Orycon 27

This weekend, Brian and I were guests of honor, along with my wife Rebecca Moesta, at Orycon, the Oregon science fiction convention held in Portland.

Rebecca and I flew in on Friday from Colorado, while Brian and his wife Jan took the train down from Seattle to Portland. (I even got the first chapter of SANDWORMS edited on the plane, but I didn't expect to get much else done during the weekend.)

In my room, I presented Brian with the props from the CHILDREN OF DUNE miniseries, a crysknife, a Harkonnen handgun, an Atreides troop hat, and a small wrist crossbow. (Not surprisingly, when TSA saw the futuristic handgun and the crysknife on X-ray, they ransacked my luggage and stuffed the carefully packed props back in among wads of clothing.)

As guests, we found our work starting very shortly after we arrived, with Rebecca and myself on a panel about Professionals at Conventions, while Brian did a panel on the creative process. Brian and I provided signed copies of the BUTLERIAN JIHAD hardcover as a thank you gift for members of the convention staff Brian and I also autographed a hundred ROAD TO DUNE promo booklets that Brian had carried on the train, which we gave out at panels during the weekend. We also provided autographed bound galleys of HOUSE CORRINO, THE MACHINE CRUSADE, and THE BATTLE OF CORRIN for Orycon's charity auction.

We had a very nice early dinner with the con staff, then we participated in a (rather silly) skit for the convention's opening ceremonies. Afterward, we found that some fans were having a DUNE-themed party, complete with costumes, and so we visited the party and chatted with the fans for a while.

Saturday was the manic day. I got a guest badge for my Uncle Mike (the master of the dunenovels and wordfire websites), and he came from his home in Portland to enjoy the con. I'm glad I got the chance to talk with him over coffee early in the morning, because once my panels started, the rest of the day was a blur. Rebecca had a panel at 10:00 about juggling family life and a writing career. While Uncle Mike and I sat in the audience, my cell phone rang and I ran out into the hall. It was the hosts of the radio show Dragon Page, who had interviewed me several times previously. They were about to broadcast my most recent interview, recorded at DragonCon in early September, but found that the electronic file had been damaged. So, twenty minutes before I had to be on stage for my own first panel, I stood in a corner next to a bank of pay phones, talking on my cell phone and doing an emergency live interview while Rebecca wrapped up her panel.

Immediately afterward, at 11:00, Brian and I were on a panel about writing in collaboration, talking about our writing and brainstorming process. At noon, I met with John Blyler, the editor of CHIP DESIGN magazine who treated me to lunch while he and his young son Juan interviewed me about technology in my writing. I answered questions around bites of a juicy Marriott bacon-cheeseburger, finished the meal and the interview with just enough time to run back to my room to pick up a stack of newsletters and copies of our autographed ROAD TO DUNE promotional excerpt booklet.

At 1:00, Brian and I gave a guest-of-honor talk about our work in the DUNE universe, and all attendees received the signed booklets; at the end of the talk we gave away the British edition of ROAD TO DUNE. At 2:00 Rebecca and I gave a nuts-and-bolts writing seminar on ³Things I wish some pro had told me when I was starting out,² at the end of which we gave away a copy of the British edition of THE MACHINE CRUSADE. At 3:00 Brian and I were guests at a reception for our friend Bruce Taylor, whose new book KAFKA'S UNCLE AND OTHER STRANGE TALES had just been released. Then at 4:00, Brian, Rebecca, and I had our first official autographing session, with long lines of fans who wanted their books signed.

Tired yet? At 5:00 Brian did a reading from DREAMER OF DUNE and also read chapter 1 of HUNTERS OF DUNE (directly from his laptop). At 5:30, Rebecca read her short story from an anthology called GATEWAYS, then at 6:00 I read an excerpt from SCATTERED SUNS, the fourth book in my 'Saga of Seven Suns,' and then I read chapter 2 of HUNTERS (also from Brian's laptop). The room was very crowded, and we gave away more ROAD TO DUNE booklets, posters from THE MACHINE CRUSADE, and several more copies of our books. Everyone in the audience seemed quite pleased.

Finally wrung out and done for the day, Brian, Jan, Rebecca, and I left the hotel for a delicious, relaxing seafood meal on the waterfront.

--KJA

Next Entry (November 6, 2005)