Friday morning I spoiled myself rotten by having a massage after my workout, and then went down to the lobby to register and meet up with Margie Roland and started to see people to say hello. I’d run into Karen Duvall the night before–her hair’s gotten all *long*!–and I saw Jan Gurney, who is the woman who emailed to tell me RMFW had opened their membership and I could now join, and I think I completely failed to go to *any* of the workshops or panels on Friday afternoon. I’d had some hope of going to the RMFW new members thing, but Margie and I had planned for an early dinner (in order to prepare for The Dessert Buffet), so I ended up doing that instead, and we picked up a couple of other people to eat with us, so that was very pleasant.
Then the opening ceremonies commenced (along with Death By Chocolate), I met Betsy Mitchell, and Ed Bryant–*laugh*
Ed Bryant is a SF writer of some renown, with about twelve books and 25324569827 short stories out, and he gave a very funny opening speech which he thought would make it clear to everyone what not to do as a kickoff speech. :) He talked about what I thought of as Things To Do In Denver While You’re Dead, and talked about writing, but the best–or worst–part was that he got up and did the whole Alcoholics Anonymous sort of introduction–“Hi, I’m Ed, and I’m a science fiction writer,” or something to that effect. Well, of course the proper thing to do was say, “Hiiii, Ed!” in response, so I called out, “Hiii, Ed!”
No one else did. Certainly not as loudly as I did. *howls of laughter* I mean, come on! I *honestly*, truly expected the entire audience of four hundred to chorus, “Hi, Ed!”, and was really, really surprised when they didn’t!
Instead, Betsy–and several other people, for that matter, but Betsy was right next to me–turned and looked at me with vast amusement (or maybe astonishment, or possibly horror), and Ed said, “Well, at least someone has some experience with the association,” and later I found him to tell him that I was the one who knew a cue when I heard it, so we hit it off pretty well. *laugh*
The book signing was after the dessert buffet, and I had about a dozen people come over to buy copies of the book, and had a great time talking with people, and I was *very* proud of myself: I went to the conference intending to buy only one book, and that’s all I bought. The restraint, the restraint! Admire me! The book I bought was Robert Buettner’s ORPHAN’S DESTINY, the sequel to ORPHANAGE, which I’d enjoyed tremendously. Oh, and by that time I’d at least spoken to almost everyone I knew from previous years, and I’d had a lot of compliments on my weight loss, and to my astonishment even Bob said, “You’ve really re-invented yourself!” So that was pretty wonderful. :) Anyway, so I got ORPHAN’S DESTUNY, and had a minute to talk with Bob before Terry um, I’ve forgotten his last name, but he helps run the book sale, strongarmed me back to my seat. *grin* He’s a cool guy, giving people a hard time left and right. :)
Gosh, I saw so many people I was so pleased to catch up with. Margie Lawson and Jan Gurney (who asked how much weight I’d lost and told me I looked like a model! wasn’t that nice? *beam*) and Alexis Brooks de Vita, whose daughter Novella wasn’t there this year, but whose equally beautiful and delightful son Joseph was, and boy, just too many people to really ennumerate. I went upstairs to the after-hours party after, you know, hours, and hung out for a couple hours talking with people–with Ed Bryant some, and Terry the book guy some, and I don’t know who all else right now, but it was a really fun evening and then I staggered downstairs and dropped into bed. :)