rolanni | Entries tagged with denvention

We are home and we are sick.

More later.

Current Mood: sick

First, a Public Service Announcement. So many folks at the con have asked after Mozart's health that I feel I must reassure all of his fandom. The news from the cat sitter is that he is considerably improved, his breathing is back to normal and he's no longer sneezing. This being the case, he believes that he no longer needs to take his medicine, but the cat sitter is being adamant on the point and we are thus optimistic that this episode will firmly be put behind him, and that the chance of a relapse is small. Thank you all for your good wishes and healing thoughts.

Denvention so far has been a blast. Our panels have been lively and informative for the panelists -- and I hope for the audience as well. We've caught up with a bunch of people we've missed seeing for a while, read to a gratifyingly attentive audience, and signed lots and lots of books. Suite Dieties Sarah Burt, Shawna Camara, Angie Gradillas, Elaine Fisher, Kevin Hewett, Deb Matsuura, and Mat Timmerman put together a marvelous book release party for SRM Publisher author

klingonguy and a Liaden Universe Open House complete with birthday cake for Steve.

In addition to the con, there are many Shopping Opportunities at the Sixteenth Street Mall (of which more later), and also at the convention center gift shop, where I succumbed to the desire to own my very own small Big Blue Bear.

Tomorrow, we start the proceedings early with the Friends of Liad Breeakfast!

We see in the news that Maine is under flood watch brought on by unremitting rains, to the point of roads washing away in Freeport.

Everybody, be safe, be careful, have fun! I'll check back in as time and connectivity permits.

Here we are at Chicago Union Station, which has acquired wifi since the last time we were through. Huzzah! Boy, those guys are just made of getting in trouble, aren't they?

So, the road... We left Maine two hours early basically because we were packed and we could and we figured we'd work in the Rensselaer train station, having done so before, and because Amtrak had told us to arrive early in order to change out our tickets, because they had to add a car and our old ticket information was no good.

As I say, we left Maine, two hours early. And arrived at the station just in time to have a frenzied time getting our tickets changed and our bag checked before a brief breather and then boarding.

Rain, in buckets, bathtubs, and battleships, was part of the delay,though not the greatest part. That was courtesy of the foresightful planning of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, which decided that High Tourist Season was the best time to deconstruct the toll plazas on MassPike. We were involved in -- two? three? -- miles' long backups on the approach to toll plazas, only to zip through ahead of everyone when the route to the EZPass booth opened. Breaking ahead of the pack, we'd zoom off, free as the breeze -- until the next toll booth.

Aboard the train, we found that we weere scheduled by fiat for the 8:30 dinner seating; the dining room manager promised to send someone to us when a table opened up. When that hadn't happened by 8:30, we took ourselves down three cars to the dining car, and encountered a scene of chaos.

We and the other folks promised 8:30 seatings -- mind you, the dining car closed at 9:30 -- were in fact seated within twenty minutes of our arrival, and then sat, conversing with our pleasant tablemates, Lucy and her dad, for one half hour before our waiter came by to get our order. At this point, having taken the temperature of the room, Steve and I decided that the better part of eating would be to order a pair of sandwiches to take back to our room. Which we did. And which arrived in another twenty minutes.

We finished up dinner around 11 o'clock, and so to bed.

Breakfast was much less frenzied, due to the fact that we were the third and fourth customers to arrive in the dining car. We're on our own for lunch, here in the station, and will dine, hopefully somewhat less chaotically, on the California Zephyr, on the last leg of our journey to Denver.

More later, as can.

Current Mood: chipper

The WorldCon gear-up is underway!

Actually, we're scrambling to do stuff that we should've had done already, except, um... we were doing other things that needed to be done.

...and going to the ocean. Which really needed to be done. Oh, my.

OK, so yesterday, as reported elsewhere in this Journal, I went shopping. Then I took the Pinbeam Quarterly and SRM three-fold off of Steve's plate and did me some designin', and pr-writin'. Steve proofed, found my goofs; lather, rinse, repeat. This morning, ta-da!, printed out 300 or so each of newsletter and three-fold. The plan for the evening is to fold three-folds while watching Lilo and Stitch, which has been sitting here from Netflix for a Good Long While Now. If it sticks around any longer, I'm going to have to enroll it in school, and I don't think Winslow public education is up to Stitch. Or Lilo, come to think of it.

