World Con Day 4 Notes

(Sunday)

Started the day with a coffee klatch hosted by Cory Doctorow.  The coffee klatches are just informal round tables where people can sign up to meet with artists and authors and ask them just about anything.  It was fun and entertaining; a lot like listening to one of Cory's podcasts.

I met Christiana Ellis and Paul Fischer in the klatch and talked to them for half an hour after.  Really good to meet people in real life that I know from the podoshpere.  Fun, lovely people who have somewhat inspired me to actualy go ahead and start that podcast I've been thinking about, but more on that some other time.

Then to lunch and back to the art show to see if I had won any pieces.  I did, although I did not find out until later.  Primarily a nice little painting by Bob Eggleton, one of his Art du Jour pieces, of a dragon that I was quite pleased to get.

Watched a bit of the art auction, wherein pieces that had been hotly contested during the write in bidding went to voice auction.  Staggered at a work by Eggleton and a Japanese artist named Sato that sold for $16,000 U.S.  It was a nice piece, but still.  Anyway.

From the art show to the signing area where I was lucky enough to get both my English version and my wife's Japanese version of The Sandman:  Dream Hunters signed by Yoshitaka Amano.  Spent the wait in line talking to a very nice Japanese girl who was extremely nervous about meeting Amano.  She hadn't know he would be doing a signing and so had rushed to the signing area as soon as she found out; at one point she was literally bouncing up and down with nervous anticipation.  She was very kawaii in her fanishness.  Amano signed my books and seemed like a nice enough, if very strange guy.  Talked to the two American guys who were working there - one as Amano's U.S. Agent and one as a translator.  Both interesting guys in their own right.  Quite a fun time.

Lucked into another coffee klatch, this time with Michael Whelan, who was charming and funny at extremely cool.  He had lots of stories and lots of explanations of techniques and tricks that he uses.  Really enjoyed getting to talk to him.  The klatch had been a last minute formulation so there were only about six of us there to talk to him, which was nice as everyone got a chance to ask him questions and just, generally, chat.  At the end he was kind enough to sign a poster of his World Con image for me, which I appreciated quite a lot.

Made it back to the art show to pick up my winnings.  Had wanted to go to a Charlie Stross reading, but by the time I had gotten everything together the reading was half over and I needed to hit the trains.  Four hours later, I made it home.

Lovely people at the con, both pros and fans, and just a really good time.  Already looking forward to the next one.