Worldcon Reports

[Leveller]

[quote name='serMountainGoat' post='1478027' date='Aug 13 2008, 09.37']Has anyone ever told you that you look like Napoleon Dynamite, except without the glasses? :P[/quote]

Yes. I get Napoleon Dynamite and Beck, depending on the lighting. And I can't dance.

[Regina]

[quote name='Nitrao' post='1477477' date='Aug 12 2008, 19.36']"Okay, I'm too tired to do anything constructive this evening, so I'll whine about our flight:

-We got to the airport with no trouble, and even split the cost of the cab with a GRRM fan from Israel. We had a good conversation and pimped the boards and the BWB to him."

so strange to read a post that starts with me at the beginning....

after i left you i got on the airplane. at 2 hours delay, if there is a curse, i blame you for not waiting for me to be on a plane until you said any thing about this forum. anyhow i think it was worth it. looks like a good forum. thnx for the inv'

The Nebi[/quote]



I'm so glad that you found the boards! Have fun reading the book forums, and don't be shy.

And sorry about your flight. Denver was the con that simply didn't want to let go, it seems.


(This is the first noOb I've drafted onto the boards. It's exciting!)

[Maltaran]

[quote name='Ser Lucky Pierre' post='1478045' date='Aug 13 2008, 15.43']NO!!!!! Please!

You can't put it up yet... Please just send it to me. It really was for NHAW!!!!![/quote]

OK then. PM me your e-mail address and I'll send it across.

[Kat]

[quote name='Leveller' post='1478010' date='Aug 13 2008, 07.24']It's going nicely, thanks. Always a bit of a letdown, going back to work after a convention.

Let me just say that, when I eventually get fans and they congregate at conventions in suites and offer alcohol to passersby, I hope they do it half as well as you folks. Well done. GRRM should be proud.[/quote]

Thanks. :cheers:

This is Tim Akers, a Real Writer (tm). He writes short stories which have been published at Interzone...which are apparently online for free, but the server is down. He has a short story on the [url="http://transmissionsfrombeyond.com/"]podcast[/url], though, which I'm going to listen to later today. In any case, for those of you "short fiction is irrelevant!" people here, his novel is coming out next year(?) and I want to read it because anyone who's a fan of Richard Morgan, Tim Powers, and Steven Erikson can't be half bad. :)


Edit: I tried to recruit another person to come to the boards on the way to the airport...Alchemist and I shared a shuttle with her and I talked to her on the way to the gates; she's another fantasy fan from SF who goes by Charlie, so if you see her around the board, say hi. (Not Charlie Jane from io9.com, who I also met...this is a different one.)

[Leveller]

I can talk at great length about the relevancy of short fiction, actually. It's something I think about too much. But I will say that it was the strength of my short stories that got me the deal with Solaris. They bought the book on proposal, which doesn't happen much with first novels. So in my case, at least, relevant.

[Kat]

[quote name='Leveller' post='1478295' date='Aug 13 2008, 09.58']I can talk at great length about the relevancy of short fiction, actually. It's something I think about too much. But I will say that it was the strength of my short stories that got me the deal with Solaris. They bought the book on proposal, which doesn't happen much with first novels. So in my case, at least, relevant.[/quote]

At the risk of going totally off-topic here, I started a [url="http://asoiaf.westeros.org/index.php?showtopic=30388"]new thread [/url]on short fiction.

And now back to your regularly-scheduled Worldcon tales...

[Lucky Pierre]

[quote name='Maltaran' post='1478177' date='Aug 13 2008, 10.48']OK then. PM me your e-mail address and I'll send it across.[/quote]


Thanks!

It's actually not too bad, considering!

You Rock!

:cheers:

[Maltaran]

Now that I've done the important things (sleep, laundry, uploading photos), it's time for a report.

Monday: Arrived very late. Checked in at the hotel, found Luz already in bed. Went to sleep.

Tuesday: Luz and I registered at the convention (thus avoiding the mile-long lines that occurred on Wednesday morning). We then went and played tourist, going on a guided tour round the Colorado state capitol and then to the Colorado History Museum. The capitol tour had some interesting facts, such as the man after whom Denver was named only visited the city twice in his life (he was apparently governor of Kansas). The history museum was surprisingly large, bulking out what little history Colorado has with a lot of stuff about native Americans. We then tried to visit the Mint, but found it closed at 2, so instead we decided to walk along the 16th Street Mall, and naturally we visited every bookshop we found. We then went to see the Dark Knight, after which the jet lag kicked in and I went to bed.

