Worldcon Reports

[Xray the Enforcer]

I saw Pod hanging out in the Arisia suite.

[Mr. X]

[quote name='Ran' post='1472849' date='Aug 8 2008, 11.15']A interesting con parties last night? What have the bid parties been like, I wonder? I'm kinda pulling for Reno, since if Linda and I were to go, it'd just be a hop and a jump away from Vegas. ;) Seattle could be cool because of the Science Fiction Museum and other such things... And the rains. :P[/quote]
The only party we made it to last night was the Seattle bid party. Upon entering the room, Stego made a beeline for the air conditioning vents along the floor and sat down on them. That became the spot to be, as more and more of the BWB (except Pod, who got stuck on the receiving end of a ranting pirate in the Xerps 2010* party room) congregated in that part of the party suite. George arrived, took the comfy chair in the corner, and discussed the recent acquisition of Brett Favre by the Jets. There was talk of an expedition to the local "gentleman's cabaret". Some of the Seattle hosts had Wizard of Oz related costumes on, though none of us were sure how that related to the general steampunk theme of the party.

At some point, an older guy walked in and kneeled down in front of George and started asking him questions on the books. The BWB smokers decided it was time for a trip outside, and it turned into a small exodus.


* The Xerps 2010 bid is a joke bid to hold a con on an alien world. They were the first party we went to on Wednesday night and we stayed for the couches.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

I broached the topic of the entire Ellison clan making the trek to Montreal for Worldcon 2009. I received a raised eyebrow from Laura, it wouldn't be a cheap trip. Then again Dad would be in town then, perhaps he'd and GiGi (his wife) would be willing to watch the kiddleboos? I've got a year to smooze and convince her to open the wallet for such a trip. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

;)

[Kalbear]

Just remember, all you BwBers - I live in Seattle and have a hot tub. This should be a very good reason to have the con be in Seattle. Make it happen.

[Myrddin]

Why was there some rukuss in Denver, Pennsylvania on the news this morning? Something about a raving lunatic holding a stuffed bunny ranting about not finding a scifi convention?

I'll see if I can find a link.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

Mandy,

[quote name='Mandy' post='1473260' date='Aug 8 2008, 16.09']I'm here! Went shopping for the party with Stego, nova, Mr x and got food. I am running on 2 hrs sleep so we're relaxing now.[/quote]

Did you drive or fly?

[Padraig]

[quote name='Myrddin' post='1472967' date='Aug 8 2008, 17.21']Why was there some rukuss in Denver, Pennsylvania on the news this morning? Something about a raving lunatic holding a stuffed bunny ranting about not finding a scifi convention?[/quote]
:lol:

I can laugh about it now. :stunned:

[zakalwe7]

Who's bought furry porn so far?

Sean, remember those 1st editions i asked you for?

[Lucky Pierre]

Off to be the only freak at the Torchwood Screening of 'Captain Jack'...

What can I say... Cpt Jack is my hero *swoon*

;)

[Ran]

... the guy doing _what_ when where?

[Lucky Pierre]

[quote name='Mandy' post='1473929' date='Aug 9 2008, 16.09']LP is crazy insane, and yet still way funnier than the guy wanking it in our suite last night around 4am. Wow. :P[/quote]

Why am I mentioned in the same sentence as 'The Tickler'????

I actually mostly missed that, I caught it out of the corner of my eye as I was walking out and thought- no he couldn't be...

Anyway, I'm at the airport going back to Chicago.

Big Props to Mr & Mrs X, Yags and the rest of the gang for the outstanding party last night.

:cheers:

[beniowa]

Figured some of you might want to hear about the Wild Cards panel. It was a good sized panel with George, John Miller, SL Farrell, Carrie Vaughn, Melinda Snodgrass, and Ian Tregillis. Daniel Abraham wasn't supposed to be on the panel but crashed it anway. If I had known so many of them would show up I would have brought Inside Straight. :bang: They talked a bit about the history of Wild Cards, how it's different than other shared world anthologies, how the writers work together. George's friend, Gardner Dozois, also showed up and when George saw him he made some comment about how Gardner came up with a Wild Cards character called "The Wanker". I think you can figure that one out for yourself. Afterwards they had got a few questions from the audience and let people up to get their books signed. I got my books the three of Martin's book I brought signed and I also managed to get my copy of Hunter's Run signed by all three authors. It was a pretty damn good panel.

