Anticipation: Worldcon #67

Worldcon opens today in Montreal, Quebec, with GoH Neil Gaiman and a host of fans, writers, industry insiders, and… Any of you?

‘Cause, Bureau-crats are an unusual lot. We like to read posts. We’re less likely to comment, perhaps preferring to wait until we have something intelligent or witty to say. But….

….I haven’t run into many of you at Cons. True, we’re widely dispersed. Still, I hold out hope that some of you might be at this year’s Worldcon, and I hope we can hang out.

I’m involved officially with four events and, if they don’t have the glamor of a panel with your favorite author and Melissa Auf der Maur, the Hugos, the Masquerade, or the Regency Ball, perhaps I’ll see some of you there:

Thursday at 3:30 pm, in P-523A, I’m running “Whose Con is it, Anyway?” a fan-friendly session of improv games designed to loosen people up for the many social functions. It’s a great way to have fun and meet new people.

Friday at 2:00 pm in P-521A I’ll be doing a reading of some (I hope) forthcoming fiction.

Saturday at 11:00 am in P-522B I’m part of a panel discussing SF, Fantasy, and reading outside of genre. (with Brenda Cooper, Candas Jane Dorsey, and S.C. Butler).

Finally, Sunday at 9:00 pm in P-518A, Worldcon will be offering an SF version of the comedic British quiz show, “Quite Interesting,” with contestants Pat Cadigan, Andrew A. Adams, and yours truly.

12 replies on “Anticipation: Worldcon #67”

  1. Wow, I didn’t know this was going on. I would have loved to have seen Gaiman… That’s a bit pricey for a con though.

    I’d like to attend your panel on Saturday, would I be a terrible person to take them up on their “taster” offer and just leave right after? :)

    • octa: Please, “taste” the con on Saturday, and please introduce yourself to me. Does the “taster” cover the entire day? The parties have already been good, and Saturday features the Masquerade competition– quite spectacular. This is the sort of place where you run into Robert Silverburg and and– Okay, seriously, Neil Gaiman just walked by me. Just now. As I typed.

      hitch: you do get booths of sorts in the exhibition hall, but as you say, it’s not “that” kind of Con and it’s worth attending.

      We arrived just in time for me to run my workshop Thursday, which went well and was well-attended.

      Mark Garneau spoke at the opening ceremonies.

      Okay, I’m off to breakfast and to do Con stuff. Further updates tomorrow.

  2. well, it’s not a “con” in the sense that it’s a Media Convention like the SanDiego Comic Con. It’s a Convention in the sense that it’s held to have a bunch of people get together and meet and hang out and discuss things. There aren’t many (any?) booths, for example. Lots of panels, lots of cool people who are there as much to see each other as they are to be seen.
    This is definitely the Con I *really* want to be attending in years to come.

    though I want to see the spectacle that is SDCC at least once.

    • A Worldcon is not a ComicCon. Or a Dragon Con. Typically it has about 3000-5000 fans show up, it is very panel heavy and dealer light to moderate. The Dealer’s room has plenty for sale, but you could easily avoid that part of the con and never miss it. The art show is about art, not necessarily sales. Most people at tables are fans promoting other conventions.

      There will be easily 400+ panels and events over 5 days, and usually scheduled programming runs 12+ hours per day. 24 hours, if you count the filk room(s) and anime. The emphasis is less on playing media and a lot more on talking about the ideas behind the writing, the trends in the genres, and how the the industry and the fans are dealing with the world. Mostly its a lot of people at a 4+ day long party. Personally I have to make a point of attending at least one formal panel per day. If I didn’t, I could easily stay busy and wildly amused and never go to one.

      And the fifth day convention fog is really something to experience. You’re exhausted, but then 3 new fun things come up and you want to go do all of them. But you can’t get out of your chair.

      Then you go back home to rest up for your next vacation !

      Next year (2010) is in Melbourne, Australia. After that is probably Reno, Nevada.

      • I forgot the awards: The Hugos, the Chesleys, the John W Campbell. Maybe some others. Historically very prestigious awards in the SF writing and artist worlds. And the Masquerade is usually quite lavish. I was in one back in 2006. Got a laugh and a ribbon.

        • And, just to keep talking to myself, the Hugo award rundown (and the Campbell winner too):

          Best Novel goes to The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman
          Best Novella goes to “The Erdmann Nexus”, Nancy Kress
          Best Novelette goes to “Shoggoths in Bloom”, Elizabeth Bear
          Best Short Story goes to “Exhalation”, Ted Chiang

          Best Professional Artist goes to Donato Giancola

          Our brand new category, Best Graphic Story, presented by Neil Gaiman,
          goes to Girl Genius, Kaja and Phil Foglio. Who were *completely*
          surprised.

          Best Editor: Short Form goes to Ellen Datlow
          Best Editor: Long Form goes to David G Hartwell

          Dramatic Presentation: Short Form goes to Dr Horrible’s Singalong
          Blog, Joss Whedon

          Dramatic Presentation: Long Form goes to Wall-E

          Best Related Book goes to Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded, John Scalzi

          Best Semiprozine goes to Weird Tales
          Best Fanzine goes to Electric Velocipede

          Best Fan Artist goes to Frank Wu
          Best Fan Writer goes to Cheryl Morgan

          Stanley Schmidt presented the John W Campbell Award for Best New
          Writer to David Anthony Durham.

          this year’s trophy, designed by Dave Howell. It has a granite base
          designed to look like an asteroid.

          Kevin Standlee presented the new Hugo Awards logo. Congratulations to
          winning designer Jeremy Kratz.

          The In Memoriam list was shown.

          The Big Heart Award was presented first, to Andrew Porter.

          Julie Czerneda took to the stage to make announcements. Yves Menard
          shadowed Julie’s announcements in French.

  3. Yesterday I discovered the inevitable problem of multiple panels that I really, really, wanted to go to happening at the same time. I’ve met and re-met many great people, learned a few things, and will be posting a surprise for the Bureau when I get back.

    I’m off to my panel on reading outside of genre.

    I hope to see octa there!

    • Yeah, I had that problem at last years Kumoricon. At the same time was scheduled a panel with the voice actor who did Goku on the US dub of DBZ (which was packed).

      At the same time was the “Tokyo Tower Goes Boom” panel, which promised to be interesting. I made the mistake of skipping out on the guest for the Tokyo Tower panel – which was unfortunate, as the guy with the laptop with the slides didn’t show.

  4. No sign of octa, but Saturday morning’s panel on Reading across Genre went very well indeed. I’ve attended many more panels, heard a lively discussion of the singularity (Jo Walton is very astute), heard a Gaiman reading of which included a piece he has never read aloud before; he’s “never even phoned somebody up and said, ‘just listen to this.'” Both pieces went over very well, despite an embarrassing moment when his cell phone went off.

    The Masquerade had fewer over-the-top spectacular costumes than last year’s, but it is still very impressive.

    I’m getting old; after two nights, I skipped the party circuit so I could sleep.

    Also: HarperCollins has some interesting things coming out/just out on their Angry Robot imprint.

    • Sorry about the no-show. The mother-inlaw was in town and I was overruled on the morning activity :)

      Are you going to be in Montreal much longer? I’d like to offer a beer after work if so.

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