NASFIC – Day One
Slept in. Showered. Studied notes. Registration didn’t open until noon. So about 11:30, went downstairs, talked to people. Got registered. Ate at the local restaurant. Went outdoors for a walk – got to get those 10,000 steps in. Found a funky little bookstore – Fitz’s Books and Waffles. Didn’t see any waffles.
Came back in time for the Dealers Room and Art Show to open. Wandered around there. It was a little awkward, a lot of dealers looking at me with puppy dog eyes – I felt guilty about not buying things. Saw Joshua Palmatier and Ira Nayman and a couple of other people I knew vaguely.
Chatted with Ira in the Dealers Room. It turns out, he’d mixed up his boxes, so he’d travelled all the way to Buffalo and had none of his own books to sell – just anthologies of other people’s stuff. Damn. I was frustrated. Last time I’d seen Ira, I’d bought one of his multiverse books, and had been half way through it when it accidentally fell into the toilet at the airport. I tried drying it with a hair dryer, but no go. I was hoping to buy a replacement and see how it turned out. Damn.
Then I ran into JF Garrand. I met her at CanCon last year, she’s a small press publisher, and we’d bonded over our mutual love of Hong Kong Vampire flicks. We hugged, weird experience, I’m not really a touchy feely person. We chatted for a bit, turns out she’s dealing with family grief. I know what that’s like. I plan to try and catch some of her panels tomorrow.
Did my first panel – AI and Writing, with Neil Clarke, publisher of Clarksworld, Pauline Chow and Sam Rob… all of whom were crazily more qualified than I was. But somehow, I made it through.
I sat in on readings for Sam Rob (we’d just been on a panel), Stephen Wilk (we were about to be on a panel) and Ira Nayman (I knew him).
My other panel was Science Fiction in 60s Comics, that was fun and low stress. I showed off my books. Confessed my sexual attraction to 1960s era comic book robots, and we all talked historical context, racism, Adam Strange, the Silver Age of comics and more. Gave my first book away. Chuck Rothman, the head of programming was moderating, we also had Stephen Wilk and a guy on zoom named Shoemaker.
The 60s Comics panel actually got mentioned in File 770, there’s a picture of us – including me. Mentioned it as a really fun panel. They got my name wrong “Caldron” rather than “Valdron” but that’s okay.
After that, I went back to my room, talked to Chris Nigro, my Buffalo Friend to see how he’s doing. I’ve talked him into attending the Giant Monster panel. I practiced doing my reading.
Went up to the Room Parties, hung out for about an hour, talked to a few people. Saw Peter Halasz briefly, he dislikes me these days because we have a strong difference on the whole Israel thing, but that’s okay – If I restricted my friendships to people who actually liked me, I’d have practically no friends at all. I think Peter may have had an awkward moment, I’ll have to be careful around him.
And that’s it. Calling it a night. Way too much to do tomorrow.
Tomorrow I have five Panels and a Reading to do:
* 11:00 am – Public Domain with Leigh Grossman and Vaughne Hansen, I think one of them is a literary agent. Maybe I’ll make a good impression.
* 3:00 pm – Current SF on TV – Chuck Rothman, again Cameron Calkins, Fingers and Maria. This is my toughest one – there’s just so much SF on TV, it’s impossible to keep up.
* 5:00 pm – Impact of AI on SF Writing and Art – my second AI panel, this one I’m moderating. Neil Clarke will be there, I may suck up to him because he’s got a very reputable magazine. Ira Nayman, and Alex Shvartzman.
*6:00 pm – Doing my reading. I’m going to read an unpublished Zombie story, Tethered.
* 7:00 pm – Writing Humour in SF – with Alex Shvartzman again, Christine Cohen, Michael Ventrella David Dvorkin and Vera Nazarian.
* 9:00 pm – Unnatural History of Giant Monsters – Christine Cohen, again, Stephen Wilk again, Frank Wu.
Along the way, I want to sit in one of JF Garrand’s panels, maybe have coffee with Chris Nigro, and see a few panels on my own. It’ll be the heaviest day. After that two panels on Saturday, and one on Sunday. And then home.
Overall… I feel good, the first two panels went well, I’m working on being social. There are a lot of tracks of programming, not that many industry names.
I’ve been wondering why I’m doing these things. I think that my window for being a member of North American fandom, being part of what is clearly a community, passed a decade or two ago… back when I didn’t have the money or time to make this effort. I’m a little bit of a stranger here, I think I always will be. But I intend to be a pleasant stranger. As to whether I keep doing this… I don’t know.
Oh well, getting to figure out a bit of Buffalo’s geography.
Here’s to tomorrow.