Category Archives: Conventions

Hugo Nominees Announced

The 79th World Science Fiction Convention has been delayed until December 15-19, 2021, when it is hoped more real-world event can take place. DisCon III will be held in Washington, DC, and the Hugo nominees for this year include:

Best Novel

Black Sun, Rebecca Roanhorse (Gallery / Saga Press)
The City We Became, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit)
Harrow the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir (Tordotcom)
Network Effect, Martha Wells (Tordotcom)
Piranesi, Susanna Clarke (Bloomsbury)
The Relentless Moon, Mary Robinette Kowal (Tor Books)

Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form

Birds of Prey, written by Christina Hodson, directed by Cathy Yan (Warner Bros.)
Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga, written by Will Ferrell, Andrew Steele, directed by David Dobkin (European Broadcasting Union/Netflix)
The Old Guard, written by Greg Rucka, directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood (Netflix / Skydance Media)
Palm Springs, written by Andy Siara, directed by Max Barbakow (Limelight / Sun Entertainment Culture / The Lonely Island / Culmination Productions / Neon / Hulu / Amazon Prime)
Soul, screenplay by Pete Docter, Mike Jones and Kemp Powers, directed by Pete Docter, co-directed by Kemp Powers, produced by Dana Murray (Pixar Animation Studios/ Walt Disney Pictures)
Tenet, written and directed by Christopher Nolan (Warner Bros./Syncopy)

Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form

Doctor Who: “Fugitive of the Judoon”, written by Vinay Patel and Chris Chibnall, directed by Nida Manzoor (BBC)
The Expanse: “Gaugamela”, written by Dan Nowak, directed by Nick Gomez (Alcon Entertainment / Alcon Television Group / Amazon Studios / Hivemind / Just So)
The Good Place: “Whenever You’re Ready”, written and directed by Michael Schur (Fremulon / 3 Arts Entertainment / Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group)
The Mandalorian: “Chapter 13: The Jedi,” written and directed by Dave Filoni (Golem Creations / Lucasfilm / Disney+)
The Mandalorian: “Chapter 16: The Rescue”, written by Jon Favreau, directed by Peyton Reed (Golem Creations / Lucasfilm / Disney+)
She-Ra and the Princesses of Power: “Heart (parts 1 and 2)”, written by Josie Campbell and Noelle Stevenson, directed by Jen Bennett and Kiki Manrique (DreamWorks Animation Television / Netflix)

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Invitation to a Book Launch: The Con

How often does the Bureau get a shout-out in the acknowledgements of a novel?

The Con was released t Friday, November 13, 2020. The e-launch party will be streamed on Twitch-TV at 6:00 pm EST on November 14. Anyone can watch by clicking the link. If you create/have an account and log-in, you can participate. Has your favorite fan convention been canned due to COVID? Consider The Con: SF Fans meet the Jane Austen Society at a hotel that may also be hosting an actual alien presence. High tea, a robot battle, nerds gone wild, religious LARPERS, the Augur of Quaoar, and the quest to answer one of history’s great questions: does anything we do matter– or is it all just a con?

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The Bureau at ‘Virtual Penguicon’

Michigan’s otherworldly Penguicon, a meeting of SF/Fantasy/Techie/Open Source and other interests, has, like other Cons, been cancelled for 2020. However, it lives on this weekend as Virtual Penguicon.

Some events continue as prerecorded videos, while others will be streamed live through various platforms.

I will be participating in two on Saturday, a reading from my forthcoming novel, The Con, and To Boldly Make Discovery in the Expanse AND what would your Space TV Franchise look like?, an examination of current space-faring shows and what we might like to see in the future. The panel features Larry Nemecek, Trek superfan and SF author, actor, editor, archivist, consultant, interviewer, and producer, and Eric Choi, writer, editor, and an aerospace engineer who has worked on several high-profile NASA projects.

It’s free. We hope some of the Bureau42 regulars will turn up online.

Check the site for details. Note that some online elements remain in process and may be incomplete or temporarily unavailable. Here is the Schedule.

2019 Hugo Awards

The 2019 Hugos were awarded on the weekend at 77th World SF Con in Dublin, Ireland.


Video courtesy of orbzine

The two winners everyone wants to know: Best novel went to Mary Robinette Kowal’s The Calculating Stars which we reviewed here (I was, to be honest, lukewarm on it, though it has a great premise) and Spider-man: Into the Spider-verse, which we reviewed positively here won for Best Dramatic Presentation, Longform.

You may find the others at the link in the first sentence, or below.

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Ad Astra 2019 SF Con, Toronto

I’ll get around to completing Stranger Things, and I’m going to do a “remainder of the season” review for Handmaid’s Tale, which doesn’t get much attention here. Meanwhile, I recently attended and paneled at Ad Astra in Toronto. Naturally, I made a short video:

That last clip shows the moon and Jupiter. The sky was clear enough to see the four largest Jovian moons quite nicely with a telescope.

Penguicon 2018

I’ve been absent from Michigan’s Penguicon, a meeting of SF/Fantasy Fandom, Open Source / Linux, Hackers, and other loosely-related tribes, for five years. I’m glad I returned. The event has changed, but it remains an experience worth having.

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Newspace: Labor Day Weekend Cons and Tribal Gatherings

We noted Dragon Con here, but the end of summer saw a number of events, and we’ve found some video below for those interested.

Dragon Con also witnessed the announcements that Grant Imahara, Tory Belleci, and Kari Byron, Mythbuster‘s “Build Team”, will have their own Netflix series, The White Rabbit Project, apparently making its debut December 9.

Toronto’s Fan Expo included an announcement that Chapterhouse, publishers of Jason Loo’s Pitiful Human-Lizard and the most recent people to revive Captain Canuck, will be creating their own universe of Canadian superheroes, consisting of characters old and new. (Jokes about, say, “Zamboni Man and Beaver” are inevitable, so feel free to contribute your suggestions. W. Blaine and I won’t be offended).

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