A quick follow-up to my abbreviated MadCon report just past. Harlan Ellison arrived at the hotel Thursday evening, around eight o’clock. Only a few of us were in the lobby. Allen Steele, Peter David, Donna, and myself. Peter David’s wife Kathleen and their daughter (who Harlan “terrorized” to our surprise and her later delight). From that point on it became a really good experience. All the rumors that had been floating around about Harlan’s imminent demise proved exaggerated. Though he didn’t look his best—clearly he has been ailing—and he arrived wearing a sweatshirt and pajama bottoms (Pierre Cardin, as he repeatedly joked, since he wore them all weekend), as the weekend progressed he came more and more alive.…
