This evening we went out to dinner with Juliet McKenna and Tobias Buckell. On the way back, it was raining and Toby had no hat, no brolly, no hood. When we were nearly at the hotel, a tall man with a large umbrella stepped up beside him and said, “I feel rather like Jeeves!” “Does that make Toby Wooster?” I wondered, which we agreed might be somewhat belittling to Tony, but OTOH, he was the one out in the rain without any gear to protect himself. We carried on to…
Tag: conventions
ValleyCon writeup!
First I had the Adventures in Airline Tickets, which I will not go into except to say I’ll be making an early-season batch of fudge to send off to people who, while admittedly doing nothing more than their job, did it with grace and humour and helped me immesurably. Next I got safely into Fargo, where the con-runner (Tony) awaited me along with another of the guest’s handler (Holly). While we waited for my luggage, my friend E, whom I haven’t seen in nigh unto a decade and who was…
shindigs!
So I got outbid on that fabulous 1920s style dress, as I’d expected to. I was regretful but not surprised, and started poking around at other not-quite-so-good ones. Then I got an email from a reader. She’d clicked through to see the dress, her husband had seen her looking at it, surmised that she wanted it, and bid on it for her. “But,” she said, “I didn’t want it, I was just looking at it, so would it be too weird if I just had the seller send it to…
ValleyCon!
I bet I should be reminding people that I’m a guest of honor at ValleyCon in Fargo, ND in just over a month’s time, from Oct 18-20, 2013! I don’t know anything about my schedule yet, but I hope I get a chance to hang out with some people! :)
RIP, Iain Banks
Fairly early yesterday afternoon, my friend Pádraig posted on FB to say that after a sudden turn for the worse, Iain Banks had died early yesterday morning. I didn’t repost until I saw it confirmed elsewhere, because although there was really no chance Pádraig was wrong, I was still holding out a tiny thread of hope. Honestly, I have no business being so saddened by his death. I met him at a small convention in Belfast over the course of a weekend, and was completely charmed by him. I still,…