WOOT!

I arrived shortly after 8:00 AM, but the special Author's Breakfasts/Luncheons were sold out already except for Sunday, and all the autograph tickets were gone. Later I spoke to someone who was staying nearby and had arrived to stand in line at 6:30 AM. She wasn't at the front of the line. I decided I didn't need to see Gary Trudeau as much as I thought - to get into the city that early I would have had to catch a 6:10 train.

We connected with some people, and I came away with a ton of loot. I earned that loot, though - I stood in line for it, I carried it around in flimsy free booth bags for 10 hours, and dragged it back to Westchester on the subway/train (you should see what my hands look like after 3 days of that!). Through the rain. Uphill, both ways.

Highlights:

Orson Scott Card
Ruben Bolling (author of Tom the Dancing Bug)
The graphic novel panel
Gregory Maguire (snagged a copy of Son of a Witch)
George R. R. Martin
Terry Pratchett
Neil Gaiman


The breakfast Sunday morning, with Barbara Ehrenreich, Umberto Eco, and John Irving, hosted by Bob Herbert, was great. The food was awful, but the banter was extaordinary.

Pictures will have to wait until I can download them from my camera tomorrow.

Quote from Brad Meltzer: "Just because your fiction is serious doesn't mean it's serious fiction."

I got to meet Michael Stradther, author of A Treasure's Trove, who gave me a signed copy of the book. It's been very much in the news lately since the discovery of one of the treasures. I'm working busily to decode the clues and find me some bling-bling.

http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/members/d4eo/

The most impressive new project I saw was a collection of photographs taken in Iraq by four photojournalists, titled Unembedded. A very different perspective. I can't wait to see the whole thing.

http://www.chelseagreen.com/2005/items/unembeddedpa