First thing I did yesterday was to post Thursday’s Readercon videos, because I’d hoped to encourage you to get here today, but don’t worry—I then got out of my hotel room and quickly dove into the thick of things.

First up was the morning panel “Empathy, Identification, and Stories,” which featured Matthew Kressel, L. Timmel Duchamp (moderator), Julia Rios, Andrea Hairston, and Walt Williams.

Here’s what they set out to discuss.

At a panel at Arisia 2013, Andrea Hairston said, “I can only tell you a story if you’re a human who can hear a story and imagine what it’s like to be someone who isn’t you.” Tannanarive Due added that access to stories matters: some children, for instance, can easily find books about characters like themselves, while others have to read books from outside a position of identification. Culture creates structures of identification and empathy; or, to put it another way, ways of feeling from within and ways of feeling from without. How do stories create structures of feeling, and how can writers and readers both benefit from awareness of these structures?

And for those who couldn’t make it to Readercon, here’s the panel itself.

After that, I immediately ran off to appear on a panel of my own, “Being an Editor Who Writes,” in which a bunch of us who had a foot in both worlds shared whether having dual identities helps or hurts those two roles, and if so, how. Which made me think I should write an essay on the topic someday, because my multiple editorial positions—with Marvel Comics, Science Fiction Age, and the Syfy Channel—each offered a different set of challenges and rewards.

After a brief break in the con suite, it was then off to hold a kaffeeklatsch with Neil Clarke, during which we were peppered with questions about how to sell stories, and how to even know whether a story was truly ready to send to an editor. (A topic for another future post, perhaps?)

That was followed by my reading of a recently written (but as yet unpublished) short story, “And the Trees Were Happy.” If you watch below, you’ll see that as I got deeper into this tale, I ended up getting a bit verklempt. (A few audience members told me afterwards that they teared up, too.)

I know that comedians aren’t supposed to laugh at their own jokes, which means that perhaps writers aren’t supposed to get choked up as they read their own stories. But you’ll just have to forgive me.

Immediately after that was a screening of the documentary “The Polymath, or the Life and Opinions of Samuel R. Delany, Gentleman.” Even though I’d seen an earlier cut at Readercon a few years back, I’d found it so moving I wanted to see it in its final version. As the screening began, Chip entered the room and sat next to me, so we ended up watching the the film side by side, which cause a strange condensation of time. Memories of a 1972 Lunacon, when we’d also sat side by side, kept welling up, and I acutely aware of the unending continuum of conventions I’ve experienced, and momentarily, they all seemed to be happening at once. 1972 and 2014 were one.

After dinner with Resa Nelson, who was in my writing group back when I’d lived in Framingham, I heading to Paul Park’s reading, but never made it, because a woman who’d bought one of my books in the dealers room spotted me and asked me to sign it. And that kind of thing trumps any programming! So I spent some time with her, then shmoozed outside the room in which the Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award announcement was meant to occur. Which was a good thing, because it meant I was alerted to the arrival of David Kyle.

David Kyle, who took part in the first science fiction convention in in 1936. David Kyle, who’s been at all but one World Science Fiction since the first in 1939. David Kyle, who cofounded Gnome Press in 1948.

I spent as much time with him as I could, and also introduced him to as many people as I could, telling them, “We might not be here today if not for this guy.”

A little after 10:00 p.m., the winner of the Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award, which honors a writer worthy of being rediscovered by today’s readers, was announced by John Clute. Past winners include Olaf Stapledon, R.A. Lafferty, Edgar Pangborn, Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore, Leigh Brackett, William Hope Hodgson, Daniel F. Galouye, Stanley G. Weinbaum, A. Merritt., and Katherine MacLean.

Here’ the big reveal of this year’s winner.

After that it was time to party until I could party no more! (But you don’t need to hear about that … )

Now you’ll have to excuse me—it’s time to throw myself into another day of Readercon!