[NY Day 4] World Fantasy Convention part 1

Day 1 of the World Fantasy Convention, brought to you by a grant from the Western Australian Department of Culture and the Arts.

Itwould be fair to say that I was alittle slow this morning. Late night + alcohol + early morning = not the best start. It toof a full breakfast, with extra bacon and a very deep bottomless coffee to bring me to some semblance of life.

Day 1 of the convention was a little slow in trading, but was marked by higher value sales. We sold almost all of the limited edition hardcovers I packed, making me wish I’d paced a few more. Sales of the standard tradepaperbacks was slow, but room traffic wasn’t large and there are a few people doing the usual of hanging on for a couple of days before buying.

After closing the table and balancing the boos I met up with writer Christine Daigle and her husband Sean for dinner at a nearby italian pasta restaurant. There was much great conversation, about music, drum solos, whisky, bourbon, and books. We shared an appetiser of sweet chili calamari, and it was exquisitely cooked, where the squid almost melted in the mouth (it didn’t need the sweet chilli but when calamari is cooked so perfectly I can forgive an indulgence or two). Main (entree for the USians) was a crab mac and cheese, and it was pretty awesome too — if could possibly have used an extra strong flavour in small amounts like pancetta to really make it something, but was very good nonetheless.

Then it as back to the convention centre, catching up with fols and networking away, followed by an all too short couple of drams with some fellow whisky fans.

All in all nothing too big and exciting other than getting to meet some amazing creative legens wandering ast the table)ut a very pleasantone nonetheless.