[Backdated entry because I was much too busy on Sunday to write anything.]

Sunday afternoon of Loncon 3 had an amazing hole open up in my schedule after the conclusion of WSFS Business (Business Meeting, Worldcon Chairs, MPC Meeting) that coincided with the performance of Girl Genius Radio Theatre in the "Second Stage" (a large theatre-style stage area, smaller than the main auditorium, but still big). The previous day, Phil had told me when I asked that I could turn up, and when I did so, he assigned me the title-character role in Deathwish DuPree and the The Return of Deathwish DuPree.

DuPree, the brother of the character in the canonical series, was to be portrayed as an Errol Flynn-style swashbuckling pirate. I attempted to buckle my swashes, but also to do things like drop out of the character's accent into what appeared to be asides in the script. (Phil later said that was good.) The audience seemed to laugh when I did so, as well, so I think it must have worked.

I had a fabulous time, and was utterly delighted to be able to have this much fun after the amount of work I'd done the previous three days of the convention. I'm so grateful to Phil and Kaja for letting me come be silly on stage with them again like this.

( No GGRT pix; I was busy acting! )

Soon enough fun and games were over. I'd had a late lunch and then an early dinner, both at the Indian restaurant on the main concourse. I coordinated plans with Cheryl Morgan for our Hugo Award coverage later that day and returned to the hotel for a short rest before things got busy again. But I had a bounce in my step from having been able to actually enjoy myself for a while rather than concentrate only on official business.

Nothing going on here today to speak of, so here's another photo of the overbuilt power lines near Mehama that we think are evocative of Girl Genius-like sparky stuff.

( Power Lines to Nowhwere )

Remember that the full-sized power transmission lines to the left in the distance are what was used to feed into the (now removed) substation to pump it up to a million volts AC.

The Girl Genius Radio Theatre was a big hit, with around 150 people attending and making the Club Regent Room feel comfortably full but not crowded to hear the performance of two older plays and the first performance of part one of an in-progress new play. Lisa did a fine job running the audio tech, including improvising a way for Victor Foglio to have a microphone for the sound-effects station even though we hadn't originally planned for it and had no more microphone cable.

We will, I hope, eventually be able to edit and upload the two full shows to Vimeo. I had a wonderful time as The Announcer, and thank you once again to Phil & Kaja for performing with us.

I've uploaded the first set of three Girl Genius Radio Theatre videos from the performance at Worldcon to my Vimeo account. See my posting to the Girl Genius fan community for the links to the episodes.

At 4 PM on Saturday, the Girl Genius Radio Players took to the stage before a packed house (I'll guess around 200-300 based on the room capacity) to perform Revenge of the Weasel Queen (which I'd seen performed before) and Agatha's Big Date (which I had not). As the Narrator, I had big expository chunks of lines at the start and a wind-up at the end, but little in the middle of each episode. Fortunately, each of these was a three-part episode.

If I do say so myself, I think I did great. I know I had a wonderful time chewing up the script and delivering the narration in the style informed by Cheyenne Wright's interpretation of the material. The other players really got into it as well, and I had an utterly marvelous time doing this show, and I very much hope to get a chance to do it again.

After the show, I went back to Phil & Kaja's table in the Dealers' Room and told them that I expect that we'll want to do this at Westercon next year. Phil said that would be good and asked if I would have the time to be in the play. I said, "I'm your Guest of Honor Liaison — I'd darn well better have the time!" I then posed for a photo with Kaja and Phil.

( If I look smug and pleased, it's because I was, big time )

I spend so much time on the "business" side of conventions that some people may not even be aware that there are things I really enjoy doing aside from Business Meetings, panels about conrunning, and maybe a game show now and then. I was so pleased that their show fell during one of those blocks of time where I actually had no other calls on me.

I set up the tripod and recorded the performance. I will upload it when I get a chance, but it's unlikely to happen before I get home due to bandwidth issues (including how much time I have available to process stuff!)

I've posted a Hugo Recommendation for Volume 8 of Girl Genius, the final part of which was published on Wednesday. Expect me to talk about this a number of times as Hugo Awards nominating season begins, because you can't wait for the paper copy to come out next March -- it's eligible in 2009 for its serial publication in 2008, not for the paper copy.