Breakfast was at a place called Flames. It was great! If you're ever in San Jose, I recommend it.
The opening ceremonies were brief but fun, with Jay Lake as the toastmaster. He had the audience do a wave. Several guests mentioned that they had not known they would need to speak. Maybe that was why it was brief?
Other than the opening, I mostly hung out in the bar, which was very well attended, too. I don't get to see my WFC friends like Carol Berg very often, or her posse of writers and fans. I also ran into
scottedelman whom I had seen at Capclave, and Charlie and I finally paid back Chris Roberson the dink we had owed him since Denvention.The 8:00 pm panel on the Google Book Settlement had a bigger crowd than I expected for a Thursday night panel, but I think the subject was dear to a lot of authors' hearts. I struck a vote for gender equality by my presence but did not say that much since the other panelists mostly knew more about it. The general consensus was that Google had taken a good idea and turned it into a violation of copyright. Also, not one author felt the Author's Guild had any right to represent them.
After that it was back to the bar for a few hours of schmoozing, drinking, a late dinner of bar food, and then to bed! Looking forward to seeing more folks tomorrow.
