At the moment, I’m in Minneapolis with my lovely and talented groom. We’re catching up on bidness before grabbing a light lunch and heading across the street to Uncle Hugo’s to say hi to Pat Wrede, who is signing Across the Great Barrier. After Pat finishes up, we’ll take her place behind the table, from which position we hope to sign bunches of Ghost Ship. If you’re within range of Uncle Hugo’s, please do come by to see Pat and us.
Tomorrow, ‘way early, we’re due to catch a train to Chicago, and from there we’ll punt, since much depends on where Irene is in her dance up the East Coast and if Amtrak considers
Albany to be in the Northeast Corridor.
Fans of Scrabble and Mozart will be relieved to know that their auxiliary minion is making all reasonable and prudent arrangements for their safety and comfort. As the auxiliary minion is well-known to be reasonable and prudent, especially in the matter of feline safety and comfort, we may with perfect confidence leave matters in her hands.
Prior to Minneapolis, there was a WorldCon, in Reno, where we met lots and lots of Liaden fans, participated on panels, had several working dinners, attended the SFWA meeting, and bought a corset. Well, I bought a corset, which Steve is now in charge of lacing up, if I ever want to wear it again.
Friends of Liad Angie, Deb, Shawna and Thuy did incredible work at the Liaden Universe® fan table and put on a super FoL party, as well as a Liaden Open House. We are very much in their debt.
After WorldCon, we got on the California Zephyr, which was late, and got later, until I ran out of patience with BNSF’s complete disregard of passenger trains in favor of moving empty coal trains, unlimbered my cellphone, talked to a puzzled but willing reporter at AP and a very nice dispatcher at BNSF in Austin, Texas, I believe. It was nice that I had something to do, since were were fourteen hours late getting into Chicago, where thank ghod we had a hotel room waiting. We got to use said hotel room for a four hour nap and showers before we were due back on a train — the Empire Builder — bound for Minneapolis, where Mickie kindly picked us up at the station and drove us to the Midtown Sheraton, aka temporary Confusion Factory headquarters.
Yesterday, we slept in, and had lunch at Pham’s Deli in the Global Market before reporting in to Mr. Blyly, who put us to work personalizing pre-ordered Ghost Ships. We then returned to Temp Headquarters, crashed, took care of bidness, had dinner and crashed again.
Kudos to Sheraton desk personnel in Chicago and in Minneapolis, for helping to make the transition from fraught train travel to restful napping places smooth and easy. A special thank-you to Manager Andy Finsness for the free bike tickets, the laundry detergent, and the cabernet sauvignon. And a heartfelt thank! you! to e-leaven deli in Chicago for not only producing breakfast on demand, but for wrapping us up a wonderful turkey sammich on pumpkin sage bread to eat on the train.
…I think that brings y’all up to date. How’ve things been going in your part of the world over the last couple weeks?