Most Popular Posts
Search
-
Spider Star
The human colony on the planet Argo has long explored and exploited the technology left behind by an extinct alien race. But then an archaeology team accidentally activates a terrible weapon...
Read More. -
Praise for Star Dragon
"Seldom does a storytelling talent come along as potent and fully mature as Mike Brotherton. His complex characters take you on a voyage that is both fiercely credible and astonishingly imaginative. This is Science Fiction."
-- David Brin"Star Dragon is terrific fare, offering readers a fusion of hard science and grand adventure."
-- Locus Magazine"Star Dragon is steeped in cosmology, the physics of interstellar travel, exobiology, artificial intelligence, bioscience. Brotherton, author of many scientific articles in refereed journals, has written a dramatic, provocative, utterly convincing hard science sf novel that includes an ironic twist that fans will love."
-- Booklist starred review"Readers hungry for the thought-provoking extrapolation and rigorous technical detail of old-fashioned hard SF are sure to enjoy astronomer Brotherton's first novel."
-- Publishers Weekly"Mike Brotherton, himself a trained astrophysicist, combines the technical acuity and ingenuity of Robert Forward with the ironic, postmodern stance and style of M. John Harrison. In this, his debut novel, those twin talents unite to produce a work that is involving on any number of levels. It's just about all you could ask for in a hardcore SF adventure."
-- Paul di Fillippo, SCI-FI.COM
Launch Pad Arrival Day Nightmare
July 15th, 2009
OK. It isn’t quite a nightmare. Everyone arrived safely and are in their dorm rooms.
That’s about all I can say. We had one late flight, which isn’t too bad, but our videographer’s camera equipment didn’t arrive with him. Ouch. I fear the worst. Airlines seem to lose or misplace bags with expensive equipment a lot more often bags full of clothes, in my experience.
Launch Pad Arrival. We didn’t get out of the airport on the road until after 9pm and it was 11:30pm before arriving in Laramie. People were tired after all the long travel (Pat Cadigan came from London for instance!).
This was the real nightmare. We try to make the experience positive and take care of everyone. We buy everything anyone should need and have it ready for them, we check out things in advance, etc. And we showed up and none of the key cards for the rooms worked. They recoded them and they didn’t work. They opened some rooms with temporary keys, then those stopped working. Eventually they used a master to get some rooms open and we found out they all didn’t have linens the way they were supposed to. Then they went to tell everyone to go back downstairs to get hard keys. And when we asked about taking up internet cables for everyone, there was a remark about how they’re only supposed to be for “counselors.”
Oh my freaking god. I am so embarrassed for my self, my group, my university, and my state. It was after 12:30 pm before I left with the problems only mostly resolved. We start at 9:30 am tomorrow morning and I’m not going to get enough sleep.
The group seems enthusiastic and great and I feel like we’ve already let them down. We’ve had minor problems in the past, but everyone is going to be tired and cranky I fear, and with good cause.
I don’t know how we’ll do for video. Stacey is going to try to work with my Sony Handycam, and hopefully United will deliver his lost bag.
I push so hard to try to do more every year, better every year, for more people every year. I kind of want to pull back to smaller and simpler. I mean, I flew back from Brazil just for this and the clueless folk in the dorm can’t even take care of these great writers and give them keys.
I have great patience and understanding, most of the time, but I guess I’m tired and cranky. The dorms are cheap for University events and really help stretch the NASA grant money and let more people attend. But tonight I just don’t know.
All I can do is try to make the workshop totally awesome. And I will.
At least my kitty seems happy I’m finally back home tonight.
Related Posts
Related Posts
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
<
July 15th, 2009 at 1:36 am
Mike,
I have absolute confidence that you will make this event a success. Even tired and cranky I’m still looking forward to the weeks’ events!
-Tara F.
July 15th, 2009 at 1:46 am
Thanks for the vote of confidence! I’ve been spoiled by how well things have gone in the past, I think. Despite the problems, all the conversations so far have been great.
I think getting people like us together in one place is an easy recipe for a win even if the rest of the world conspires against us.
July 15th, 2009 at 7:00 am
Good luck this week, Mike! I’m sure everyone will love it.
July 15th, 2009 at 7:49 am
I can promise you that they will be too overwhelmed by all of the information you are cramming in their heads for any of them to remember a rocky start.
July 15th, 2009 at 8:34 am
I hope so. It was just feeling like a disaster, and instead of showing that Wyoming could provide a quality experience, it was embarrassing. I may have to lean on some people to make sure this never, ever happens again.
And to top it all off, I just found out a family of skunks (with babies!) is living in my garage.
Wyoming…
July 15th, 2009 at 10:31 am
Skunks hahaha. That’s awesome. The rocky start’s no big deal. Everyone will forget it quickly enough.
July 15th, 2009 at 10:36 am
Good luck man, it will be awesome!
July 15th, 2009 at 7:44 pm
Hey, we had exactly the same problem with key cards LAST year. They seem to work on an arbitrary basis. But we managed. And it was STILL awesome.
July 16th, 2009 at 4:14 pm
Hey, it’s all good! I’m so happy I’m getting to do this.