Boskone Trip Report (part 6 of 6)

Episode 6, Sunday: My Reading

On the Sunday morning of Boskone, at precisely 11:30am, I did my first ever solo reading from INTO THE WILD. (I'd done a reading at World Fantasy Convention last November, but that was part of a group session. This was the first time that it was just me and the audience.) I woke up early to finalize my selections and indulge in some pre-reading panic. I picked scene one of chapter one, scene one of chapter nine, and all of chapter ten, and then I ponced around the room for an hour practicing.

Apologies to the people in the hotel room next to mine.

At 11am, I went to Bruce Coville's reading (which preceeded mine, in the same room). Yikes, talk about a hard act to follow! If you ever get a chance to listen to him read, do it. He's a consummate storyteller. Naturally, I was a nervous wreck by the time it was my turn, and my nerves weren't helped by the mass exodus that occurred when Bruce finished.

But then... something miraculous happened: people came.

All the people that I'd talked to in the prior days: Eddie (the George R. R. Martin fan who took those pictures of my Superstar Panel), Tim, Josh, the three awesome Sheroes (Elena, Genevieve, and Rachel), a young writer who I'd met after the Audio Books panel (I think her name was Emily), Nomi and Michael Burstein, the woman I sat next to during Bruce's reading and forced a bookmark on... plus a bunch of people I'd never even seen before. They came! And I read to them from INTO THE WILD and they listened and they clapped, and it felt like flying.

Because I'm a big dork, I took a picture of my audience:

My Audience!

See! See! People came! And there are even a few on the sides that I accidentally chopped out of the photo. (Sorry about that.)

Afterwards, Bruce said that I'd read well (which means a lot to me, considering he owns an audio book company and hears people read all the time), and several people said they couldn't wait until June, which was very, very cool to hear.

Episode 6 1/2, Sunday: The Good-Bye

Now we're near the end of my Boskone trip report. If you have complaints about the length of this report, please complain to Erin. She's the one who asked for the detailed report. In my defense, I have yet to tell you what I ordered for my meals or what I wore each day (though I should mention that I carried my Class of 2k7 tote bag). Consider yourself lucky.

Anyway, after my reading, I sat in on Jane Yolen and Bruce Coville's literary beer and laughed myself silly -- they're like a comedy team. And then I had lunch with Josh Spaine and Arika Cohen (a Massachusetts drama teacher). Then one final convention event: a literary beer with Tobias Bucknell and John Scalzi. Before leaving for my train, I made one final loop, saying hello to Lou Anders and an artist named Marc and good-bye to several others.

And then I hopped in a cab, got on a train, and began writing part one of this trip report for you. Hope you've enjoyed it, and hope to see you all at my next convention, Lunacon!