So! Also printed today, Fledgling, as it Now Stands. Time for a straight read to what my meddling to this point has done, in preparation for leaping off into the Next Stage.

For those procrastinators among us -- if you were thinking that you'd like to attend the Friends of Liad Breakfast at Denvention on Saturday at 8:30 a.m., and haven't gotten around to bespeaking a place at the table, the Hour is Upon You. We have two -- that's Tee OOh -- seats left. Only dibbs called to Sharon at rolanniATkorval.com count; first come, first served; decision of the judges (that's me) is final.

And now! Laundry. Yum.

Current Mood: busy

Due to the good offices and ghodlike patience of

gilraen2, the Friends of Liad breakfast at Denvention is a GO. We are doing things a little bit differently this year; breakfast will be a Catered Affair (in previous years, we've sort of gathered informally at a restaurant) and places must be reserved and paid for in advance. Because it is a Catered Event, seating is limited (in previous years, we've just pushed extra tables together as people showed up).

An initial 25 places were available; only 5 remain. We think we can add seats. But. The closer we get to the convention date, the harder that will be.

So, what we'd we're asking is that you send Sharon (that's me) an email (rolanniATkorval.com) if you would like to reserve a place at the table. Please do this even if you have already contacted Steve. Please be as sure as you can be that you will be able to attend the breakfast before making a reservation. We do understand that Life Happens, but if you decide to sleep in rather than eat breakfast, we'll have to make up any shortage, and we'd sort of prefer not to do that.

Details: Breakfast will be served at 8:30 a.m on Saturday, August 9, in
the Convention Center room where the Kaffeeklatches (don't know the number yet) will be held. We will have an hour to eat and talk before the first Kaffeeklatch of the day needs the room. It will be a continental buffet with an omelet bar.

The cost for breakfast is $15 each, and money will be collected at the con.

Which neatly brings me to my next topic.

We are told that a fan table has been reserved for the Liaden Universe®. This is, of course, wonderful news. If you are willing to donate an hour or two of your time at Denvention wo/manning the fan table and talking to passersby about the Friends of Liad, or the Liaden Universe®, please let me know. The same email address applies. Please do this even if you have previously contacted Steve.

Thanks for listening, and for your ongoing support and patience. Steve and I hope to see a lot of you at Denvention.

So, hey! We did the closing. And it was easy and smooth and now we know what amount to write the check for every month, foreverandever. Or at least the next 30 years. So, all good.

As reported in

kinzel's blog, various things are moving apace, not counting, I suspect, the Authors. The new beta page for Fledgling is up here. Comments are being taken here, which is part of the Fledgling/Saltation community.

For those who have been even busier than we've been, an Announcement: There will be a WorldCon this year. It will be held in Denver. It will also be held in August, therefore establishing a lack of Herr Heisenberg's involvement in the proceedings. Read all about it here.

We -- that's Sharon Lee and Steve Miller -- will be attending this Denver WorldCon in August as panelists. We have train tickets! We have hotel reservations! We have Plans, Big Plans, to ride a vintage wooden carousel, which may not pan out, but! it's always good to have plans.

In addition to Plans and train tickets, we have the lovely and talented

gilraen2, who has taken on the task of arranging a Friends of Liad breakfast. Because she is a splendid and organized person, we will be selling tickets in advance (Is this not a thing of beauty? Why didn't we think of that?) but! (you knew that was coming) we need a central place at the convention to do this piece of business. We had become accustomed to doing our con-related at-con business from the Meisha Merlin table, which is no longer possible.

Is there anyone (actually, lots of anyones, so nobody gives up their whole con for us -- that would be Too Awful) who is willing to man a Liaden Universe® fan table (I have no idea if it's even possible to reserve a fan table at this late date)? Can someone think of a central location where tickets could be sold *other than* a Liaden fan table? Suggestions welcome.

In other news, I've updated the Saltation subscription meter. As of this writing, 628 books have been adopted, with only 572 remaining.

I've also been writing, a little, and very much need to write this weekend, a lot. Anybody who has some spare energy, send 'er this way. Thanks.

Progress on Longeye