The first pass page proofs (we used to call ’em galleys) for Dragonsblood are in. I’m going to go over them quickly and get them back to the publisher!

— Todd

Dragon*con was a blast again this year.

The Weyrfest Writers Workshop started on Friday morning and met on Sunday as well.

Saturday I participated in my first ever Dragon*con parade which was a load of fun.

Saturday was the Awards Banquet and Mum was awarded the Futura Award while the L. Ron Hubbard Writers and Illustrators of the Future received a special award for their twenty years of encouraging new speculative fiction writers and illustrators.

After the Awards Banquet, Chic Corea and his band performed live tracks from their “To the Stars” album. I was seated in the second row, center. It was awesome.

Sunday night, Mum and I got to perform with David Carradine (“Kung Fu”, “Kill Bill”, to name a few of his movies) in radio play production of L. Ron Hubbard’s “To the Stars.” We were also equally thrilled to be performing with Bob Daley (who also directed) and Bob Cassa (a man of many voices).

Earlier that same day (Sunday), Mum kindly read Chapter Seven of Dragonsblood with me. I was glad she did — there was no way I could have finished it all by myself. It had the same impact on the audience as it did on us — not a dry eye anywhere. I knew I had to have someone read it with me just as Mum has to have someone read the original “The Ship Who Sang” with her. For those of you who were there, if it wasn’t obvious, we hadn’t had a chance to practice reading at all. I think it went very well.

I was only on one of the two YA (Young Adult literature) panels I’d volunteered for and while I would have liked to do more, I was so overscheduled that it was probably for the best. As it was “Why we like Harry Potter” was a packed panel and lots of fun. I could tell from the Slytherin contingent that there was room for at least one full on “Why we love Slytherin” panel which should have been, at the very least, quite loud .

On the flight back I had the honor to be seated next to the jazz musician Ronnie Laws — whom I totally did not know (embarassing). Now I’m just going to have to pick up some of his albums!

I managed to pick up a cold — either from air travel or shouting myself hoarse at Chic Corea’s concert or just from the overall exertion of the convention, I don’t know. I’m busily dowsing it with Emergen-C, tangerines, and lots of liquids.

I need to get better soon as I have to get cracking on Dragon’s Fire.

Cheers,
Todd