[Ran]

Very cool! Thanks, beniowa. Any tidbits discussing upcoming Wild Cards works? Or John's contribution to Green Ronin's Wild card RPG?

[Isis]

[quote name='Mandy' post='1473929' date='Aug 9 2008, 21.09']Got to sleep around 5am and up at noon feeling pretty good. Apparently slept through my poor roomie reliving the party so to speak. (hope she doesn't kill me for that)[/quote]Die, bitch from hell! I let you share my room and this is how you repay me. :mad:

:lol: It's not a genuine BwB meet if Isis does not vomit.

[Mr. X]

The next two Wild Cards books were discussed a bit, the idea that the Wild Cards comics could be turned into a series of roughly 6-issue story arcs, each by a different author, was mentioned, and Miller did talk a bit about the RPG. From what I remember, he is responsible for writing up all the history and character biographies (which number in the hundreds) for the game books.

Last night's party was awesome. Thanks to everyone who helped with setup, hauling ice up to the room, and cleaning up this morning. Extra big props to Tycho for volunteering above and beyond the call of duty.

[nova]

[quote name='Mr. X' post='1474528' date='Aug 10 2008, 13.08']Last night's party was awesome. Thanks to everyone who helped with setup, hauling ice up to the room, and cleaning up this morning. Extra big props to Tycho for volunteering above and beyond the call of duty.[/quote]

I expect no less from Race's lovechild.

[beniowa]

Thanks, Mr. X. I knew I forgot a few things. Martin also mentioned that the next two books are in the pipeline. Busted Flush I think is supposed to be out in December. Not sure about third one.

[Ran]

So, any other interesting panels, funny anecdotes, scandalous gossip, etc.? We poor losers depend on you!

More seriously, thanks for all the efforts to share some insight into what's going on. Sad to have missed it. :)

[Kat]

[quote name='Ran' post='1473936' date='Aug 9 2008, 13.18']... the guy doing _what_ when where?[/quote]

Ah...so the story of THE TICKLER has not yet been posted? He is Denvention's answer to Primordial Man, apparently. On Friday night, by around 3 am the party had died down to conversation level, and several of us were sitting around the suite talking about...well, I forget; I was probably having a fangirl moment over this guy who I had been talking to who I found out was a Real Published Writer. Right behind us were two guys talking about Wildcards. Eventually one of them left, and the other was a guy in a green shirt who, from my POV, just seemed to be zoned out and taking in the scenery or what have you. Then, from across the room, Stubby looked at him and realized he was.....touching himself, and "not just itching himself, if you know what I mean." (I think he actually had his cock out. :stunned:) Stubby told Kalbear and some others, who didn't really know what to do aside from take pictures and call in the Big Gun. So Stego came over, put his arm around green shirt dude's shoulder, and said, "This party is for BWB members only now, so maybe you can leave." The guy got up and left and as he was leaving, Stego called, "ENJOY YOURSELF AT HOME TONIGHT" and everyone burst into laughter.

Since Mountain Goat and Soph and I had been absorbed in conversation with the Real Published Writer, we really didn't know what had been going on right behind us. Stubby told us the story, dubbed the guy The Tickler, and MG jumped up and exclaimed that he had been sitting right next to him for an hour now! :leaving: We eventually turned the chair around and considered trying to find a Biohazard sticker at another party (Xerps? But they were closed by now) to put on it. On Saturday night, the chair was turned back around, but we all avoided sitting in it because of Tickler cooties.

"Enjoy yourself," has become our new farewell of choice.


Edit: Other notes on a few panels I went to...

