MileHiCon Day 2

Day 2 is now in the bag. After a series of delaying events in the morning, I made it to my first panel with one minute to spare. This was the small press panel. It was pretty well attended, and there were some good discussions. Unfortunately, we had one panelist who tried to dominate the panel. I really hate when that happens. I did learn some things, which basically reinforced my own ideas about small press publishing, and I will be passing those on to Tyree...probably tomorrow...after some sleep.

After that, we had the Break Out session, which was an opportunity for people to learn more about the small press, and to pitch ideas. It was a pretty small turnout, but we had some great discussions about publishing. A lot of talking about the pitfalls many of us had fallen into along the way.

We then popped in on the end of the Alien Archaeology panel. I did this panel two years ago, and we had the audience rolling...this year it was not quite as funny. There were a couple of good laughs, but mostly it was a disappointment.

Then I went off to the art room, and while I was there, I ran into Frank Wu. Like many artists, I really do think the guy is crazy, but it's that good crazy. He was actually a very nice guy, and we talked a lot about art and writing, and I'm now more determined than ever to make it to a convention that both he and Jay Lake are doing. I can't imagine what those two are like together, but I'm sure it's a level of insanity that most mortals would not be able to keep up with.

At my signing, I did sell a few books, which isn't a bad thing for a small press writer. None of us really expect to make a lot of money at a convention, but it is nice when someone does want to buy your books! I had a couple of interesting conversations about global climate change and politics. Plus, since I was signing with Maggie Bonham and Carol Hightshoe, we just had to harass each other!

They then had belly dancing in the atrium. The women were dressed up like the green Vegan women (I think it was Vegan women) from Star Trek. It was interesting to say the least. I'll have pictures later today or tomorrow.

Then it was off to the masquerade. This year some of the costumes were absolutely amazing, even though there were only a few entries. We didn't start taking pictures until the end, so we only got a couple of shots. I'll have some of those posted later as well.

That's it for now. My only panel today is a reading with Rebecca Rowe. I'm hoping that it will be pretty well attended. I'm planning on reading two scenes from The Opium of the People. I'll be reading the torture scene with Dominick and Shen's scene from prison...hopefully some of the audience will get the Taoist references in that scene.