Lunacon Trip Report (part 2 of 3)

Saturday at Lunacon began with a quest for coffee. Not my quest. Josepha Sherman's quest. (I don't really like coffee unless it has so much milk and sugar that it's really just warm ice cream.) Elaborate plans were laid involving Lawrence Schoen's stuffed buffalo, but in the end, Jean Elizabeth Krevor saved the day with a call to the hotel staff. So Josepha, her coffee, and I were able to proceed to our 10am panel "Writing Fairy Tales," where we were joined by Catherynne M. Valente and Pauline J. Alama. For 10am, it was quite the lively panel. The subject of Disney came up, and I think it's fair to say that my fellow panelists have little fondness for old Walt... But no matter what anyone else says, I still love the Mouse! (Special thanks to Ernest Lilly of SFRevu for pointing out that Disney heroines have come a long way since Snow White.) Seriously, though, it was lots of fun. And afterwards, I chatted with artist Roy Mauritsen, who has painted some kick-butt fairy-tale themed paintings.

I then had lunch with Anne Sowards and Jessica Wade, two editors from Penguin, and fellow Penguin-author Mark del Franco. All very cool people. Go, Bird!

At 2pm, I attended the Broad Universe group reading. I joined Broad Universe just a few days ago -- it's an organization devoted to supporting women science fiction and fantasy writers. Afterwards, I met Sue Lange (the reading organizer) and talked with Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman. Delia (author of the super-awesome CHANGELING) was supposed to be in Florida, but her flight was cancelled due to snow. For the first time, I was happy for Friday's weather.

Next cool thing that happened was that I talked with Jim Freund, producer of "Hour of the Wolf," a radio show on WBAI (a NYC PBS station). I will be the guest author on his June 16th show! Eeeee! I've never been on the radio before. Very exciting. Hope I don't accidentally cluck like a chicken.

I then went on to attend half of the "Women in Comics" panel, after which I had a lovely time talking with Tamora Pierce, Tim Liebe, and my two new convention friends Emily and Penelope. Then it was time to eat again (yay!). Tamora Pierce, Tim Liebe, Delia Sherman, Ellen Kushner, and I had dinner together... [Brief pause while I bask in the coolness of my dinner companions...] Ellen and I split some steak thing with really yummy fried bananas.

After dinner, I returned to my hotel room to pick out which chapters to do for my reading on Sunday. And then, because I had come all the way here and didn't want to waste a minute of the convention, I went out again at around 11pm to track down a party. Found one, thanks to Rowena, the woman who designed the impressive Lunacon program scheduling software, and got to chat with her and also to thank Leigh Grossman (who was responsible for programming) for my magnificent schedule.

Coming next, Sunday at Lunacon, in which Sarah talks a lot.