Boskone 37 Trip Report
18-20 February 2000
[The following trip report was made piecemeal from my laptop over the course of the weekend.]
Friday afternoon
Last month I drove to New England the day before Arisia started in order
to do a signing at Million-Year Picnic in Harvard Square. I drove up in
a nasty blizzard on Thursday all for a signing that nobody showed up for,
'cause there was a blizzard. Friday, though -- the day everyone else drove
into Boston -- was sunny and beautiful and great driving weather.
Jump ahead to this weekend. Yesterday I drove to New England the day before
Boskone started in order to do a signing at MYP to make up for the one that
was snowed out last month. I drove up in sunny and beautiful weather on
Thursday for a very successful signing. Today, though -- the day everyone
else is driving to Framingham -- is a nasty blizzard that they're predicting
some 5 inches of snow for.
I'm off to meander before my 7pm Deep Space Nine panel. And tonight is Whose Line is it Anyway?
I saw Michael Burstein when I checked in, and he told me there'll be singing
this year. I am not amused....
Saturday morning
Last night, we got to play "who will make it?" as we stared out the Sheraton
Framingham's windows and watched the snow come down. They were talking anywhere
from 5-10 inches. It finally stopped late last night, but the snow has started
up again this morning. Yeesh.
Spent mucho time in the bar, natch, and also did two program items: the
Deep Space Nine panel, which was primarily talking about how DS9 at its
worst was eighty gajillion times better than Voyager at its best... *chuckle*
Then there was Whose Line is it Anyway? Ginjer Buchanan put off her drive
up to this morning 'cause of the snow, so she was replaced by Madeleine
Robins, who wound up winning. The show was hit-and-miss -- hosts
Michael & Nomi Burstein tried some experiments that just didn't work --
but there were some high points, including the superhero game where I was
Cliché Man, Esther Friesner was Gun Nut, Josepha Sherman was Incontinence Woman, and Mad
was Sponge Girl. And Jo and Mad doing a scene first as a Woody Allen flick,
then Godzilla, then Tarantino was priceless.
Hung out at the bar some more till they kicked us out. Most amusing moment
was a table full of people hearing Don McLean's "American Pie" on the jukebox
and immediately singing along -- with Weird Al's "The Saga Begins" lyrics.
Wound up at the rec.arts.sff party, where I met a young woman who also loves Arlo
Guthrie and baseball, so we had plenty to talk about, and finally to bed at 2.30.
Today's my busiest day -- autographing, panels at 2 and 10, reading at 3.
Sunday morning
Things have been pootling along nicely. Yesterday, I did the "Short Fiction:
Still the Cutting Edge?" panel, which was lively enough, though it wound
up being a frighteningly large amount of doomsaying. Both my 3pm reading
and my 10pm panel were interrupted by fire alarms that turned out to be
nothing -- no word as yet as to what caused them, but one rumor is that
the new system they put in when they remodeled this place isn't quite working
properly.
(The remodeling, BTW, is hideous. They have made this place beige. Everything
is beige. The murals are gone, the carpeting has been replaced, and everything
is beige. New furniture, too, that is, at least, sturdier than the old
stuff, if less aesthetically pleasing.)
The reading went well despite the interruption, and the Buffy panel was
a hoot and a holler, of course, though Mad never made it (she got caught
up in setting up the Tor party). That was followed by the Tor party, where
I got to introduce my buddy Terri Osborne to a bunch of my silly friends
and colleagues, and a drunken time was had by all.
Today is the SFWA EMF auction -- my first time running one (with Esther's help).
Tuesday
Sunday did the EMF auction, which was run by self, Esther, and
Laura Anne Gilman. It went very well -- the three of us have our shtick
pretty much down -- and, while I'm no jan howard finder, I think I did a
perfectly adequate job as auctioneer. And we raised lotsa dough, too, including
$200 for a couple of Star Trek Tuckerizations (one in my next novel, one
in the next Jo Sherman/Susan Shwartz opus).
After that, I hied to Leigh Grossman & Lesley McBain's Annual Post-Boskone
Party And Food-Fest, where Lesley, as usual, cooked enough food to feed
three times the capacity of the house, and a wonderful time was had by all.
I crashed in Pomfret with L&L, then drove to Boston for a nice lunch with
a family friend and a nice business dinner, then imposed on Terri's
couch rather than face all the coming-home-from-the-three-day-weekend traffic
when I was completely zonked (as I was). Of course, Terri gets up for work
at 6am, so this may not have been the best plan, but I crashed early, and
the drive home this a.m. was smooth as silk (aside from one teeny backup
going into Hartford that lasted all of six-and-a-half seconds).
[First posted on sff.people.krad at SFF.net from 18-22 February 2000.]
Appearances |
Bibliography |
Biography |
Bleacher Creature Feature |
Blizzard Games fiction |
Buffy the Vampire Slayer fiction |
Commentary |
Covers and other artwork |
Dead Kitchen Radio and The Bronx Bongo |
Doctor Who fiction |
Dragon Precinct |
Fanfiction |
Farscape fiction |
Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda fiction |
Gloat page |
Imaginings: An Anthology of Long Short Fiction |
KRAD Fan Club |
Links |
Marvel novels |
OtherWere |
Pictures |
Star Trek fiction |
Stories and story & novel excerpts |
Urban Nightmares |
Young Hercules fiction