Set for Celebration IV

This morning I went to register for GenCon's block of rooms. Good thing I clicked the link from my housing code e-mail a couple of minutes before 10...registration was already open and there were only three hotels available! I quickly picked one of the hotels that wasn't running over $200 a night, The New Otani, and got a room. It's a Japanese-owned hotel, right on the edge of L.A.'s Little Tokyo, and while it is not really in walking distance of the convention center (and like hell you're going to walk too far in skeezerly downtown L.A. unless you'd like to end up a crime statistic), there should be shuttles running to the convention center and failing that, it's a quick cab ride. I read later on that all 3000 rooms blocked off by GenCon are g-o-n-e. I'm not surprised. There are only so many hotels in the dowtown area. If you don't have a room yet, my advice is to make a back-up reservation, then keep checking to see if there are cancellations over the next few months at the hotels where you'd prefer to stay. I guarantee you there will be cancellations...people won't be able to attend and it's likely as plans are ironed out among friends/family, people will consolidate rooms. (There may yet be rooms available at various downtown hotels but you're going to pay top dollar. I got my room for $143 per night, while the Holiday Inn was charging--without the con rate--$187.)

In other news, the November ish of SagaJournal is up! Padmé fans will enjoy ladyaeryn's new essay :).