You shy, sweet boy, you mumbled your name so quickly through the intro I barely had time enough to realize you were at the mic.

xx

I was hoping that would work for everyone.

IMO you sound fine. Not only that, you've got balls to even get up there and take part. I'd be sucking my thumb and crying for Mummy, I'm sure.

I did my first ever panel at EasterCon a couple of years ago in Glasgow. I was supposed to do one about How To Get Published, but we were trying to push copies of the books and Bogna tried to persuade Lisa Tuttle to buy a copy of As The Crow Flies by telling her one of the stories had been bought for The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror. "That's interesting," said Lisa, "I'm moderating a panel about horror in twenty minutes and somebody dropped out; do you want to fill in?" Had I been anywhere else, I'd have tried to talk myself out of it, but Bogna wasn't about to let me do that. So that turned out to be my first panel, and it was quite an enjoyable hour or so.
And immediately after that I did `How To Get Published,' for which Mark Robson, Charlie Stross and I basically spent an hour and a half telling the audience why it was pointless even trying to get published because the chances were so slim. ("One of the funniest things I've ever seen." - Ian Whates. But I still think I saw people weeping at the back.)
Anyway, I winged those two, the way I wing most of the interviews I do for work, and they turned out not too bad. Unfortunately I tried to wing the NewCon panel, and I really should have done some homework first. I won't make that mistake again.

You look so thrilled to be there, in the picture. You can really see it well if you click on the pic in the blog.

I'm off to take a listen

It was actually good fun, and I was in good company. I got a bit fanboy with Cornell and started to babble about my favourite Doctor Who episodes, some of which he wrote.

Can't blame you there, Hutch. I'd definitely be fangirl, and you couldn't keep Bear away! He is a HUUUGE Dr. who fan from WAY back.

I've only met Cornell twice. The first time he was drunk, the second time I babbled like an idiot. Eventually we may have a proper conversaton.