Wednesday: Went to the convention, observed the mile-long lines for registration and were thankful we'd registered the previous day. Luz found some German fans and started talking to them while we waited for George's panel (Writers as Readers) to begin. We went in and sat down, and then a guy turned around from two rows in front, asked if we were BwB, and introduced himself as Stubby. We talked about cricket for a bit, until various other boarders started arriving - both old faces like Iceman and Stego, and con n00bs such as MG and Dunhallym. The panel was reasonably interesting, and afterwards we hung around, saying hi to each other, and then George came to speak to us (mainly so he could gloat at Stego about Favre joining the Jets). A large group of us then went to lunch, and actually had some healthy food :stunned: (paninis at a place called Mad Greens). We then returned to the con, when I paid the first visit of many to the dealers' room. Following that (and the resultant hole it put in my wallet), I joined up with Luz at the Greatest Villains in SF panel (with Paul Cornell's brilliant introduction "I write for Dr Who, I'm up for a Hugo on Saturday, come and watch me lose to Moffat" - which I believe he did). Afterwards, a large group of us went for dinner at Gumbo's, and subsequently got drenched on the way back to the hotel when the bus broke down. After a quick change of shirt (and the provision of a towel to MG and Dunhallym, who foolishly decided not to return to their own hotel and change), it was party time!

Wednesday evening: Parties! Too many to recall, but the Friendly Norwegians were giving out shots of aquavit, and the Chernobyl 2011 bid party had a glow-in-the-dark drink. Reno had the inflatable buffalo demons, but Seattle seemed more organised overall (and had ribbons as well as stickers). We ended up in the Xerps party that night, playing volleyball with a balloon until it burst.

Thursday: Managed to get up and have breakfast in time to get to the Alternate History panel at 11:30, and found MG, Dunhallym, pots and ztem there as well. Interesting discussion on the panel about why so much alternate history has the breakpoint in either WW2 or the American Civil War - it's because those are periods which the public know about. Alternate history with the break in 1650s France apparently doesn't sell so well ;). There was also discussion as to which type of alternate history people preferred - natural breakpoint or time-traveller intervention, and Harry Turtledove told an amusing anecdote about when he was writing Guns of the South - he'd written a scene about Robert E. Lee going to the War Department in Richmond on a particular day, only to later find the diary of a War Department clerk stating that it was closed that day for Washington's birthday. He had to rewrite it in order to avoid the letters from obsessives "because there's always someone who knows more than you and wants to let you know about it").

Next up - the reading. Pots had told me she wasn't coming to the reading, because she's not read Feast and didn't want spoilers. I felt really sorry for her when the first word of the reading was "Dunk". I'm sure this has been discussed elsewhere, so I won't go into details on it. All I will say is that Lord Frey appeared with a 4 year old son, which given the time scale is quite likely a cameo appearance by the Late Lord Walder. There's also entertainment provided by "a troop of comic dwarves".

After the reading, I embarked upon my personal con quest - getting Inside Straight signed by as many of the authors as were there (seven out of the nine were at the con, according to the program). At this point, I acquired the signatures of SL Farrell and Melinda Snodgrass (who tried to pimp her own new novel - she was giving out little advertising cards to everyone who gave her a Wild Cards book to sign). After another visit to the dealers room, and a return to the hotel to offload the newly acquired books, I returned to the convention centre, having been informed that people were meeting up at the bear crotch before going to dinner*. After much discussion as to who wanted to go to Casa Bonita, and X-Ray taking names for who wanted to go to dinner with George on Friday (me! me!), a small group left, while the rest of us headed up to the Cheesecake Factory, where we waited for what must have been an hour before getting seats. However, the cheesecake made up for it, as did the amazement of the Americans at us civilised people who use knives and forks to eat burgers. We then returned to the Sheraton (the bus didn't break down this time), for more parties.

