Bubonicon 44 (8/24/12 - 8/26/12)...

[frodostark]

...in Albuquerque, NM! Anyone else in (besides, you know, GRRM, Brandon Sanderson, Connie Willis, Daniel Abraham, Ty Frank, James SA Corey, Michael Cassut, Ursula Vernon, Walter Jon Williams, Carrie Vaughn, Melinda Snodgrass, Ian Tregillis, SM Stirling, etc. :))?

[Ran]

Just to bump this, because George has published his schedule. Something brand new for his reading: an extract from The World of Ice and Fire! He has written some cool stuff, believe you me.

Frodo (and anyone else), please do report back about the reading and Q&A! And if you ask any questions yourself, consider using some of the ones here, which have been voted on by fellow fans as far as how interesting they are.

[frodostark]

Night 1 of Bubonicon down for me...good stuff as always.

Daniel Abraham reading: Daniel read the prologue to Abbaddon's Gate (The Expanse #3), in which a youngster with more brains and hormones than are good for him performs a rather costly stunt. He also read the prologue to Dagger & Coin #3, in which a youngster is initiated into his people's (dragon-related) secrets. Daniel also talked a bit about his various writing names, which essentially boils down to different names for different genres. I asked him if this holds true for short stories, too, and he said that its starting to, as there are several James SA Corey shorts in the works. He also said that The Expanse has been selling about 10-20% more than Dagger & Coin. There was also some discussion of e-books and physical books, with Daniel saying he sees the market moving to e-books and trades, as opposed to hardbacks and mass markets.

George RR Martin reading: George did indeed read from The World of Ice and Fire, a lengthy excerpt concerning Aegon's conquest of the Seven Kingdoms, with some character info on the Targaryen siblings and a little history of the line from its Valyrian exit to the Conquest. The best parts were some of the more detailed ones, such as the fall of Harrenhall, the Final Storm (the Targaryen conquest of the Storm Kings), and the Targaryen sibling character sketches (Aegon was nearly as mysterious to his era as he was to the Ice & Fire era, Rhaenys was his favorite sister-wife but she may have dabbled with other bed-mates, etc.) He also said that the conceit (at least in their minds, not sure that it will be a formal part of the book) being used is that Linda and Elio are writing from the perspective of one arch-maester and George is writing from the perspective of another, more opinionated one.

He read for nearly the entire hour so only took one question: will there be more Dunk & Egg stories? Yes, he said, in fact there is one being done for a short story collection and then these four will be collected into a single volume together (although do not expect that for several years).

I caught up with George briefly afterwards and asked him if he considers this to be like his Silmarillion. He laughed and said probably not, especially since Tolkien had many songs in The Silmarillion. I suggested maybe it was time he wrote some and he laughed again and said perhaps he should.

"EPIC" Panel (Brandon Sanderson, Daniel Abraham, SM Stirling, Walter Jon Williams, and Michael Cassutt): These guys bantered quite a bit about what makes something epic and why we like it. Frankly, while it was a good panel, there was just too much to recall at this time of night. :) Brandon made a forceful case that we like large scope in genre because we like to be pulled in and expend some effort to understand the world and the rules and then we like to have some length to enjoy what we've learned.

Day 2 panels include beginner Sci-Fi, YA literature, and genre in film, as well as a Brandon Sanderson reading, a Walter Jon Williams reading, and a mass autographing session.

[Francisco Araujo da Costa]

That's great, frodostark. Does anyone have additional details? Was there a recording?

[Carn_Dum]

He read for nearly the entire hour so only took one question: will there be more Dunk & Egg stories? Yes, he said, in fact there is one being done for a short story collection and then these four will be collected into a single volume together (although do not expect that for several years).

Oh? I thought the single volume was planned for sometime next year or the year after :/ Ah well, thanks for the info on World of Ice and Fire, sounds like there will be some very nice info in there and I am really looking forward to it!

[Francisco Araujo da Costa]

Carn_Dum: The She-Wolves of Winterfell will be published as part of an anthology and collecting the four novellas in a single volume means waiting for an appropriate period after that original publication. So I think late 2013/early 2014 is the best we can hope for.

[Peko]

Those are some great tidbits concerning Aegon and his conquest. Very cool to know just a bit of what will be coming.

