pbray | Notes from the trenches

5 hours into our conference. Usual issues so far-- one of our speakers cancelled at the very last minute. At a Sci-Fi con, where speakers are part of panel discussions this is not as big an issue as it is as at a romance writers' convention, where a speaker has a dedicated timeslot and we've already advertised the topic in advance. Fortunately

jennifer_dunne and I are nothing if not flexible, so we took the original topic idea from the program and just brainstormed a presentation to match.

Conference kicked off with a meet & greet event, with three different desserts, coffee, tea, a cash bar and a guest speaker. The agreed upon topic we'd advertised was "Historical Mysteries in Upstate New York". The speaker decided she'd rather talk about the Romanovs and Hollywood murders in the 1920s, which we found out only when she launched into her talk. Fortunately the talk was good and folks seemed to enjoy themselves.

On the plus side, we had a lovely dinner with our guest editors and agents, and I've really enjoyed chatting with the conference attendees. Tomorrow looks like it will be a good day (fingers crossed) and hopefully everyone will enjoy themselves.

And I'm never ever allowing myself to be talked into volunteering again.