- everything was draped in white and there were white masks hanging form white balloons on the ceiling. We were there before it got crowded, so we managed to score a plate of food before it was impossible to get to the table. It soon got hot, and we were honestly bored, so we downed our champagne (served by a man wearing only a white t-shirt, boxer-briefs and combat boots, btw) and went to find our peeps.

Sunday we began our day hanging out with Greg and Jenn, having brunch followed by a nice long walk through the park. So wonderful to hang out with them and be out of the hotel/ mall complex! Later that afternoon we went to the Strange Horizons tea party where I FINALLY found Susan Marie Groppi. I also got to chat some with Benjamin Rosembaum, Karen Meisner, Jed Hartman, KZ Perry and... oh, lord, I'm forgetting people. Anyway, I think SH has outgrown its tea parties -- at the very least, they need something bigger than a junior suite. We held down the hall party portion pretty well, though. I like SH tea parties because I'm surrounded by tomorrow's superstars, who are fun to talk to and generally closer to my own age. Whoo!

Sunday night... oh, yes, Sunday night Tim and I were taken to dinner by Juliet Ulman, (Tim's editor at Bantam) at a *very* swanky french restaurant. Mm. The food was divine, the conversation intelligent and fascinating (much of it I just listened to) and Juliet is so cool I'm tempted to write a science fiction novel just on the off chance she'll want to buy it. Heh.

Monday we had a picnic lunch with Dora Goss, her husband Kendrick and their 6-month-old daughter, Ophelia. We talked about babies (want. baby. so. much!) and writing and life. I really liked meeting Kendrick and it was lovely to get to know Dora better. They're very cool people, and it made me kind of sad that they live on the other side of the country from us. Sigh.

After lunch we hooked up with Greg and Jenn and shared a cab with them to the airport. I'm sooo glad I got to spend so much time with those guys, and it was a nice way to end the con, with great writers who are also very good friends.