Worldcon II

19 August


No exciting Russian ladies today. Just the usual convention stuff. I dressed up nice and was on a couple of panels. Had lunch in a pretty fancy sushi restaurant and dinner in a good continental one, with the Silverbergs. Always good company, though Bob was a little more dour than usual. Starting to feel mortality, at 76, and not liking it.

Well, I don't like it much, either, even from this halcyon perspective. Nothing for it, though, except living every day as well as possible. (You could even argue for a kind of calculus of life, no? One really good day is worth X forgettable ones. Let us pile up the lovely ones.)

Just got in from playing blackjack; won $310. Did I mention winning $300 yesterday? That sounds like a good limit. Interesting enough to win but not terribly painful to lose. Both days we played for half an hour, not long enough to feel actual guilt.

I could conventionally (ha ha) say "wish you were here," but you probably wouldn't like much of it. Conventions and casinos. Nice bleak landscapes outside of town, but sitting out there painting them would be pretty warm work.

Good to see old friends. The panel discussions were amusing enough, and a kind of exposure. (Of course if everybody in every audience bought a copy of every one of my books, the royalties still wouldn't justify the trip. But there's a kind of cascade effect, with readers who have met you becoming secondary salespersons – "I met this guy and his books are really cool" etc.)

Trying not to think about the mountain of work waiting at home. Eat drink, and be lucky!

Joe