I was really hoping the D&E tales would be compiled much sooner. I haven't read any of them yet, as I was planning to wait until this compilation. Hopefully my current re-read of the series will be able to hold me over until then.

[Bushido]

I suppose the OP will update in detail once the con fever cools down :D

[frodostark]

^{A couple more details from Day One now that I've slept a bit :) ...}

^{--George mentioned the maps book in passing and said, despite repeated fan requests, there will never be a full world map...he used his often-cited reasoning that folks in the Middle Ages didn't have full world maps, or at least accurate ones, so why should the folks of Westeros?}

^{--The Aegon's conquest section began with the Targaryens leaving Valyria and the reason why. It then followed the line, briefly and quickly, through the settlement of Dragonstone. It also covered Aegon's landing at Aegon's Fort/King's Landing and the various ways in which each of the Seven Kingdoms was, or was not, subdued. IIRC, the submissions of Harren the Black, Argelac the Arrogant (the last of the Storm Kings), the Lannisters, the Gardeners, the Arryns, the Martells, Oldtown, and the Starks were all given a bit of explanation, with more detail being spent on the battles for Harrenhall and Storm's End, as well as the unique way in which submission of the Arryns was achieved and the lack of conquest of Dorne. The Dorne passage included an awesome description of how the Dornishmen all faded away in front of the armies of Aegon's sister (forget which one), leaving only the king's 70-ish years old sister to openly defy the Targaryen and her dragon.}

^{--He also mentioned which other sections he had done, but of course they've escaped me now...I think the original Dance with Dragons has a section, as well as some information on Aegon's peacetime policies and some history on the rule of his sons Aenys and Maegor the Cruel.}

^{--The book will include some information on the Dawn Age and the Age of Heroes (presumably by Linda and Elio), but George pointed out that even in the age of the books these were long-distant times with little in the way of accurate information.}

^{--George said that though this seemed like a somewhat easy task, basically collecting money while everyone else did most of the work, it hasn’t been quite like that. The information is background information that the people in the books know (just like we know about Thomas Jefferson without having to recap all that name means and implies) but that doesn’t directly come into the story or the characters’ discussions. In short, it exists and is fairly easily put forth, rather than being created from whole cloth. The problem is that he’s always been a big believer in show not tell and writing this sort of historical material in an appropriate voice requires mostly telling and very little showing.}

^{--Francisco is correct re: the timing of the Dunk and Egg book. The new one will be in an anthology that won’t be out until later this year and that anthology holds the rights for a full year…then the D&E rights revert and the collection can be published.}

[frodostark]

Day 2 of Bubonicon...

I wasn't able to attend the morning panel on Bucket List Sci-Fi Books, but as it was moderated by Connie Willis, it's fair to assume it was an awesome panel. :)

YA and SF Panel: This panel had Carrie Vaughn, Steven Gould, Jane Linskold, Darynda Jones, and moderator Brandon Sanderson. The gist of the discussion was about how blurry and artificial publishing lines can be, even when there's legitimate differences between target audiences (such as middle-grade and YA, for example). Brandon pointed out that the formerly mainstream fantasy of Eddings and Brooks would likely by published as YA today (no slight intended on the authors or YA). On specific works, several folks gave a thumbs-up to Garth Nix's Abhorsen books; Divergent by Veronica Roth was also mentioned, as were the works of Scott Westerfeld, and (with a VERY strong recommendation from Jane) Nnedi Okorafor's Akata Witch. There was also a really cool moment during Q&A when a young man (high school aged, at best) asked for advice for young writers and the panel was really heartfelt in their responses (keep writing, allow yourself to fail, etc...not really new advice if you're plugged in at all, but really cool for that young guy to hear). Also, Carrie Vaughn's description of how her Voice of Dragons became YA was so intriguing that I went out and bought a copy as soon as I could from the con-dealer (the story started as a Cold War tale that replaced the USSR with dragons, but once she got the idea of virgin sacrifice in her head, she realized she needed a teenage protagonist).

