First, a confession: I tend to treat local conventions Balticon and Capclave as one-day cons. (Even though each is about two hours away, I still consider them local.) Unlike with Readercon or a WorldCon, at which I tend to eat, sleep, and breathe the con, for those first two I generally ask the programming committee to squeeze all of my panels into a single day, schedule meals for that one day, hang out from around 10:00 a.m. until 10:00 p.m., and skip any late-night partying. So what follows is basically my personal 12-hour mini-convention, as opposed to any attempt to explore what the four-day Balticon was really like.

After my encounter in the parking lot with David Louis Edelman, I began by wandering the dealers room, as always. I chatted with (among others) David Hartwell about the smell of old fanzines, Michael Walsh about the new Howard Waldrop collection he’ll be putting out through Old Earth Books, Stephen Segal about Wildside Press, and Roberta Rogow about Philcon’s move to New Jersey. (No more dim sum in Philly’s Chinatown. Sniff!)

I was supposed to have lunch with Karen Newton, Charlie Newton, Sandy Stewart, and Risa Stewart, all of whom I know from the local writing workshop I was a part of until Science Fiction Age magazine took over my life about 15 years ago. But Sandy was feeling under the weather, which meant that the Stewarts bailed on Balticon, and so Karen and Charlie and I wandered over to Jesse Wong’s Kitchen on our own. (I hope that you’re feeling better, Sandy!) As we ate from the Thai, Chinese and Japanese buffet, the three of us talked of—what else—our writing. (more…)

I began my Balticon experience by running into in the parking lot of the Hunt Valley Inn. I don’t mean that literally, even though what I shared about my first-you-see-it-now-you-don’t reading might lead you to believe otherwise.

David pulled the program book out of the trunk of his car and showed me a second case of Edelman confusion by the con committee—his picture tied to my biographical blurb, as you’ll see more clearly by clicking on the scan at right. I’ve never had this sort of problem before, though during my con-going of the late ’70s and early ’80s, writers who were angry with Scott Edelstein (after his publisher backed out of several anthologies for which he’d already accepted stories) would occasionally track me down to complain.

When the call eventually comes for panel ideas for next year’s Balticon, I’m going to suggest that David and I team up to put on a joint presentation to be called something like “A Field Guide to the Edelmans,” in which we describe our distinguishing characteristics and explain how to tell us apart.

Surprisingly, considering that Balticon is such an intimate convention, further review of the program book reveals a number of attendees whom I did not run into, either literally or metaphorically—Catherine Asaro, Joshua Bilmes, Brenda Clough, and Ernest Lilly, among others. Later, I’ll report on those with whom I did interact.

But for now, it’s Memorial Day, the sun is shining, and all of the new plants we bought Saturday are begging to be put into the ground.

Contrary to what I reported earlier, I will not be reading at Balticon on Sunday morning. My slot was inadvertently listed in the pocket program as belonging to David Louis Edelman, and though the con committee graciously offered to return the time to me and publicize the change, I felt that most attendees would rely on the program book for planning out their days, and so most would not know I was reading at all or while others would show up looking for David and be disappointed to find me in the room instead. So I thought it was best (with no hard feelings) to bow out of reading this year.

Just thought I should mention it here so that no one goes looking for me where I won’t be.

But more important than any of that, for the reference of future con committees and attendees—

—that’s David Louis Edelman on the left and Scott Edelman on the right.

Know your Edelmans!

I just received my schedule for Balticon 42, which begins a week from Friday.

All of my programming will take place on Sunday, May 25. Since it’s a local con, I haven’t decided yet how many other days I’ll attend, and won’t make up my mind until I see the final programming grid.

If you also plan on being there, here’s where you’ll be able to find me:

11:00 a.m.: Reading

3:00 p.m.: How the Internet Helps Small Presses

6:00 p.m.: Autographing

7:00 p.m.: Joseph Campbell’s Monomyth

I’m not sure how I ended up on that last panel, as I never volunteered for it and don’t consider myself a Campbell expert, but I’ll do my best to pontificate properly.