October 2015

It is Absurd to Divide People Into Good and Bad. People are Either Charming or Tedious. – Oscar Wilde

"Okay…I've got the schedule for TimeCon next month, but you know—"

"Schedules can be changed at the last moment," Ducky supplied.

"Yup. Okay, Val and Chanda are coming along, Chanda is bringing hubby and kids but the girls can swap off with me to run the tables. I want to see…Somewhere in Time…"

"I remember that!" Ducky said, nodding. "Lovely movie."

"They've got episodes of Early Edition…Quantum Leap…Twilight Zone…Outer Limits…Back to the Future, duh…Sliders…Timecop…Fantastic Journey…heeheehee, they've got some of the original Dark Shadows episodes where they jump time…Mr. Peabody and Sherman…oh, man, Time Trax! And Time After Time!" I burst out laughing.

"What is so amusing about Time After Time?" Ducky asked with a smile. "That is the movie that mixed H.G. Wells and Jack the Ripper—?"

"Yes, yes, sorry—I had a mental cascade. It was actually TimeCon where it happened. The movie came out in seventy-something, and the con was the same weekend the movie took place. We saw it before the con, of course, but we had a going away party for H.G. Wells and Amy Catherine Robbins—I even brought a bon voyage cake! When I ordered it at the bakery, the clerk just looked at me and said, 'Friends of yours?' She didn't recognize the name H.G. Wells, even when I explained that he was a writer from the turn of the century."

Ducky shook his head sadly, then gave me a stern look. "Do you intend to spend the entire convention watching old television shows and movies?"

"Nah, just a couple of them are real gotta-sees."

He looked over my shoulder. "This sounds interesting. C.M. Heimel discussing branching timelines and parallel worlds in his new series. What's wrong?"

I started shaking my head when he mentioned Heimel's name and added a shudder. "You do not want to go to that discussion. It will be more of a diatribe than a discussion. The only reason they give him a couple of slots is because he's a backer. That's his real life name, he writes under Carleton Marsterson, figures that gets him shelved by George R.R. Martin and people might pick his books up, too."

Ducky nodded slowly. "I remember that name from LibreCon." He forced a smile.

"Yeah, everyone knows that Carleton Marsterson is a jerk. If they list the panel under that name, nobody will show up. C.M. Heimel, newbies might accidentally show up for."

Ducky shrugged. "So much for truth in advertising."