I don’t want to bore you with too much repetition of yesterday and the day before. Today looked very much like yesterday, but with less controversial conversations. I think we had less customers at the table altogether, though I did manage to sell out of a couple of titles. That was nice.

My feet have been hurting quite a bit, mostly from standing so much. I sat when I could, but when someone comes near the table, I stand up and talk. I try not to be obnoxious about it, but my con is mostly meeting people at the table, and when it’s appropriate, sell them one or more books that match their tastes. Today, several of the conversations never reached any of the books on the table. I think people still had a good time.

Most events like this, I organize a big dinner and take a bunch of people out. Old friends, new friends… the idea is that we go out, have good food, great company, and I cover the bill so everyone at the table has a moment where they didn’t have to worry about it and could just relax and enjoy. It is me cosplaying as a successful author, and it’s usually a lot of fun.

This weekend, I didn’t have the wherewithal to organize something like that. Fortunately, Rebecca Inch-Partridge put something together, and a group of 11 of us walked a couple blocks away and had Chinese food, Rebecca’s treat. It was really nice. I think we all had a good time, and it was nice being one of the ones treated.

When we got back, the art reception was under way, and we were able to get some coffee and sweets. One of my friends asked if I was going to head to a panel at 9PM centered around what we should do about AI. I gave her my opinion on the topic and said I might instead go up to the room and work on my blog post for the day. She suggested I talk about the subject, and so I will!

In my opinion, panels with titles like “What we should do about AI” are mostly going to be bullshit that tiptoes around the correct answer, which is: don’t use it. Don’t tolerate using it. We were all writing and living and thriving before the tech bros started shoving that shit in our face. It doesn’t have to be a “genie out of the bottle” situation. We can just not use it, and shun those that do.

I didn’t give my friend’s name, because this is the same friend earlier that ran across a stack of flyers that were advertising or recommending generative AI for creating audiobooks. She saw that, and her instinct was to take the entire stack, so no one else would have to see that bullshit. I laughed when she told me about it, and I think it’s kind of awesome that was her first instinct.

Tomorrow is the last day, and I’m scheduled to talk about the convention in general tomorrow evening when we get home. I’ll say now that I’m looking forward to the end. This hasn’t been a bad time, but it also hadn’t been a great time.

I’m tired most of the time and my feet hurt. I’m making the best of a situation, taking opportunities to smile when they come up, and taking small breaks when I can’t find reasons to smile. The breaks have been infrequent, but necessary.

Tomorrow will be a strange, expensive day.