[writing|travel] A trip, a review and a reading

Though I didn't do very much actual writing yesterday, in another sense the day was all about writing. I rolled out of bed, took care of a few things and headed for the airport to fly to San Francisco for SF in SF with K.W. Jeter, Rudy Rucker, and Terry Bisson.

My flight was significantly delayed, so I had plenty of time to finish reading Mary Robinette Kowal's Glamour in Glass, as well as develop the first draft of the review that I've been commissioned to write. After that I looked over an editorial rewrite request for one of my novellas, then read the first part of Maureen McHugh's Nekropolis. All that before I even reached San Francisco.

I spent the afternoon with Gabrielle and Matt Harbowy who picked me up at the airport. We went to Frjtz for lunch, admired the sidewalk graffiti and street art along Valencia Street, and hung out at Borderlands Books for a bit.


Sidewalk Graffiti: We are the 2%


Street Art: Triceratops crossing

Getting to my hotel downtown was a bit of a trick because the big Chinese New Year parade was forming up. Nonetheless, we made it to the Omni, then out to a darned fine Chinese dinner with the SF in SF crew at Henry's Hunan. Getting over there involved more parade threading, including walking down the line of classic and specialty vehicles being prepped to form up for the parade.


Low rider at Chinese New Year's parade

At dinner I sat between Steven Boyett, whom I totally failed to recognize, and Matt Harbowy. Our table included a bunch of other folks, including Gabrielle, Matt Marovich, Terry Bisson, K.W. Jeter, and several other folks I'm too brain fried to recollect right now. The next table over had Jacob Wiesman, Cliff WInning, Spring Schoenhuth, Dave Gallaher, Dave Smeds, and several other folks.

After dinner, it was over to the Variety Preview Room for the reading itself. Walking there involved even more parade madness.


Night dragon

All of which really made me wish I'd brought the_child, because she'd have been over the moon for the parade.

Once at the Variety Preview Room there was a rocking meet-and-greet going on, hosted by Rina Weisman, with Jude Feldman of Borderlands Books holding down a book selling table. All kinds of folks were there, including Eric Zuckerman and his partner Beth, Jo Rhett, and too many more people I know to name them all. (And my apologies for that.)

Terry Bisson eventually corralled us guests into our panel format table at the foot of the screening room, where we had our reading. Rudy Rucker read from his new autobiography, I read part of the opening of Calamity of So Long a Life, Sunspin volume one, and K.W. Jeter read a grim steampunk fairytale. After a drinks break during which Rick Kleffel interviewed me for his podcast, we came back for a Q&A discussion that lasted a bit over an hour, and was essentially one of the best panels I've ever been on. KW, Rudy and Terry are absolutely awesome to share mic time and brainspace with. Dave Gallaher did post a photo from the event.

Afterward, Matt and Gabrielle walked me back to my hotel. Rina picked me up this morning and brought me to the airport, where I'm flying home to attend a mini-family reunion. Hoping to get into this novella rewrite on the plane home, plus spend some more time on the Glamour in Glass review.

I want to thank my publisher, Tor Books, for sponsoring me to come down to SF in SF, and I want to thank Rina and Jacob Weisman and Terry Bisson for inviting me. This was a heck of a lot of fun.

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Photos © 2012, Joseph E. Lake, Jr.



This work by Joseph E. Lake, Jr. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.