Nixie meets many famous authors and a bad agent

February 15th 2010 at 8:41 am

I spent the Thursday – > Sunday morning is Pasco, Washington.  Thursday and Friday were all about talking to students at an event called the Cavalcade of Authors, and the rest of the convention was a lovely time with friends, and my dog.

On Thursday, I talked to Stevens middle school in Pasco.  The school librarian was very welcoming, the school bought my lunch, and the kids had a lot of great questions.  Friday was the Cavalcade of Authors – a dizzying day that must have been like half a teachers’ day — after talking to essentially four classes or great kids, I was left wondering how real teachers do this all day every day.  I found it fun and satisfying, and hard work as well.

Nixie basically stayed hidden for all of that, except for one lovely walk along the Columbia River.  Since there is a very pretty playground at the park I took Nixie in to get some interesting photos – here she is checking out the toy boat.

Radcon itself is a wacky fun and frenetic science fiction convention.  It’s roots are as a gaming con, so there are a ton of younger people there.  They pretty much adored the dog.  Nix sat at my feet in most of the panels I did, and snored appropriately when we wandered off topic.

I’m sure that the highlight of the con for Nix was meeting “Bad Agent Sydney.”  If you are a new or aspiring writer, you too should meet bad agent Sydney, and follow along on Bad Agent Sydney’s blog.  Sponsored by my friends Steven and Chris York, this is a great way to learn about the dangers a bad agent can cause a writer (and yes, there are good agents).   Nixie, who is lovable and earnest but not the brightest dog in the pack let the cat walk her, but that’s because she didn’t have the common sense to read the link on Bad Agent Sydney’s site — things like Writer Beware from SFWA.

But enough about dogs and cats.  I got to have dinner with  artist GOH Tim Kirk and his wife.  I could have talked to them for hours, although I never caught back up to them (it’s a big convention).  I helped John Pitts celebrate his birthday and heard him read from his first novel Black Blade Blues, an urban fantasy set in Seattle.  If you want to help out a new writer, pre-order the book.  I got to read it in manuscript, and it’s quite good, and surprising.

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