Genre in Film and TV Panel: This was my favorite panel as it was basically GRRM, Melinda Snodgrass, and Michael Cassutt just shooting the breeze. They talked a bit about various shows and why they may have failed (Terra Nova, V, Life on Mars) and what kind of shows seem to be working now as genre fare (GOT for one). They were not confident that SyFy's recent announcement of a Blake's 7 remake will stick, mostly due to lack of confidence in that channel to do it right. They also enthusiastically brainstormed the idea of Beverly Hills 90210 with dinosaurs in it, so be prepared for that to hit the screen near you soon. Michael Cassutt was really cool and really funny, he had George in honest-to-goodness giggling fits on at least three occasions with his wisecracks. The dinosaur schtick also led George to tease us that despite dinos often being done wrong and used as ineffective window-dressing (Terra Nova, looking at you), fellow New Mexico writer Victor Milan's upcoming Dinosaur Lords trilogy from Tor does the "big, f-ing lizards" right. I've been hearing about this series off-and-on for a bit, so this added to my interest.

Brandon Sanderson reading: Brandon read part of the prologue to Memory of Light and the beginning of his novella Legion. The MoL prologue intentionally mirrors the the prologue of The Eye of the World for a bit, as part of Brandon's tribute to all that has come before. He was asked a question about how much of the three books are strictly Robert Jordan and how much are strictly Brandon and he told the story of how the first time he met "Team Jordan" (as he dubs them) he was handed about 200 pages of material. A good part of this was actual drafts, including the final scene of the series and the first scene of The Gathering Storm. Brandon said the latter was actualy dictated by Jordan and was one of the final things he did prior to passing. The packet also included descriptive information (this person goes here and this happens) and even some dialogue, which Brandon has done his best to insert and preserve as appropriate. The packet also had outline information and so his job has been to compile all three things into what we see before us. None of this includes general notes and other worldbuilding details, which he led us to believe were a massive pile o' stuff. :)

Brandon also talked about how complex the whole process has been, with Team Jordan sometimes giving him feedback that something can't happen because of such and such in the notes and worldbuilding, only to have Brandon quote back an obscure note or reference which proves that it can be done. The flip side is that equally often, they would raise an objection with a quote or reference themselves, thus proving Brandon in the "wrong."

Brandon's novella Legion should be out from Subterranean Press in about a week and after a short amount of time he also hopes to have an e-version available, either through them or directly from him. The beginning was a lot of fun, with a very wealthy detective of sorts wandering his expensive mansion and talking to all the apparitions only he can see. The opening sentence was something like, "I am not mad, but the hallucinations in my head are." The reading covered an introduction to this strange situation and a visit from a prospective client, who may or may not be all he appears to be. Brandon also mentioned that there will be a gun that can change the past...count me as very intrigued by this. I had to leave before the end of Q&A as my next session was...

Walter Jon Williams reading: For those of you who aren't reading this guy, shame on you. :) Walter is criminally and unforgivably underrated. He gave the best reading of the whole con, with what amounted to a performance of his upcoming short "The Golden Age." The story is essentially about superheroes and supervillains during the California Gold Rush of the 1840's and is told from the POV of The Commodore, a supervillain who sort of falls into his life of crime. There's also The Condor, who Walter read in a Christian-Bale-as-Batman voice (he also deployed British and australian accents throughout), Shanghai Suzy, The Anarchist, a wanna-be god-emperor who sets up his empire by Lake Tahoe, and even a European flying shark. Such a cool story...it took Walter the entire hour to read and had us laughing out loud numerous times. I believe this is promised for an upcoming anthology of sci-fi western stories, but Walter told me during the autographing session that he's considering a graphic novel version, as well.

And, finally, the mass autographing session free-for-all: I got stuff signed by Carrie Vaughn, GRRM, Daniel Abraham, Walter Jon Williams, Michael Cassutt, Brandon Sanderson, and Victor Milan. During the long lines for George and Brandon, I chatted with a couple of the authors...Daniel Abraham said he's not really nervous about being a Hugo nominee at Worlcon since he doesn't expect to win and can't possibly complain about any of the nominees winning. Carrie Vaughn and I talked Colorado wildfires for a bit. Walter Jon Williams gave me the tidbit on his possible graphic novel for The Golden Age. And Victor Milan said that The Dinosaur Lords is progressing, but needs some edits still.