[size=2]*I retyped that sentence three times to try and avoid any furry innuendo.[/size]

Thursday evening: After brief stops in a few of the suites, we found a load of BwBers in the Seattle room, sitting on the air conditioners and thus causing it to smell even more of con than usual. George appeared at some point, and more talk was made of Favre and the Jets, among other things. I went off to bed at about 2 (yes, I know, I'm a lightweight).

Friday: Started with an entertaining panel on what the Earth would be like if dinosaurs hadn't gone extinct (Conclusion - no one knew enough about evolutionary biology to comment), followed by another alternate history panel, this one specifically about where to put the breakpoint in order to get maximum effect (one of the guys is writing a book about the American Revolution not happening, and he had to put the break in the 1730s in order to get that to work). I then visited the dealers room, and got Carrie Vaughn crossed off the list of Inside Straight author signatures.

Friday evening: Dinner with George! A return to Gumbo's, and a lot of fun - George is a great conversationalist (is that the right word?). This was followed immediately by:

BwB party, part 1: Signature cocktail - the Great and Powerful Turtle (something green and vodka-based - quite tasty). Frosty made an appearance, and in a rerun of the dirjj-in-LA episode, turned out to be amazingly friendly and normal. I got made a lord, this being my third con, and the n00bs got sent for pizza, returning to be dubbed knights of the Tomato Pie (which, for the record, must always be pronounced To-May-To, not To-Mah-To). Pierre borrowed a hat and asked me to take a picture for NHAW - however, he was still wearing shorts when he asked, and I didn't expect him to actually drop them. My eyes recovered eventually, with help from a few more Turtles. :cheers: This was also when Yags introduced me to the punching thing - if you see a furry, a cape, a utilikilt or a staff, you should punch the nearest BwBer. :box: The remainder of the night disappeared into an alcoholic mist - the Tickler appeared at some point, as did Stubby's thoughts on the impossibility of pissing quietly in American toilets.

Saturday: Dragged myself out of bed to get to the Wild Cards panel, which turned out to be well worth it. John J. Miller is now the master of Wild Cards trivia, having had to read all the books in order to write character bios for the new RPG. Carrie Vaughn admitted responsibility for American Hero, as she is, to use her own words, a cultural bottom-feeder (her own series stars a werewolf talk-radio host). It was revealed that all use of another author's character has to be agreed with that author, which provided a lot of complications writing the Curveball-Drummer Boy-John Fortune love triangle, as that involved three different authors (the first time it's happened, apparently, as most Wild Card love stories had both characters created by the same author). John J. Miller revealed the only scene he vetoed was one in which Billy Ray gets his pants pulled down and mayonnaise spread on his arse by Golden Boy. George revealed the sordid details of Gardner Dozois's proposed character "The Wanker", who was rejected because no one could see the story potential. Daniel Abraham talked about the Wild Cards comics - yes, there will be a graphic novel. After the panel was over, I managed to get the signature of Ian Tregillis added to Inside Straight, and the afternoon got John J. Miller and GRRM on the list as well. Incidentally, I was surprised at the lack of BwBers in George's signing line - the only others I saw there were Lacy and Stubby. More dealers room spending followed, before the party.

BwB party, part 2: Signature cocktail - Kid Dinosaur's Blood (similar to the Turtle, but with added grenadine to make it red). I don't remember much of this one - I fell asleep on the couch a couple of times, and then, remembering what happened to Lodey in LA, I bailed before anyone could find a Sharpie. I do remember speaking to Daniel Abraham and Melinda Snodgrass as they came in from the Hugo ceremony, but most of it is a sleepiness-and-alcohol blur.

Sunday: I was aiming to get up early for the Abraham reading, but overslept. I did make it to his signing, though, thus collecting all possible signatures I could for Inside Straight (still two missing, but they weren't at the con). He seemed excited at seeing a British edition of the Long Price books, but I felt sorry for him - there were long long lines for Lois McMaster Bujold and Charles Stross, but only one person in front of me for Abraham. (Speaking of Charles Stross, he consistently appeared close to GoN, to the point where we thought he was stalking her). After a final trawl through the dealers room for last-day bargains, and the subsequent return of these to the hotel room, I met up with a large number of the remaining BwB for lunch at Bubba Gump's, which combined with a discussion of what went well/what could we do better next year at the party. Afterwards, while we were standing outside as the smokers smoked, we looked across the road to the Hyatt bar and saw Stubby dancing in the window. Alas, he disappeared before I could get a photo, and when we went in to the bar, he was no longer there. As people disappeared to either sleep or pack (or both), we agreed to meet back there later for dinner.

