Worldcon

I got back from my extended TNEO, New England travel, and Worldcon trip and instantly had to start working on a syllabus for a college course I just got hired to teach, so I've been pretty much missing in action.But I did want to post to say what a lovely time I had at Worldcon. Montreal is a beautiful city which I'd love to get back to when I have more time to sightsee.Stephan and I arrived Wednesday afternoon and checked into the Delta--not the official convention hotel, but another Delta hotel about 5 blocks from the Palais des congres (Convention Center) where we got an excellent rate. We went ahead and registered and picked up badges after figuring out the Metro/bus system. Ordinarily, the walk wouldn't be a big deal, but I'm having continued knee issues and had just come from some hiking in Acadia National Park and the White Mountains, so I needed to give my poor knees a break.Thursday, I attended readings by Jenny Rappaport, Paolo Bacigalupi, and Nalo Hopkinson. I've got to get Paolo's new novel as I love his short fiction. Nalo read splendidly. Her novel, The New Moon's Arms, was something I enjoyed very much when it was up for the Mythopoeic Award.I attended a panel on The Year in Novels and learned from Jo Walton papersky and others about what cool novels I missed that have come out in 2009. I have a reading list ready when I finally get the time to read something not related to the class I'm teaching!Stephan was on a panel called "Fantasy: The French Touch," which I attended and learned about what fantasy in French is like these days. One author, Pierre Pevel, has a novel coming out in an English translation that sounds really cool. He described it as "the Three Musketeers with dragons."We went to the Opening Ceremonies and saw a cool performance by an aerial contortionist who swung and twirled in a hoop over the stage. Afterwards, the conversation between nobel prize-winning economist Paul Krugman and science fiction writer Charles Stross was some great food for thought.We didn't stay up too late as I was part of a Broad Universe rapid-fire reading the next morning which had been rescheduled from 10:00 to the even earlier hour of 9:30!I'd better wrap this up and save the other days and all the great folks I met to write about later. I've got a busy day calling my name!