An environment that I’m rather familiar with, after all. Just having a beer to quelch my first-time moderator nerves, having a chat with Sandy Auden (my reviews editor at Interzone), and contemplating a last minute cigarette before heading off to the Green Room to meet the panel. Whatever happens, this will certainly be a experience! Dissection later on …

Looks like my first stint as a panel moderator will be rather more challenging than I expected. Let’s see …

First Jetse came out in defence of short reviews.

Then Niall took him to task for it (and generated a, shall we say, lively comments thread).

Then Jonathan put in his two pence (generating another busy comments thread that includes a visit from ((a possibly justifiably irate)) Andy Cox).

Meanwhile, Gabe sits tight on the other side of the Atlantic, wishing for an opportunity to deploy his critic-fu mad rant sk1llz, and A. R. Yngve certainly has reviews on his mind (although I’m not sure if he’s coming to the con or not).

And there was me thinking this was a topic hardly anyone would care about. I’m not known for my leadership abilities, so this may end up as an exercise in herding cats … metaphorically angry cats, with metaphorical guns.

Still, life’s a learning curve, isn’t it? Updating from a little after midday Friday (public transport permitting); until then, hasta luego, amigos.

…on being told that I’m going to a science fiction convention this weekend, whether or not I’ll be dressing up as a Klingon, I swear I’m going to have some kind of psychotic episode.

For the enjoyment of those who stalk sf-scene nobodies with an overinflated opinion of themselves (and because I’ve seen other people do it, and I like to share), here is my subject-to-change agenda for this weekend’s Eastercon: Continue reading “Eastercon: My agenda, liveblogging and interviews hitlist”