Later: After meeting back at the Hyatt bar, divisions arose. X-Ray wanted Mongolian barbecue, Lugalirra had got a call from Stego who wanted us to join him and others at an English pub. We split up, and I felt the call of nationalism and went to the pub. Stubby greatly praised their bangers and mash, while Stego commented on the American female gymnastics team, who were appearing on the TV at the time. When it became apparent that the pub was setting up for live music, we left, and went to the Cheesecake Factory to get dessert (they do take-out, as well as sit-down meals). Sean got a ridiculously large slice of some chocolate concoction, which he failed to finish. We ended up back in the Hyatt bar, where George and a number of SMOFs joined us after coming back from their dinner (daj and I had a long conversation with Phyllis Eisenstein about science fiction TV, with emphasis on Blake's 7). Eventually I left, due to the need for sleep before an early flight (despite suggestions that I just stay up and sleep on the plane).

Monday: Flew home. Denver-Cincinnati-JFK-Manchester, with a two-hour delay in Cincinnati while we waited for the plane to arrive from Amsterdam (fortunately, I had a scheduled three-hour layover in JFK, so overall I got home on time).

Final thoughts: Much gratitude to the X's, Stego, and everyone who helped at the parties. Guilt that I didn't do more myself. I've bought an attending membership for Melbourne 2010, so I may not make it to Montreal next year, but I certainly hope to see all of you again soon (even Frosty :P - seriously, it was great to meet you).

[Maltaran]

Oh, one thing I missed - apparently George showed the pictures from World Fantasy of Luga dressed as Jetboy to Howard Waldrop. His response - "Tell her he's dead"

[theMountainGoat]

I have worked hard all evening on the Con Report but still not finished it yet :(

I did update the online copy of my [url="http://www.philliplowles.co.uk/gallery/worldcon2008.doc"]Denver Worldcon Report[/url] with corrections and additions for all the shit I got wrong in yesterdays version.

Final version including all the Saturday highlights - Wild Cards, Live Mafia, The Hugo Awards Ceremony, the Saturday Night Party and the wrapping up of Sunday - will be finished and posted tomorrow evening, but for now goodnight...

[Fenryng]

So.

Having finally recovered from the atrocity that was our return trip, which has already been mentioned by my Better Half, I now have the energy to try to relate all the things that happened to us.

We left Manchester, NH, at 8am our time, and went first to Charlotte, where we had an intentional three hour layover. Then we went west over to Denver, arriving at 3pm mountain time. We managed to track down RaceBannon, who proceeded to track down Ztemhead and Potsherd, who were renting a vehicle to get around in. The two of them were kind enough to give us a ride to our hotel, and thereby saved us a goodly chunk of money, for which I, and my Better Half, were and are greatly appreciative. I was able to have a conversation with Race about WoW which I had been looking forward to for quite some time; we also talked about home repairs.

Unfortunately, by the time we got to the hotel, various environmental factors combined to make me ill and unsuitable for human socialization. I went up to our room and greeted Mr. X, and then proceeded to drop unconscious for about three hours. I got back up at nine pm and had some supper with my Better Half, and then collapsed again at eleven pm.

We all got up at approximately nine am and went down to register at the Convention, and met up with some of the BWB. Exploring briefly, we went out to a quick lunch before the 1pm reading that George was scheduled to do. Upon getting to Denver’s Sixteenth Street, which is a street that is basically a long shopping mecca, we met up with more members. Happy, happy!

We went to a sub shop for a quick lunch, as we did not have the time to do anything extended before the reading.
The reading by George was an hour and a half long, and consisted of the third Dunk and Egg story, which was great. There was no time for questions, and the story obviously raised a lot of them, but I thought that it was a pleasant change of pace form the traditional chapter reading that I had always encountered. Although the news that I will not be able to get the ending of the story until two years from now is really kind of painful to contemplate.

