Being social
Went to Ken Wharton's book-launch party in Berkeley last night. Ken's clearly someone to watch for: story coming up soon in Analog, hard-SF novel Divine Intervention just launched with a splash by Ace. ("Splash" in this case including a half-page ad in Locus and distribution in supermarket book racks. Hard to beat.)
Met a few new people, but mostly hung out with Susan, Tim, Heather, Sam, Sean K., Frank, Rebecca I.-P., Lori, and Alan (whose last name I missed). I think I'd met all of those people before (except maybe Rebecca and Alan), and had seen many of them post to the Rumor Mill (and submit stories to us), but it was nice to get a little social time with them. (Especially since Susan was there to provide scintillating conversation. Tip to introverts: go to parties with an extrovert. Keeps conversation flowing smoothly so you can have fun without having to actively interact so much.) Saw M'ris and Timprov and Mark but, alas, didn't get to talk with them much.
It was almost like hanging out at a con, but a little less frenetic, and with less sense of missing-other-stuff-that's-going-on. (Though a nagging voice in the back of my head occasionally reminded me that I had a few more hours of editing to do before I could go to sleep.) A certain sense of community; conversation flowing easily back and forth between sf-related topics and others; interesting ideas, funny comments and stories. I don't normally go to bars, and I'd been kinda apprehensive about going to hang out in a bar with a bunch of people I didn't know, but it ended up being fun.