I won't be able to make Sunday, but all in all, it was an awesome two days...if you ever get a chance to attend Bubonicon, I don't think you'll regret it.

[Bushido]

Thanks for the update! :)

So,he confirmed Dangerous Women anthology for the publication later this year?

Could you remember what's the name of the last Storm King?

[Ran]

king's 70-ish years old sister

That's the Princess of Dorne rather than a king's sister. Who is mocked as the Yellow Toad, but... she's pretty badass, let me tell you. ;)

[Bushido]

Do tell us :D :D

[frodostark]

Thanks for the update! :)

So,he confirmed Dangerous Women anthology for the publication later this year?

Could you remember what's the name of the last Storm King?

On the anthology, I believe so...keeping in mind lots of events between Friday night and now. :)

The last Storm King was Argelac the Arrogant, who was conquered by Orys Baratheon, King's Hand to Aegon. Orys joined his line with the Storm Kings' by taking Argelac's daughter as his wife.

That's the Princess of Dorne rather than a king's sister. Who is mocked as the Yellow Toad, but... she's pretty badass, let me tell you. ;)

Sorry for the error and thanks, Ran, for the correction. I think I just assumed "princess" = king's sister, forgetting the nomenclature of Dorne. And, yes, she is a tough toad! In the excerpt, she basically sits alone in an empty throneroom and tells Aegon's sister (who rode in on a dragon, mind you) to get lost.

[Bushido]

The last Storm King was Argelac the Arrogant, who was conquered by Orys Baratheon, King's Hand to Aegon. Orys joined his line with the Storm Kings' by taking Argelac's daughter as his wife.

Sorry,should have been precise,I meant last name: post-conquest we have Orys' name,Baratheon and his descendants,but Argilac,what was his last name?

And, yes, she is a tough toad! In the excerpt, she basically sits alone in an empty throneroom and tells Aegon's sister (who rode in on a dragon, mind you) to get lost.

Just amazing :D Thanks!

[LordBloodraven]

This sound interesting. Really looking forward to WOIAF and She-Wolves of Winterfell

[frodostark]

Sorry,should have been precise,I meant last name: post-conquest we have Orys' name,Baratheon and his descendants,but Argilac,what was his last name?

Sorry, I get it now. :) Unfortunately, I don't recall George mentioning that. Kudos on the spelling, though, I'm not sure why I've been spelling Argilac as "Argelac" this whole time.

[Bushido]

When it sounds the same,it is easy to have many spelling variations :)

Do you remember anything about North? How did the Targs feel about them? (Although I understand not much could be said,Targs came,North knelt)

[Maia]

Frodostark, thank you very much for this report!

I think I just assumed "princess" = king's sister, forgetting the nomenclature of Dorne. And, yes, she is a tough toad! In the excerpt, she basically sits alone in an empty throneroom and tells Aegon's sister (who rode in on a dragon, mind you) to get lost.

This is so cool! I actually find myself wanting this "World" book more than the next installment. Also, very interesting about Orys being the first Hand. Any other details that come to mind? What was the "unique" method of forcing Arryns to submit?

[frodostark]

Do you remember anything about North? How did the Targs feel about them? (Although I understand not much could be said,Targs came,North knelt)

I think it was more like Starks raised the North, came south and saw what the dragons had done to Harrenhall, etc., and bent the knee.

This is so cool! I actually find myself wanting this "World" book more than the next installment. Also, very interesting about Orys being the first Hand. Any other details that come to mind? What was the "unique" method of forcing Arryns to submit?

While I'm definitely pumped, I think I'd vote for Winds of Winter myself. :) George was right when he said this was a lot of telling, rather than showing. The best sections were when the telling gave way to a bit of showing (conquest of Harrenhall, etc.)...that's definitely his strength. What I'm really interested in is how the whole will come together; remember that George was really reading from a sidebar article and there will be a bunch more "stuff" in the book itself.

The Arryns (also at this time ruled by a young boy and his regent mother) sent a massive army to the Bloody Gate and then high-tailed it into the Eyrie. But Visenya Targaryen simply rode her dragon up into the courtyard of the Eyrie and the regent rushed outside to see the young king seated on the dragon and begging her for a ride. The Arryns surrendered and the king had his ride. :)