One Day At Eastercon

As expected, one day at Eastercon was not enough, but one day is better than zero days. A quick summary:

• Charles Stross talked almost non-stop for an hour on tech stuff and near future extrapolations and general Stross type stuff. I have the feeling he has read a lot of obscure things about aeroplanes. Entertaining, but more or less the same as the last time I saw him speak (bar the emergence of robots as the future).
• The Not The Clarke Awards panel weakened my resolution on trying to read all the shortlist, especially as I've now read the two they liked best. There was, of course, dismay at Brasyl not being short-listed.
• Neil Gaiman read (out loud). I liked his short story Orange. Funny. He's good at reading (and writing). The bit where he talked about Eastercon was a bit rambling and blokey though (I got pissed with John Jarrold! etc).
• Writing The Near Future was not a great panel, because it turned into a discussion of what was actually going to happen (futurology?), and since when have SF writers actually predicted the future?! The best moment was when I realised that the moderator was Paul McAuley, it all seemed better from then on. Much talk of robots.
• Everyone's A Critic was an interesting conversation about reviewing and blogging and editors. I think I'll do a whole post on that.
• Bought the BSFA 50th Birthday Celebration Anthology and the Friday Flash Fiction Anthology. Resisted other purchases.
• Met some people and talked to them, met some people and only said hello, saw some other people, didn't meet some other people.
• Had the mandatory conversation about how rubbish Torchwood is, with someone whose name I never found out.
• Came home suitably inspired to write more and write better.