P1010593 John Scalzi, Chris Roberson, Mark Finn and John Gibbons

John Scalzi was an excellent guest of honor. Few GOHs I've seen mingled with fans as eagerly as he. He established the rule "no lurkers!" Whoever stopped by the circle of fans that surrounded him, had to join the circle and participate in conversation.

His ArmadilloCon interview took a different format than the usual Guest of Honor interview. There was no interviewer; Scalzi paced back and forth, shooting the breeze with the audience. He probably didn't say anything one wouldn't find on his blog. It's how he said those things that made him so entertaining. He acted out various stories from his life as little skits, from a Hugo winner's attitude to getting to know 16-year-old girls. He also commented on Neal Stephenson, openly admitted to stealing from other authors, and talked about why he could not afford to be as polemical in "Old Man's War" as Heinlein was in "Starship Troopers". Finally, he revealed an unexpected fact about himself.

The whole article is available on my website.