After the reading, Regina and I went back to the aforementioned Sixteenth Street, where I found a Barnes & Noble and located therein a book that I had been hunting for some time. Then we walked down to the Tattered Cover bookstore, where Regina found a book and I had no success.

When we got back, I had planned on napping while Regina went to go explore the Dealers Room. However, the arrival of X-Ray from the purgatory of her job meant that we would catch up, and then I would relax with my eyes shut while Mr. and Mrs. X got caught up on their computer work.

We went back to the convention center so X-Ray could register, and met Regina who had started back to the hotel. She had had excellent luck in the Dealers Room, having finally found a first edition signed copy of Guy Gavriel Kay’s Summer Tree. This was the only book of his that she did not have a signed hardcover copy of, and it was one of those situations where the price was not even looked at.

We all gathered together outside by the Big Blue Bear, as that was the designated meeting spot for everyone. Eventually, when everyone who was going to arrive had done so, we split up. Some people went to Case Bonita’s, others went to the Cheesecake Factory, and still others went I know not where.

Regina and I were amongst the group that went to the Cheesecake Factory, and arrived there at about eight pm. We were seated at about 8:45pm at two different tables, and we got our food in a surprisingly short period of time, given how crowded it was. The food was very good, although when one is starving, food usually tastes better anyway. The key lime cheesecake was indeed excellent.

Upon finishing supper, we proceeded to the party floor of the party hotel, and hung out in the Seattle Worldcon bid party room. To this day, I have no idea why their theme was the Wizard of Oz, but what the hell.

As has been mentioned, creative use of an air conditioner was used to keep people cool in the party. The X’s and Regina and I did not stay overly long, still being tired from all of the travelling and whatnot.

Back to the room, and end part one.

[Lucky Pierre]

[quote name='Fenryng' post='1479203' date='Aug 13 2008, 19.08']--snip
Upon finishing supper, we proceeded to the party floor of the party hotel, and hung out in the Seattle Worldcon bid party room. To this day, [b]I have no idea why their theme was the Wizard of Oz, but what the hell. [/b]
--snip[/quote]

Oh, I know... Because Seattle is often referred to as 'The Emerald City' because it is so green.

:)

[Isis]

Oooh, it's Mr Interzone. Cool.

And, TMG - don't be disappearing back into obscurity now. We'd better see you at the next London meet!

ETA: Oh yeah, and I think that m00bs really missed an opportunity by not attending since when Pat Rothfuss mentioned him in a panel it appeared that NOBODY else in the sizeable audience had heard of/read his books.

[Seajaye]

K so I'm a little misty eyed at not getting welcomed to the board like Nitrao was but it's ok. I will win you over yet with my charm and wit. :leer: Anway, I'm glad everyone had an awesome time at the convention. I'm already counting down til the next one. I have to say, I am a little more on the Seattle side but I'm sure either one can be effectively corrupted by the shenanigans of this group ;) So what is everyone going to do to pass the time and come down off their con-buzz?

[Xray the Enforcer]

I've been sleeping. I'm [i]still[/i] knackered.

(oh yeah, and welcome to the boards!)

[Mo Sneachd]

Great reports, everyone :thumbsup: Thanks a lot for sharing.

Welcome to the madness, new people :)

[Regina]

[quote name='Seajaye' post='1479578' date='Aug 14 2008, 07.48']So what is everyone going to do to pass the time and come down off their con-buzz?[/quote]
Well, for myself, starting to make plans for Montreal and Australia helps. Even if Australia is a pipe dream at best, lol.

[Regina]

[quote name='Mandy' post='1479733' date='Aug 14 2008, 10.06']I'm the same Regina. Montreal might be out of the country but at least its the same continent. I don't know if I can go to Australia without the kids and I don't think I want them exposed to furries quite yet.[/quote]

Granted, I don't have kids, so take this with a big pinch of salt:

I don't think kids at cons is a bad thing at all. When I read the program for Denver, it looked like they had some activities for kids that I would have loved when I was a geekling*. Plus, several of the movies on the film track were kid friendly.

Kids on the party floor is when things get dicey. I cringe seeing six year olds passing slave girls or Nightmare Elmo. So, yeah, some sort of babysitting at night is a must have!