Storytelling and the Oral Tradition, with Patrick Rothfuss and some others...this was funny. The panelists started out by each telling a short story/tall tale/anecdote aloud, then they discussed the difference between storytelling and written works. Rothfuss (who is a really funny guy, btw) talked about how he considers himself primarily a storyteller, and said he likes to write like a storyteller, which means he doesn't necessarily feel the need to put in grand overarching themes into his novels. (Anyone who's read The Name of the Wind will probably think this is a fair assessment of his own work.) I had never heard of the other panelists, but now I feel like finding written collections of their stories. Teri and Isis were also at this panel, so maybe they remember a little more.

Citybuilding: From Ankh-Morpork to Ambergris. I had never read anything by any of the writers on this panel, but I loved this session even though it was less about city-building and more about the use of cities in fiction in general, real cities that are SFnal, the idea of planned utopias, and what makes a fictional city seem real or believable. The problem with this panel was that the acoustics were terrible and the panelists often did not speak into their microphones...but the acoustics in almost all the conference rooms in the Denver Convention Center in general suck; not sure what the architects were thinking.

The Successful Misfit as a theme in F&SF, with GRRM, Larry Niven, and two others. I could only attend half this panel this morning due to packing and leaving for the airport, but it was a good discussion topic. It was nice to have well-known authors of both fantasy and science fiction on the panel since some of the discussion revolved around differences in how they'll treat misfits....GRRM mentioned that traditional fantasy often involves a misfit who becomes a hero or king, in a sort of prize to the reader. (Think Harry Potter.) While in science fiction, while the readers are still probably misfits themselves (aren't we all?) themes tend to involve changing society to be more tolerant of the misfit's characteristics, whatever they might be, etc. Other topics were--hero misfit vs. villain misfit, and what's the difference? (Misfit villains could be heroes of their own story, or perceive themselves as heroes, but their values are misguided or whatever change they want society to undertake is too extreme--think Magneto.) A tangent was, Niven said that he liked to write his characters having fun, because if they weren't having fun, he would have no fun writing the book in the first place. GRRM responded, "My characters do not have fun." This got a big laugh from the audience. I don't know what they talked about after that because I had to leave.


I went to some other panels as well, but can't summarize them well enough right now. Later I want to post some panel names that I wanted to go to but couldn't because they were too early (10am, nooooooooooooooo.....) or I was too busy to go...maybe if anyone went, they can post a brief summary.


Edited 2x: A note for travelers- SFO free wireless does not work in certain terminals, which is :thumbsdown:. San Diego has great free wireless which only has to reboot every 2 hours. :thumbsup: Denver has shitty free wireless which has a frame for ads, and you have to watch a 30-second ad every time it dies, which is....frequent. :thumbsdown:

[Kat]

[quote name='Ran' post='1472849' date='Aug 8 2008, 08.15']I've been told Pod was spotted in the dealer's room, hiding all of the books by GRRM so that he could buy them later.

A interesting con parties last night? What have the bid parties been like, I wonder? I'm kinda pulling for Reno, since if Linda and I were to go, it'd just be a hop and a jump away from Vegas. ;) Seattle could be cool because of the Science Fiction Museum and other such things... And the rains. :P[/quote]

Well, last night the Seattle bid people came by the BWB party around 4am and chatted with us for a while...after which, Stego took a poll of everyone in the room. I believe it was phrased like this: "Does anyone in here [i]actually[/i] want Reno to win the 2011 bid?" I think I was the only one who said yes. Then he said something like "Fuck Reno" and Kal mentioned yet again that he lives in Seattle. I can see pros and cons to both bids. Parris is a pre-supporter for Reno I believe and George said at dinner that he preferred that bid because of the experienced committee. I like Reno because it's within driving distance and I just really like Nevada (you know you all want Geological Tour of Reno Vicinity: The BWB Event :P) and it's less expensive than Seattle. But, the Reno party was very...ah....SMOF-y. Practically no one except the bartender talked to me there. I like Seattle too...the Seattle party was good, and I get the idea that they have a less experienced but younger committee, which could be good for people who don't like the trends of past Worldcons. (I overheard Stego talking with the Seattle chick at the party last night, and I guessed it was something like, "I'll tell you what's wrong with Worldcon right now, and how you should do it different.)