Armadillocon, and more and NASFIC

Armadillocon in Austin was held this weekend. Needless to say, I didn't make it. I would like to have seen a few people, but the combination of my new job (I work Saturdays now) and my recovering health pretty much scotched that. Besides, I've never been invited to be a guest or panelist,

One nice thing about NASFIC was the opportunity to visit with people I wouldn't ordinarily see. Of course, there's always the case when you find someone who's not talkative or friendly. Some people don't have high social skills, and a few, I'm sure, are just stuck up.

Gordon Van Gelder stopped and chatted with me in the lobby of the convention center Saturday afternoon. We talked a bit about stories, but realy I was kinda interested in how the new periodical postal rate increase of this summer is affecting small magazines. Gordon said it's tough, and although he can weather it, some of the smaller magazines will probably fold.

It's probably goofy to talk about that, but as a onetime holder of a periodical permit for my own newspaper - only six years ago - I was curious to get that perspective from Gordon, who's his own publisher.

I also stopped and chatted with Eric Flint outside for a while between panels. He also introduced me briefly to Toni Weisskopf at the Holiday Inn.

Before the panel on Far Out Physics Saturday night, Ted Kosmatka came up and introduced himself. Ted's first pro-level story, "The God Engine", was published in Asimov's in November 2005, just two months after my "Rocket for the Republic" - so I guess we're both new writers.

Ted was very friendly and we chatted a bit. We both have high opinions of each other's stories and got better acquainted.

My first panel on Saturady morning was on "Lost and Forgotten Authors from the Pulp Era". That panel went very well, and I'll take it up in my next posting.