*Term stolen from Lacy.

[Xray the Enforcer]

Continued from the earlier report:

So, after my delightful 2-hour "night's sleep" and breakfast at the diner, Mr. X and I decided it was time to do something Con related. Little did I know (although I did suspect) that this would be the first and LAST con-related thing I would do. First we wandered into the dealers room and said "Yo" to the guy from Nightshade books. I dropped some ducats at their table because they always have something interesting there. Then we ambled around looking at other things (including furry supplies), but the Siren Call of that one jeweler was not to be ignored. I always buy something from her, and I'd been coveting a very particular necklace for at least 9 months (I remember first looking at it well over a year ago). Of course, I bought it. I'd been saving up for it, and it really is an awesome piece of jewelry. After that...we were off to the Wild Cards panel. Panel itself was interesting and entertaining, and I finally (FINALLY) got to meet Daniel Abraham.

The rest of the afternoon was a hastily scarfed burrito lunch, a trip to the party suite, where I [s]convinced[/s] bribed housekeeping to vacuum the room without cleaning the rest of the place and without reporting the alcohol in the room, and did inventory (we got cleared out the first night). We Febrezed the shit outta those two rooms, and managed to clear a fair bit of Con smell. I also scrubbed the floor of the bathroom and tried to clean up as much of the disaster as possible. The housecleaning staffer left me extra towels -- which was greatly appreciated. Then Mr. X and I took off on another supply run to the booze and grocery store.

Props go to Fenryng and Regina for cutting their nap short to help us haul the rest of the supplies to the room. Also props to those who showed up to help ready the room for the next round of parties. Somewhere in there I took a shower and changed back into party clothes, then off to a dinner that I couldn't eat (sleep-deprivation ruins my appetite) and eventually back to the party room. Lots of stuff happened, but the best thing was doing door-duty and seeing something other than the bar. Stubby, laoise, Sean and I spoke of toilets and the proper use thereof. Dennis was born and flushed. Lots of "Enjoy Yourself" was shouted at each other. It was made clear that we should roll up the windows before we attempt an Atlantic crossing. :lol: Then to the bitter end, where Stego, Lady Stego, Mr. X, Yags, Race, Race Jr (tycho), Mandy, daj and I all wandered to (yes) the Diner for breakfast. Daj and I were bummed that they didn't serve beer. (I had not, to this point of the con, gotten even tipsy. Soberest. Con. Evar.) After breakfast, back to the room where our roomies had already gone to the airport :( and we crashed for about 2.5 hours. Suite cleanup ensued. We checked out of the party suite (not without its own drama, no joke -- they tried to bilk me for an extra $300, then an extra $1000).

Lunch, we went somewhere. Plans were made. Many people disappeared. Stubby danced for us, but I have yet to stuff money in his knickers. Iceman, Lugalirra, Malt, Mr. X and I ended up at the hotel bar. I went back to the hotel and took an hour nap. Mongolian BBQ was a damned dirty lie (it was one of those new-fangled places -- fuck that -- and had a 45-minute wait to boot), so we went to a bistro with outside seating. DPA was discussed at length. We found carrots for Dunhallym. The rest of the night was spent in the hotel bar with the stragglers, and Charlie Stross appeared. Twice. Stubby, laoise and I discussed the armour-plated butt of the hairy-nosed wombat. "It's like an armadillo, right, except that it's an armoured-ass-o." Daj and I discussed how we would take over the world.

Fell into bed around 1am. Up early for oatcakes and the trip to the airport. Which was a waste -- our flight was delayed for more hours than I can count. ASS. Eventually made it home, and I'm still recovering. Shit, I even fell asleep on the subway last night!

So, yeah. I got somewhere in the vicinity of 5 hours sleep from Friday to Monday AM, and I had about 2 hours total at the convention (I would have had more if my stupid job hadn't carved 2 days out of my schedule). But I had a freakin' blast seeing everyone again, and coming up with drink names, and bartending and meeting lots of very cool new people. Montreal or bust, motherfuckers!

[Mo Sneachd]

I'd do con babysitting. If I am allowed to bring cake and talk about quantum physics, that is. And read a geeky and mostly child-friendly book.

I still wonder at what age you can explain to a child what a Furry is.