It's always hard to leave a convention, and Ad Astra was no exception. Sunday seemed very, very short, especially by comparison to Saturday. I only had three events, and at the end of the third one (my signing session in the Dealers' Room) Sandra and I were supposed to hook a cab to the airport. The first of my events was a weird one: I was to do a reading from some of my work. I decided to read the "Tub of Happiness" bonus story, occasionally (but only occasionally) showing the pictures. I suppose the fact that this succeeded marks my humor as verbal rather than visual. You just have to read the text right, and make a few funny faces. This was followed by the "Art of Comedy" panel, in which several of us discussed how we be funny. I love having this discussion at conventions, especially when there is a good selection of other humorists present, as was the case at Ad Astra. Interestingly, one of the anecdotes I shared as an example of the "wrong joke for the audience" came back to haunt me just yesterday. Word got back to one of my friends that I'd told a story about something that happened at Dragons Keep, and he asked me to tell the story again. Unfortunately, the story's point was about taking care not to unduly offend your audience, and the audience at the time included some of the very people offended during the original event. Ah irony, when shall I escape your salty, metallic clutches? That last hour of Ad Astra was super hectic. We were all packed except for a few leftover unsold items, so it should have been pretty simple... except that a few of the people who discovered my work during the convention realized I was leaving sooner than they thought, and I was swamped with book-signing right up until the end. It's a nice problem to have.
