• 2015 | new york new york,  new york city,  north america,  saratoga springs,  usa

    [NY Day 9] Supplemental

    Feel free to skip this one, it’s just a few random snippets for me to look back on maybe later. My ribs hurt. At first I thought it was because of my internal organs expanding to fit all of the food, but then I remembered the morning I woke up from a coughing fit, that seems more likely. Still coughing a bit, but no longer coughing up stomach acid or bile. Must do a bit of walking when I get back: feeling somewhat bloaty. Also need to get more ginger pills, and maybe eat some more vegetables, and something dairy other than whatever I’ve been putting in coffee. Could also…

  • 2015 | new york new york,  north america,  saratoga springs,  usa

    [NY Day 9ish] World Fantasy Convention part final

    This is brought to you by a grant from the Western Australian Government Department of Culture and the Arts. This isn’t quite a convention wrap-up, but I am writing this as the train speeds south to New York City along the Hudson River, with Saratoga Springs behind me. But I’ll do a proper wrap up later. I’ll start by saying how chuffed I am that pal and Aussie Angela Slatter won a World Fantasy Award for her collection Bitterwood Bible. It was a strong field of 5 fabulous works this year, and it’s great that she came away with a trophy. I’d say that the dealer room is the elephant…

  • 2015 | new york new york,  north america,  saratoga springs,  usa

    [NY Day 7ish] World Fantasy Convention part 2

    WFC Day 3 Brought to you by a travel grant from the Western Australian Department of Culture and the Arts. There’s no hiding from it: the dealer room this year is quiet. Too quiet. The talk around the room is that it’s among the quietest ever. It’s not that people aren’t buying, more that people just aren’t coming into the room to browse. I’m told that this con has full attendance, so around 1,000, but I’v seen busier rooms at cons of 200. The crazy part of the low sales is that, comparatively, we’re doing okay. We’ve sold out of a couple of titles that started with 6 or so…

  • 2015 | new york new york,  north america,  saratoga springs,  usa

    [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…

  • 2015 | new york new york,  new york city,  north america,  saratoga springs,  usa

    [NY Day 3] Heading upstate

    Today’s the heading out of NYC to Saratoga Springs Day. Go north young man and all that. I didn’t necessarily feel so young dragging all my suitcases across the road to Penn Station, and through the crowds to where I had to board. When it comes to finding and boarding cross country trains, I think the UK does it better: their stations are better sign posted, and platforms are more easily found. I managed to walk past the right queue while I was looking for where I had to go, because a random queue next to an escalator going down doesn’t immediately say “this is where I board the train”…

  • @home,  2015 | new york new york,  new york city,  north america,  preparation,  saratoga springs,  transit,  usa

    [NY Day -5] A new trip beckons

    It’s been a while, and there are a few posts missing. And somewhere an update crunched the template I liked so there may be some further changes to how it looks around here. But enough of the boring stuff, a new trip is on the horizon! Next Sunday I’ll hop into a big ol jet airliner that will take me to JFK in NYC. As Michelle Shocked said, “New York City, imagine that”. It’ll be a whirlwind 13 day trip taking in the sights and sounds of both New York City and Saratoga Springs, NY. I’ll share some more stuff later, once the packing starts. <insert a message from my…