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We're back from Balticon, in the Hunt Valley Marriott. Hunt Valley was one of the places I used to file hotel materials for when I was working in the conference planning department at my company, so I'd seen the hotel materials. It looked exactly like I thought. Somewhat older suburbs, well-used, fairly propserous, with periodic facelifts for the buildings.
We saw T'chall, FFerret, Partially Clips, Count Gore de Val (otherwise known as Captain 20 for![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
the_gneech's generation who grew up around the DC area), Peter S. Beagle, Gene Wolf, and of course, the GoH, Neil Gaiman.
I was even able to get two books signed by Neil. (In Stardust, he even drew a picture of the man in the moon (crescent style) and a shooting star. I read his blog a lot, so I knew that he's been traveling an awful lot lately. And whenever he travels a lot, he starts to lose track of where, when, and even who he is. He's always happy to be able to sleep in his own bed. So, after his GoH presentation, where he read us all three stories, I went to get into line to get my books signed. The presentation let out at 3:30. The signing started at 4:30. But because NG is so popular and affable, there are always more people who want to get something signed by him than he has time for, so they were only letting the first 125 people in line get their stuff signed. NG routinely stays later than scheduled to try to sign everybody's stuff if they're in line, but he was operating on a schedule this time, and I just didn't want to rely on that.
I found out where the signing was going to be and headed for Salons E & F (in the bowels of the hotel). The line was already down the hall, around the corner and going up the stairs. I found the end on the first landing of the stairs. Turns out I was number 77. Whew! I'm glad I went straight there from the presentation! The signing was scheduled to last 4:30 - 6:00, and he had to be out of there by 6:30.
While we were waiting, Balticon staffers handed out index cards to everyone who wanted them so that people could write their names down to speed up the process. I kept trying to come up with something clever to have NG write in my books. Something that would entertain him, be different, and make me stand out from the crowd. After a while, I thought, "I'm just happy to get him to sign my books, so let him write whatever he wants!" So I just wrote my name down on the cards so he'd know how to spell it.
When I was one row away from the front signing line, my thoughtfulthe_gneech even brought me sustenance in the form of a bag of peanut M&Ms!
When I made it to the point in line where I was the next one to have my books signed, I handed my books to the assistant who was opening them to the appropriate pages while NG was signing the comic book of the woman in front of me. I made it up to the front of the line at 5:55. =:O There were still three rows of people behind the front row, so I don't know if everyone got their stuff signed or not. NG finished with comic of the woman in front of me, and took my books to sign.
NG: Hello.
Me: Hello.
(pause) (NG signing)
Me: Do yu get to go home after tomorrow?
NG: (perking up) Yes! I get to go home for three days, but then I have to go to LA for a day, then I'm back home for a day, then I have to go to London to visit the Stardust set, so I don't get to spend as much time at home as I would like.
Me: At least you're doing something you like.
NG: Yes, it's always an adventure, and I don't think I'd trade it for much else in the world.
(Or at least, that's how I remember it going.) So, I thanked him, took my books, and walked out at 5:59 p.m. and he was still signing.
Neil is aaaawesome...
All the writers (NG, PB, and GW) were entertaining and enlightening to listen to. We even got to hear a new story NG had written recently. The people who were in the audience when he read it are the only people in the world who have heard it besides an audience in Sydney, Australia (except, of course I'm sure, for his close associates). It's called "Orange," and it's very entertaining. It'll be published in a collection of short stories another writer is editing, but it probably won't be out until 2007.
If there are any more typos in this entry (I've already found and corrected three, andthe_gneech found one) it's because I'm so tired, but I had a good time. It was great to get to see NG in person, but it was (as always) fun to just get to hang out at a convention with the_gneech.
We saw T'chall, FFerret, Partially Clips, Count Gore de Val (otherwise known as Captain 20 for
the_gneech's generation who grew up around the DC area), Peter S. Beagle, Gene Wolf, and of course, the GoH, Neil Gaiman.I was even able to get two books signed by Neil. (In Stardust, he even drew a picture of the man in the moon (crescent style) and a shooting star. I read his blog a lot, so I knew that he's been traveling an awful lot lately. And whenever he travels a lot, he starts to lose track of where, when, and even who he is. He's always happy to be able to sleep in his own bed. So, after his GoH presentation, where he read us all three stories, I went to get into line to get my books signed. The presentation let out at 3:30. The signing started at 4:30. But because NG is so popular and affable, there are always more people who want to get something signed by him than he has time for, so they were only letting the first 125 people in line get their stuff signed. NG routinely stays later than scheduled to try to sign everybody's stuff if they're in line, but he was operating on a schedule this time, and I just didn't want to rely on that.
I found out where the signing was going to be and headed for Salons E & F (in the bowels of the hotel). The line was already down the hall, around the corner and going up the stairs. I found the end on the first landing of the stairs. Turns out I was number 77. Whew! I'm glad I went straight there from the presentation! The signing was scheduled to last 4:30 - 6:00, and he had to be out of there by 6:30.
While we were waiting, Balticon staffers handed out index cards to everyone who wanted them so that people could write their names down to speed up the process. I kept trying to come up with something clever to have NG write in my books. Something that would entertain him, be different, and make me stand out from the crowd. After a while, I thought, "I'm just happy to get him to sign my books, so let him write whatever he wants!" So I just wrote my name down on the cards so he'd know how to spell it.
When I was one row away from the front signing line, my thoughtful
the_gneech even brought me sustenance in the form of a bag of peanut M&Ms!When I made it to the point in line where I was the next one to have my books signed, I handed my books to the assistant who was opening them to the appropriate pages while NG was signing the comic book of the woman in front of me. I made it up to the front of the line at 5:55. =:O There were still three rows of people behind the front row, so I don't know if everyone got their stuff signed or not. NG finished with comic of the woman in front of me, and took my books to sign.
NG: Hello.
Me: Hello.
(pause) (NG signing)
Me: Do yu get to go home after tomorrow?
NG: (perking up) Yes! I get to go home for three days, but then I have to go to LA for a day, then I'm back home for a day, then I have to go to London to visit the Stardust set, so I don't get to spend as much time at home as I would like.
Me: At least you're doing something you like.
NG: Yes, it's always an adventure, and I don't think I'd trade it for much else in the world.
(Or at least, that's how I remember it going.) So, I thanked him, took my books, and walked out at 5:59 p.m. and he was still signing.
Neil is aaaawesome...
All the writers (NG, PB, and GW) were entertaining and enlightening to listen to. We even got to hear a new story NG had written recently. The people who were in the audience when he read it are the only people in the world who have heard it besides an audience in Sydney, Australia (except, of course I'm sure, for his close associates). It's called "Orange," and it's very entertaining. It'll be published in a collection of short stories another writer is editing, but it probably won't be out until 2007.
If there are any more typos in this entry (I've already found and corrected three, and
the_gneech found one) it's because I'm so tired, but I had a good time. It was great to get to see NG in person, but it was (as always) fun to just get to hang out at a convention with the_gneech.
