SMOF 'Till You Drop

Linda Ross-Mansfield is leading a bid to host a World Horror Convention in Winnipeg at some future date. (They're expressing interest, not requesting a specific year.) WHC's are selected in a similar manner to the World Fantasy Convention, by a board of directors, not by vote of the members the way Worldcon and Westercon are. Linda planned on being at this year's WHC in San Francisco to give the WHC board bidding materials and remind them of Winnipeg's interest; unfortunately, she put off buying her airline tickets so long that the price was unaffordable, and she's had to cancel. However, she's sent me a package of material and asked me to deliver it to the WHC board when they meet this weekend.

WHC started this afternoon, and I'll head up after work to attend the first evening. Tomorrow I move into the overflow hotel (I made my reservation too late for the main hotel, although given the badmouthing I've heard about that hotel, I doubt I've missed much other than the four-block walk between the hotels), but tonight I'll sleep at home. I hope to get away from work a little early tomorrow, because I need to get to my hotel (hauling luggage), check in, and then get back to Emperor Norton Park for the Giants game early enough to be among the first 20,000 (there are promotional items -- Orange Friday wigs).

WHC Thursday Evening

I got out of work about 4:30, drove to San Bruno BART, rode it to Embarcadero, and took the California Street cable car line up to Van Ness. This is not the most direct route, and the cable car costs $5 versus $1.25 on the bus, but it does put me right next to the hotel where the World Horror Convention is happening. I got there around 6:15 PM or so and called cherylmorgan, who found me in the lobby.

( But I almost turned around and went straight home )

Borderlands Books was hosting an "Art Show and Mass Signing" event at their store on Valencia Street. Shuttle buses had been laid on to transport people from the Holiday Inn Golden Gateway to Borderlands; however, as David Clark had driven to the con in order to transport his stock, he offered us a lift. Thanks, Dave!

A mob of people were standing on the sidewalk outside the store, although there was room inside; the smokers, those people driven outside by the heat of an overloaded room, and those who wanted to talk with them made up a good-sized crowd. We went inside and admired John Picacio's artwork, and Cheryl introduced me to Picacio. He said, "Oh, you're the famous Kevin I keep hearing about!" I blushed.

We hung around Borderlands for an hour or so, but it was getting on past 10 PM and we needed to head home. We're not moving into the hotel until tomorrow night, I have to work tomorrow, and it takes a while to get home. So we made our goodbyes and trotted down to 16th Street Mission BART, catching the 10:29 PM train to San Bruno, and I drove home from there, eventually arriving home just before midnight. Not having my computer with me, I wrote up the notes that eventually became this entry in my Day-Timer instead.

Now I must get some sleep.

Update, 10:15 AM Friday: Cheryl has her take on the incident on the Emerald City blog. She is less complacent about it than I was.