Continuum Day 1

We all fitted a lot into a half day today. The organisation of Continuum is so wonderfully smooth that I wasn't needed for my volunteer stint. This is a rock solid convention so far, which is particularly impressive given the vast numbers that have turned up. Even for the early bits of the program (during working hours) the rooms have been jam packed solid - standing room only. The committee has dealt with the vast onslaught of numbers with a wry sense of humour and a beautiful efficiency. The problems were all things we (attendees) knew would be problems ahead - early dinner hours and hotel location made dinner a bit of an issue, for instance. These are not big things in the universe, though, and the ability to handle so many people so very well is much more important.

I wanted to feel guilty over not helping, but the presence of half the New Zealand contingent cured me of it. We sat in comfortable armchairs and made bad jokes, mainly. In fact, Russell Kirkpatrick (and son) and threemonkeys and I hogged the best chairs in the foyer for an unconscionable period of time. All sorts of friends found us and all sorts of strangers sat near us and read programs. Several of them turned out to be Westerm Australians, and very well informed (I need to get to SwanCon one day - these are nice people!! They are organising what sounds like an utterly fun little convention with Chuck McKenzie as guest of honour - any convention with Chuck as guest of honour is sure to be a gem and I wish the west coast were closer or I were richer). Lots of stray conversations ensued.

I caught up with Karen Miller, Glenda Larke, Trudi Canavan, Richard Harland, Jennifer Fallon, Tessa Kum and a lot of other people. I learned the real names behind a lot of aliases from the Voyager Purple Zone and discovered the aliases hid real people. I don't know why I find it surprising that computers can hide people.

It all felt like party central.

Edit Zoners I spent time with included Davina McLeod and Yaritji Green. Yaritji is much younger than I expected. She has done a lot of things I would never have dreamed of at her age - she is a lady of immense talent and drive. I told her this time and time again. I really have to stop telling her how young she is - she knows her own age, after all.

I found myself looking across the foyer every few minutes and seeing another and another and yet another Canberran. There must be a dozen people here from the Canberra Speculative Fiction Guild alone. We Canberra folk are just dedicated Con-goers, I think.

I gave Tessa a hard time, as is her due, and I got to talk with a couple of her friends. I also caught up briefly with Cat Sparks and Deb Biancotti, and said hi in passing to a host of peoples, including Zara B and Janeen Webb and Jack Dann (though the jury is out on whether Jack remembers me).

I took various breaks from the party atmosphere through attending panels and such. The first panel I went to was the Dr Who one, where some of us pretended that we had not seen every episode of the first four doctors at least twice, and some admitted they had seen everything owned everything and could quote quite a few things. Jon Blum gatecrashed the panel and it turned into a who knows what session. Lots of good oneliners and enthusiasm, but a bit slow overall.

The following panel (about wierd history) was, of course, quite pefect. I say this in an entirely unbiassed way.

Seriously, Davina McLeod was an excellent moderator and would have been been better if I had been able to see her gestures to me when I talked too much (I have an occasional tendency to talk a lot - no comments upon this will be entered into). I talked a bit about Brutus and the history of Britain, about Richard's sad loss of Excalibur to Tancred of Sicily and what it meant for Sicily's chance at world domination, and about why the chair associated with the Pope Joan story is a problem. I intentionally chose humorous anecdotes, but didn't trust myself to make good jokes from them and so I informed the audience that if they didn't laugh I would *know* they had gone to sleep. The laughter may have been nervous, but it happened.

Jenny Blackford spoke after me: she was interesting. The background is classical history, so she followed up my cute anecdotes with rather more solid classical examples.

Glenda Larke talked next, about how she used her experiences and her background to create societies that work in her fiction. She shows an audience a lovely warm presence, and whenever she stopped talking I kept looking round for her to say more, simply because when she stopped talking I found myself missing that warmth. I sat next to her at dinner too, and found that her presence isn't a staged presence at all. She is a very genuine person and the warmth she bestowed on that audience today was simply a facet of herself.

The final panellist was the person I had most wanted to hear on the subject: Trudi Canavan. Trudi doesn't have (unlike the rest of us) a history degree. The world of her books is, despite this, gives a real sense of time and development. This has interested me for a long time, because quite obviously her processes are not my processes. She explained how she achieves it, and that for her, inventing history is easier than researching it. I found this fascinating, because the historian in me wants to add and add and add to inventions - research is easier.

The only other panel I managed to get to was a few minutes of a very funny session based on the TV game "Blanketty Blanks." Yes, folks, I spent most of my daylight hours in vile gossip. Also in the anti-launch of that vile novel "The Black Crusade." Jack Dann almost managed to embarrass Richard Harland, and certainly managed to enthuse a crowd about buying the book. I have a copy already, so I jumped roond the buying table and fell into long discussion with stray friends.

My evening finished with the Great Debate. I have a panel at an unholy hour tomorrow morning, so some sleep had to happen.

The Great Debate was one of the funniest things I have ever heard. It was so vulgar I will not sully your eyes with the detail. My most obsessive thought is that I think every single female in the audience is now in love with Neil Gaiman (and I doubt I will have the courage to talk to him - I only talked to Robin Hobb for a few minutes today because I had no idea who she was when she joined the group). Gaiman isn't just cute - he is witty and irreverent and will resort to bribes. He also has a very nice speaking voice. The other debaters did a good job at causing mayhem, but Gaiman was the single biggest factor in the descent into disorder. There were many, many good lines, but my favourite was Gaiman's when he summed up the opposing team "Your argument consists of saying random things until they [the audience] clap."

Jack Dann's closing words were "Goddammit, we are done." And so we were, and so am I. Time to get a few hours sleep.