Balticon Recap

Okay, I know I should have sent this yesterday, but I plead exhaustion.

Balticon was awesome. There was an expected level of disorganization (higher attendance, new hotel with different meeting space, etc), but everyone rose to the occasion and put together a gorgeous convention.

Here were some highlights:

- Drawing the "In the Game of _____, you Win or You Lose" black card in CAH in the bar with Martin at the next table... (And he signed one of August Grappin's cards for the deck of writers ;)). Killed the game for several minutes.
- Discussing the Future of Government in a packed panel room at 9am. I was expecting to outnumber the audience, but apparently the Balticon crowd was quite interested ;).
- An "informal" discussion on Lovable Rogues with the always-awesome Gail Z. Martin.
- Next 50 years of Science Fiction went very well.
- It was a great honor to read with Kim Stanley Robinson - the man is a gentleman as well as a brilliant writer, and breaks the rules with flair. It took me until now to realize the entire chapter he read was the dreaded infodump...but when you're Kim Stanley Robinson you can get away with it. Us mere mortals...
- The Best Of Luck on the ground floor of the Power Plant sells malts that almost reach Midwestern standards.