When I heard earlier in the week that Cory Doctorow would be in Baltimore yesterday for a reading at Red Emma’s Bookstore and Coffee House, I decided to head over. I don’t see Cory often enough, partially because it’s hard to grab extended time with anyone in the maelstrom of a convention, but also because his success as a writer and pontificator out in the “real world” has transformed him from Cory Doctorow into C!O!R!Y D!O!C!T!O!R!O!W. (Not that he thinks of himself like that.)

I arrived half an hour or so before his reading began, and though there were a couple of dozen people already there, Cory was alone at the counter, typing away on his laptop. Was the crowd too in awe of him to go over and speak, or were they just respectfully giving him space to get some work done? No idea, but it meant there was space for me to slip onto the stool next to him and catch up until it was time for him to perform.

He started out by reading a brief section from his new novel For the Win, a clip of which I’ve embedded below. I captured Cory with my new Flip camera, my first attempt to do anything more than experiment with it around the house. It wasn’t the best idea to record him in a dark bookstore with a sunny window behind him, because it caused a halo effect at times, but the place was packed, and by the time I realized how he occasionally appeared to be glowing, it was too late to move. But I think the video is worth sharing anyway.

And here’s the Q&A, chopped into YouTube-friendly chunks.

After the reading, I tagged along with Cory to the Baltimore Node Hackerspace, and met about a dozen makers who hope to change the world. An interesting group, but before long it was time to head off in search of dinner. We ended up at City Cafe, where we exchanged war stories of our lives and those of our families (which you don’t get to hear). Then I dropped him at Baltimore Penn Station so he could make it down to D.C., where he’ll be speaking today at the annual conference of the American Library Association. We’ll see each other next at the World Science Fiction Convention in Melbourne, which probably makes our lives sound far more exciting than they really are.

And that’s enough for an early Monday morning. Now it’s time to get to work!