4 people showed up at 9:00 in the morning, on Saturday to listen to a reading. I would have been even more impressed and amazed if they had any idea who I was before they showed up. Still, it made me happy to see that people wanted to listen to me read stuff.
I read two short stories, and one poem.
First, I read the story "Dedalus and the Labyrinth" coming out from Weird Tales. Then, I read "Last Star" from the special December issue of Coyote Wild Magazine. Then I read "Robert Shirtliffe" from Issue #4 of the Tipton Poetry Journal.
It was strange to look out into an audience and actually see a reaction. Usually, when I read a story, the cats wander off for food when they realize I won't be giving them a treat for listening.
How did the reading go, you ask? All four people who showed up to check out some new writer picked up the book in the dealer's room and had me sign their copies.
Also, I want to give a big shout out to Jaime who showed me where Rumour's Deli was after attending one of my panels wherein neither one of the writers involved were "stars" so to speak. Two other folks came with us who seemed quite nice, but I can't remember their names... Business cards peple. Get business cards.
Also Robert did a great job picking up the pieces in the Convention. The story went like this: the head of the shindig was chugging along fine until her husband was killed a month or two before the convention. (All our condolences, to her... She's young, too. She's a college student.) Then, everything fell apart. Robert stepped in and saved the day, and did a great job holding this event together by force of will.
Trey set up the first-ever AggieCon podcast, with the lovely and talented con volunteer Judi and myself, and I hope he lets me know when he goes live with the podcast.
Met lots of nice people. John Ringo, Tom Knowles, the always-lovely Rachel Caine, her main squeeze Cat Conrad, the nice folks at the monkey house whose names I'd remember if tequila wasn't involved, Scott Cupp... Well, I'm about to list out all the guests. Seriously, just go check out Cepheid Variable for yourself, and you'll know who I met. Everyone was nice.
And, now I get to do my taxes. Hooray. Kind of. Also, I get to deal with insurance companies because I was in a small fender bender (no one was hurt, and it was literally just fenders involved) Saturday night during the convention, and this will be a long, boring, paperwork-y day.
Blah.
If you had anyone at all show up at 9 in the morning, you were doing well. That they all went off to buy your book is a very good sign!
ReplyDeleteI dropped off your cards at Ad Astra this weekend. Got some left, so I'll leave those at future cons until I run out.
I looked around for a freebie table at AggieCon to place your bookmarks, and couldn't find one, alas. This one was set up so every guest had a table in the dealer's room, and there didn't seem to be a "freebie" table anywhere.
ReplyDeleteI was nearly squished out, because I was on the end near an actress' "people", adn the end of a table. I barely had room for just my stuff!
And everythign kept moving towards me. They'd casually grab my computer bag (with my irreplacable laptop inside) and throw it onto the floor so they could fit one more entourage member behind the table.
Actress kept asking the Cepheid Variable crew who had pulled a convention out of a young widows major catastrophe and were doing everything possible to ensure actress' comfort and success this question. "Why aren't there more people here?"
I bit my tongue a few times as I was getting squished over.
"Because you aren't a big enough draw to get people here. In fact, more people are here for Todd McCaffery and Rachel Caine than are here for you. Now *MOVE OVER BACK TO YOUR ZONE AND STOP TOUCHING MY STUFF!*"
I should mention that I do not hold ire for one member of the entourage, and I happily moved over for him. Because he was actually really cool.
ReplyDeleteHe flew in from Atlanta to escort the actress around. He actually knew what to do at a convention. He wore a utilikilt the first day, and sat next to me most of the time. We talked about World of Warcraft. Good times.
Also, he didn't touch my stuff. He was awesome. I actually wish I could remember his name so I can hire him to be in my entourage when I'm famous.