DAW Dinner #1

Dinner last night with our intrepid DAW publishers Sheila and Betsy, along with Julie, Roger, Ed, and Brad. We dined at the Blue Duck Tavern in DC and had a fabulous meal. Sheila and I did what we've done before and co-ordered appetizer and entrée so we could share. Here's what Sheila and I had... Appetizers: Wood Oven-Roasted Bone Marrow with Bacon Butter and Pistachio Crust; Venison Tartare with Smoked Sherry Aioli and Quail Egg. Entrées: Roasted Muscovy Duck Breast with Fig Compote and Natural Jus; 12-Hour Roasted Suckling Pig Baby with Vegetables and Pork Jus. The table ordered several sides that we shared, along with two bottles of wine, a red and a white, the names of which I never caught. Later, we ordered about four desserts and shared those among us as well. A lovely, leisurely three-hour dinner with excellent conversation.

I swore I wasn't going to eat again until Saturday evening, when DAW will be taking us out again. I'm sure I won't keep that vow, but right now the thought of more food is not enticing. Sheila, however, told me on the way back from the restaurant that she has a 9:30 breakfast meeting with an author this morning. Heh!

Today, I have a panel at 1:00, and Andy and I will probably (after Andy's reading at 2:00) wander around checking out the Art Show, Dealers Room, and probably a few other panels. We've tentatively arranged to go to dinner (groan) with David Coe tonight. Good company, but maybe I'll just order a salad.

Today...

Just finished a panel on "Blurring The Genre Line" about sub-genres within fantasy and genre definition and whether defining genre is even a good thing. Excellent panel -- and I don't say very often that I enjoyed being on a panel, but I did enjoy this one. Very well moderated by David Levine, with the other panelists being Dana Cameron, James A Moore, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, and myself.

Then went to Andy's reading at 2:30. Tonight, dinner with David Coe and assorted others TBD.

Friday evening con report

Dinner tonight with David Coe, Andy Miller, Lucienne Diver, Brandy Shillace, and Ed Schubert -- we hit a Thai restaurant. Good food, excellent (and very amusing, at least to us) conversation. Then back to the convention for the mass autographing, where I actually signed quite a few books, to my surprise.

Tomorrow, the Smithsonian and the 'official' DAW dinner.