Mirrored from the latest entry in Daron's Guitar Chronicles.

Inside, Carynne was already talking with Louis, which was to say Louis was talking and she was nodding a lot. He was gesturing toward the rafters but I couldn’t make out what he was actually saying. He hadn’t struck me as the talkative type so it must have been important.

I laid the guitar case on the stage and then went to join them. Chris started adjusting drums. Ziggy prowled the edges of the space and the stage like a cat, checking everything out.

“Basically what I’m telling the boss here,” Louis said, as I stood next to him, “is that what I’m going to set up in here is like a toy piano, but when we get on the road it’ll be more like a Rick Wakeman set-up.”

“Okay.”

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Mirrored from the latest entry in Daron's Guitar Chronicles.

The bed felt really empty when I was trying to get to sleep. Which turned into an endless loop of “The Bed’s Too Big Without You” by the Police in my head. Which turned into me turning the light back on and jotting down some notes for a song, which turned into the writing out a staff by hand and making actual musical notes, which I rarely do, but it seemed to make sense at the time, which turned into me grabbing the acoustic guitar nearest the bed (the orphan Yamaha) and working something out.

And by the time I was done with that, I was too tired to notice if anyone was in the bed or not.

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Mirrored from the latest entry in Daron's Guitar Chronicles.

Despite all the coffee, J fell back to sleep after we cuddled for a while.

Not sure if I wasn’t much of a cuddler or if it was that I was still antsy about all the things I was thinking about. Or if I just wasn’t used to it. I just hadn’t done much cuddling up to that point. When he was well and truly conked out again, I slipped out of bed, got dressed, and went down to the front desk and paid his hotel bill. I made sure to tell the clerk how awesome the concierge desk had been.

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Guess what? I got a room in the party block at Arisia! So I will be throwing two parties. A Circlet Press book party on Friday night after the Circlet 20th Anniversary Extravaganza (panel with book giveaways, etc) 9:30p-1am, and then
Saturday night:

HOGWARTS ALUMNI PARTY!
9pm – 1am Saturday January 14
Arisia SF Convention (Boston)
Westin Room 462

The Hogwarts Alumni Association and HPEF/Ascendio welcome you to a party for adult fans of Harry Potter. Those in Potteresque costumes may win door prizes! Members of all Houses as well as alumni of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang are also welcome. Those not in houses will be sorted upon entry. Muggles may need the aid of a witch or wizard to enter. NO DUELING. (That means you, Gilderoy!)

I could use some volunteers to help me run the Hogwarts party. Can you bake cauldron cakes? Bring butterbeer? Donate door prizes? Make flyers and/or put them up around the con? Something I haven’t thought of? Please comment or email me at ravenna_c_tan @ yahoo.com!

We should have info available about Ascendio if you haven’t already been fully informed about the HPEF convention in Orlando this coming July. (http://hp2012.org for more info)

We *should* be in room 462, but check the party board/flyers just in case there are any last minute hotel moves…

Mirrored from blog.ceciliatan.com.

Mirrored from the latest entry in Daron's Guitar Chronicles.

J and I had a long, slow meal at the Oyster House, and it didn’t even occur to me that oysters are supposedly an aphrodisiac. I was too busy talking about the upcoming tour, which J wanted to know all about, and dissecting the show we’d just seen.

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Mirrored from the latest entry in Daron's Guitar Chronicles.

Colin had called a cab while I was still drying off, and of course for once they came right away. So I had soaking wet hair and nearly broke my neck trying to pull a boot on and cross the living room at the same time. Turned out the insole had gotten twisted inside. I tossed the boot across the room and pulled on my high tops instead and didn’t tie them until I was in the back seat of the cab and we were on the way.

We got into traffic a few blocks from Lansdowne Street. “Ballgame traffic,” the cabby said. He was a bulk of a man with almost no hair and a neck like a whale’s belly, tattooed with something I couldn’t read. That was kind of surprising to me, given that I expected to see neck tattoos on guys like Colin and not ones twice his age.

“Let us out here. We’ll walk the rest of the way,” I said.

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Mirrored from the latest entry in Daron's Guitar Chronicles.

In the morning the sound of a vacuum cleaner near the elevators woke me, and for a few moments I racked my brain trying to remember which city we were in and whether I had put the Do Not Disturb sign out and if I should worry because Carynne would make sure I was up if I blew it…

Then Jonathan rolled over next to me and memories of the night before came rushing through me like a wave.

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So…. the Arisia Science Fiction Convention is less than a month away. Lots of fun is planned for it. Among other things I’m doing a panel on being a complete HARRY POTTER fandom NUT (well, that’s not what the panel is CALLED but that’s definitely what it’s about), plus I’ll be giving a Retrospective presentation for the Circlet Press 20th Anniversary at which I will give away lots of smutty books and entertain everyone with tales of being the “world’s premiere science fiction pornographer,” (so spake Walter Jon Williams of me/Circlet).

Another fun thing I am looking forward to is Afternoon Tea with special guests! For $25 per person, attendees get to sit at a table of 8 or 10 with their favorite writer and hobnob for over an hour. The tea will be Sunday afternoon (of course).

If you’d like to be at my table, or the table of one of the other fun guests (including Phil and Kaja Foglio, Gareth Hinds, Hugh Casey, Esther Friesner, Marty Gear, Bob Eggleton, Hildy Silverman, Trisha Wooldridge, and Eric in the Elevator) check out this webpage for more info: http://2012.arisia.org/VIP-Tea

I did the Breakfast with Guests last year, and although I was groggy from lack of sleep, it was a lot of fun. I expect I’ll be more awake for an afternoon event though…

Mirrored from blog.ceciliatan.com.

Mirrored from the latest entry in Daron's Guitar Chronicles.

I was in my room the next night, half spaced out listening to Led Zeppelin–which I blame entirely on Chris, who was always trying to get me to listen to more “classic rock” even though I didn’t actually have any deficiency in that area–when I realized someone was knocking on the door. I pulled the headphones down around my neck. “Come in!”

It was Colin. “Hey, it’s warm out. Want to walk to Herrell’s for some ice cream?”

“Er, I actually had ice cream for dinner,” I had to admit.

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Mirrored from the latest entry in Daron's Guitar Chronicles.

Chris distracted me the next day by hatching a plan to clean out the junk room. He’d been inspired by the place where we’d gotten the piano, I think, and besides, since we couldn’t get the piano downstairs it had to go somewhere or just keep sitting in the middle of the living room. Plus the weather was good and tons of students were moving out of dorms into summer sublets and stuff; it was now or never.

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