I waited in line for an hour and a half. I met some new people — and met up again with a few people from the line on Friday.
Shortly after I arrived in line, I was informed by a staff member that I was the last person probably guaranteed to get a signature. (WHEW!)
And, this time I did. Spider was every bit as charming and personable as you might hope and expect and thought he probably was.
From what I heard, from talking to people later, everyone in line at the time the session started got autographs.
I sincerely hope that this is part of a “comeback tour” for Spider, and not a “last hurrah” as one of the staff members implied.
I first discovered Spider Robinson in the October 1977 issue of Analog with his story, “Dog Day Evening”. When I read “God is an Iron” in the May 1979 issue of Omni, I was both more than a little surprised, and also hooked. It was quite different from his “Callahan” stories, yet the theme and payoff at the end of the story definitely has a “Callahan” sensibility to it. That story has stuck with me ever since. (If you haven’t read “God is an Iron”, why not? You need to. Right Now.)
In terms of the session, there’s not much to report here: I waited in line for about an hour and fifteen minutes, got about 5 people from meeting Spider Robinson, then it was 4 o’clock and he had to leave for another scheduled commitment.
Disappointed? Sure.
But I met several really nice and interesting people also waiting in the line, one of whom came to be Paper Angel Press table later and purchased a copy of book, Building Baby Brother — the only hardcover edition we sold during all of WorldCon.
