I think Chats summed it up best in the car on Sunday: "That was the schmoozinest, boozinest World Fantasy ever!"


Friday
Flew out of O'Hare at too early o'clock, but at least we beat the horrific weekend lines at security. We found two of my titles (two hardcovers no less) at the big terminal bookstore.



Then we got on a cramped little muppet babies plane (assembled in Brazil!) and had a gentle flight to Albany. From there we drove north to the con and the rest was pretty much a whirlwind.

Saratoga Springs is a Victorian age town that reminds me of Stillwater, Minnesota. Only bigger. They've kept the chains out of their main drag (though there is a Borders at the far end) and it's utterly charming and architecturally interesting.

Checking in at the con we saw old standby Kathryn Sullivan (yeah, MN homegirl!). The con gave big blue athletic bags full of books, so cool, I've got a new gym bag -- heaven knows the old one needed replacing.

First off was lunch with former editor Liz, who's now raising temperatures and hurting Viagra sales at Random House Del Rey. I miss her, she was always fun and frisky to work with online.



We walked up Broadway and went to the incredible Mrs. London's Bakery and Cafe and ate ourselves insensible. This place is worth a flight to Saratoga Springs in and of itself. The baked goods cabinet is just astonishing. When the staff asks "what can I get you" you're tempted to just say "one of each, please" and get a wheelbarrow.

After lunch we said quick hellos to many people, dealers, and so on. I snagged Tim Powers and got caught up on signed books. Saw Very Former Editor and career-launcher suricattus, Howard (bg_editor) was at the Black Gate table with John O'Neill, and Rhona (rhonawestbrook) was, well, everywhere. Said hi to johnjosephadams and Gardner Andersen, also at his first WFC. Looked at art with Howard, then we went and sought out the B&B while there was still daylight.

After a two-night stay, we both highly reccommend the Saratoga Rose Inn and Restaurant. Great food, the owners are charming, the rooms quite nice, and the location perfect.










Now that I knew where the Inn was I tried the shortcut down 9N and found it a much prettier -- and 10 minute quicker -- drive than the interstate. This part of New York is very much like the Northwoods of Wisconsin or Minnesota, only with picturesque little mountains. Chats and I were swapping Austenish aphorisms about the felicity of the view the whole way, and I wished I was behind the wheel of the Pursuit Special instead of the Nissan rental.

Back at the con we had dinner with my agent, John Silbersack of Trident. Stephanie got to meet John and we went to a little pub type place across the parking lot from the con hotel. It was jam packed, so we ended up eating in the bar. But the bar did have a picture of a naked woman doing God-knows-what with a swan. I thought it rated a picture.





We mixed business and pleasure. John said Chats and I were "cheap dates" -- we drank draft beer and I got an inexpensive fish & chips platter. I love fish and chips, I'd rather have that than the assorted porterhouses and so on on the menu.

John's done a superb job building my career. Since meeting him, about every two years I take a big step up. The last big step up was to hardcover. He gave me ideas for the next step over dinner. I approved thoroughly, but I don't want to go into details because a lot of people are involved at Trident and Penguin. He's a fantastic agent (Liz told Rhona, in effect: "yeah, Donald Maass gets great press, but John's the guy you should be watching") -- of course Liz & John go back years.

John's been a writer, editor, and publisher over the course of his career so he's good at speaking various languages (writer: "SHOW ME THE MONEY!" editor: "SHOW ME THE MARKETABLE MANUSCRIPT!" publisher: "SHOW ME THE P&L!")

Back to the con hotel bar and more chit-chat. Then we had the mass author signing. Highlight of that was talking to Nick Mamatas (nihilistic_kid), who always has an interesting perspective on any subject.

Most of the author signing involved me watching Gene Wolfe and Scott Lynch sign books. Alan Dean Foster came by and said hi.



Then we headed back to the hot tub and Port...

Saturday

After "taking the waters" of our jacuzzi, we enjoyed a delicious breakfast of French Toast and homemade sausages (well, Chats had the French Toast) we payed a quick visit to Fort William Henry on Lake George, scene of a good deal of action during the French and Indian War. Several astute VE fans have noticed some similarities between the campaigns in VE and the F&I War, but that's the kind of obscurely knowledgeable readership I'm proud to have.







At least the drive there was pretty. And Lake George, the town, is very much like the Wisconsin Dells, only with more Canadians.

We made it back to the con in time to have lunch with Editor Ginjer. Of course we went to Mrs. London's again, to eat the three or four crumbs of pastry left after our last visit. Ginjer assured me that all is well with the Knight Career.



More bar, and still more bar, and reminders from John to attend the Orbit party. Orbit, a French-owned UK publisher, just branched out into the US and one of the many launch efforts involved getting authors drunk. It seemed like the place to be so I made sure Rhona and Howard tagged along so they could chat with John and the assorted people there.

John really shifted into high gear and took me around. Guy Gavriel Kay swung by and our conversation went something like this:

John: Guy, do you know Eric?
GGK: Hi, Eric, nice to meet you.
EEK: Errrr...umm...wizzle wuzzle?
*GGK shoots John a questioning look*
EEK: Ummmm. Well. It's-- yeah. This is great. Yarp.
GGK: For me too. *exits with a friendly nod*
EEK: Yarp.

I found my feet eventually, or maybe a couple of giant Stellas helped settle me, and I chatted with all the Orbit people and had a very nice conversation about Wales.

That Knight, he's a phony, but he's a real phony, not like some of these bums.



I really should mention Rhona here. She had a great con. I was talking to nick_kaufmann at the Orbit party and I look over my shoulder and there's Rhona talking about her ms with Überagent Donald Maass (would-be authors crawl over broken glass to talk to him for fifteen seconds at a urinal, and here he is writing his private cellphone number down on his business card before giving it to Rhona), chattering happy as a jaybird. Rhona might consider a job as a book publicist while she's climbing her way up the literary world. Every time I turned around it's like -- oh, there's Rhona talking to the Tor people. There's Rhona laughing it up with Tim Powers. There's Rhona throwing an impromptu party for sixteen people, two seeing eye dogs, and Edgar Allen Poe's ghost. There's Rhona giving a World Fantasy Award acceptance speech, despite the piffling detail of not being nominated for anything or having a ticket to the banquet.

Anyway, I think Rhona's going to fit in to the con scene just fine. I'm very glad she came. Especially since she uses at least 10 of the 40 megawatts of her usual operating capacity talking up E.E. Knight.

Rhona took time off from working her way to her future triple crown Nebula, Hugo, and Campbell Awards to have dinner with Chats and me and Howard. We had Indian food at a little restaurant that was well worth the wait.

After dinner we hooked up with quikthnkr who drove three hours in his hot-ass black Mustang GT (and talked his way out of a speeding ticket) to give me this very cool piece of art some of the TTL Gunslingers cooked up.

Poor Rob, I felt like such a shit. I was supposed to meet him but he was a little late and John was breathing down my neck about the Orbit party. Anyway, he was good humored about it.



The art was framed and everything...





So do I have the greatest readers ever or what?

Then it was back to the Inn for more Port and hot-tubbing under the stars.

Sunday
Despite being exhausted, we said our goodbyes, went to my one and only con activity attended (listening to Paul Witcover's latest bit of brilliance -- the guy's as good as Tim Powers but so far has just amassed a cult following) and then got on the plane home.

Oh, and best of all, Ginjer gave me my first author proof of DRAGON OUTCAST! It looks great!