Hello, Columbus

I am in Columbus.  The one in Ohio, not the one in New Mexico that Pancho Villa attacked, or the one in Indiana, or the one in Georgia; and certainly not the Columbus City in Iowa, or the Columbus City in Alabama.  (If Columbus founded any more cities in North America, I’m unaware of them.)

I am here for Marcon, which I am informed stands for Multiple Alternate Realities Convention.  I am a guest, but not the Guest of Honor, of whom there are rather a lot.  I am in fact a “featured author,” which seems to pretty much be the same thing as a Guest of Honor, except that we are rarer, and presumably more valuable.

Anyway, if you’re in the vicinity of Columbus this weekend (the one in Ohio), you should stop by and say hello.

(Autocorrect insists that “Marcon” is actually “maricon.”  Which would be a different sort of convention, probably livelier.)

Here is my schedule:

Maybe that last item will require explanation.  I gave my GoH address at Worldcon 75 last year in Helsinki, but for some reason or other it wasn’t recorded, like some of my other program items.  It was a big success, and I worked hard on it, so I thought it should be preserved.

The upshot is that I’m giving the talk all over again, this time for the cameras.  You should come: it would be funnier live.

The only hitch is that half the audience will have to pretend to be Finnish, but since we’ll be spending the whole weekend inhabiting Multiple Alternate Realities, that should be no problem.