an unexpected party

Or, How I Wound Up At Readercon.

I hadn't planned to go. Too much studying, not enough money. But it turned out that the blood drive was short of volunteers for its signup/admin table, and I help with the blood drive at Arisia, so I was on the list that got asked for help, and they said they'd comp people, and I said "sure, why not..."

So, for the price of the gas to drive there, and a few hours helping out at the table (including playing running footman when the walkie-talkies were acting up), I got to go go a panel on Romance in SF/F, another on the works of Roger Zelazny (one of my earliest fandoms, and if you're guessing that has something to do with why I call myself Julian, you're not wrong), a kaffeeklatsch with ceciliatan , a few other cool panels -- I got to meet John Crowley! and finally meet yhlee in person! and then... matociquala said "come to the room parties with me."

Right. I'd forgotten that Bear always knows where to find the booze. That turned into an unplanned overnight stay.

Now I'm home, and I have a new question: does anyone have advice on how to select an excerpt for promotional purposes?

Should it be fairly close to the beginning, or should it be farther along? Should I try to have something that has all three main characters in it, or is it okay to just have two? Should I choose something that particularly sets up that it's a ménage story, or is that unneccesary? And how spoilery is too spoilery? Also, how long should it be?

Here's the two choices I had in mind:

( Thorne and Rockingham discuss marriage )

Or, choice two:

( Caroline confesses to Rockingham and gets a surprise )

So, thoughts?