World Fantasy Convention 2017, San Antonio

Update: Google made a video/slideshow of my photos!

We just got back from the 2017 World Fantasy Convention, which this year was held at the Wyndham Riverwalk in San Antonio, Texas.

WFC is a unique convention for the science fiction and fantasy crowd. Dressing up is discouraged, and there is no masquerade. Program is minimal except for readings. The writers, editors, and agents who attend are there to network.  In spite of the name, there are plenty of science fiction fans and writers there, too.

The first thing that happens when you register is they hand you a bag full of books.

Next, you check out the lobby, to see who's here. In the Wyndham, the main bar is right off the lobby, which makes it easy because anyone not in the lobby itself is probably in the bar. 

 As you can see, it's still a pretty casual crowd, even if no one is in costume. The hotel restaurant is also off the lobby, and this one did a nice job handling the crowd. Most folks had either breakfast or lunch there but for dinner, everyone seemed to head out to find a restaurant n San Antonio's famed Riverwalk.

The Riverwalk is a beautiful venue for a walk or for dining al fresco (except it was too hot and muggy). The river itself isn't deep, but San Antonio makes the most of it. The walk is a little below street level and nicely landscaped.  There are a lot of stairs, which makes it difficult if you have mobility issues. 

I always try go to readings at WFC, but one I would hate to miss is Joe Haldeman's. As I said, the F in WFC isn't as restrictive as it sounds. Joe has written a few fantasies, but science fiction is what he's known for.

If you have occassion to walk at street level, one thing you'll notice is that San Antonio is making an effort to preserve the look of older buildings, even when it re-purposes them. This building is no longer a theater but they left the ticket booth. 

Of course, from the air, a lot of the buildings look like every city. This was the view from our 11th floor room.

Next year WFC is in Baltimore.  I already have my membership! 

World Fantasy Convention Report

This year's WFC was held in Columbus, Ohio, USA.  Guests of Honor were Mercedes Lackey, Larry Dixon, L.E. Modesitt, Jr,  and Randal Spangler with Jane Yolen as toastmistress. 

Turnout was on the low side, partly due to a kerfuffle over the programming and partly over the fact that Columbus isn't a huge draw as a tourist destination. But those who made the pilgrimage to Columbus enjoyed a fun convention with a nice memorial to the late David Hartwell, who passed away suddenly last year. 

The con suite was very conveniently placed on the ground floor, and the con suite staff provided much more substantial food than at man cons, although it was usually gone very quickly, it was still a nice change from just a bowl of M&Ms and a bag of potato chips.

This year I attended WFC as a member of Broad Universe, spending some time staffing the BU table in the dealer's room and also organizing the Rapid Fire Reading.  I had everything set up, from cough drops to water glasses, but I forgot to get someone to take a photo of the reading!

Oh, well!  Here are my other WFC photos. 

The bag o' books! 

View from the 18th floor

Con suite lunch

Reading by Carol Berg

Andy Duncan reading

World fantasy Award judges's panel

Capclave 2016

This past weekend I attended Capclave, the DC-area science fiction convention, held this year in Gaithersburg, MD.  The photo above was taken from the window of the con hotel. The cat seemed to be watching me as much as I was watching him, and I liked the composition the photo had, with diagonal lines and the gray cat on gray concrete; only the orange fire lane line provides strong color. 

The con went off pretty well, with no observable hitches. The con organizers even dealt well with the unexpected passing of Doug Fratz, a local fan and critic/reviewer of long standing. They covered his scheduled events and held a memorial for him.  

I was on three panels and also held a reading. I also arranged with the proprietor of Novel Books, an independent bookstore in Clarksburg, MD, to stock my print books. And of course, I had fun going to readings and catching up with old friends, including Scott Edelman, who was on the Well Worn Classics panel with me, our first panel together. 

And in about 10 days, I'll be heading out to my last convention of the year, the World Fantasy Convention, in Columbus, OH. 

Balticon 50

The Liars' Panel raises money for charity

Every weekend of the year there's a science fiction convention somewhere in the US. Memorial Day weekend is Balticon and this year was its 50th anniversary, so it was a big event. The guest of honor was George RR Martin, and they also invited back lots of previous GoH's so the crowd was huge.

Even though it's only an hour and half or so to drive (less if the traffic is good), we went to stay at the con hotel because that's a lot more fun. I went to a bunch of panels, participated in the Broad Universe Rapid Fire Reading, and met a lot of friends. It was a lovely weekend! Here are some more photos of guests and panels:

Larry Niven

Jody Lynn Nye at the Broad Universe reading

Hikdy Silverman moderates Tales from the Slush Pile

John Picacio setting up for his Artist GoH presentation

Connie Willis explains where her story ideas come from

Brick Barrientos runs the science fiction trivia contest

And of course, we saw a lot of great hall costumes! I didn't get to take near enough photos because it was too crowded to be able to stop and block the aisle by taking photos. 

Me in front of the TARDIS

My first Ravencon

I had never been to Ravencon before this year. It's held in Richmond, VA--or rather in the suburbs of Richmond. Since it happens to be 15 minutes from my brother's house and a friend of mine was doing his a reading and signing for his first novel, I decided to go.

It's a fun con, not substantially different from Balticon or Capclave except that it seemed to me that there were a much higher percentage of people in costume, and there were also a lot more younger fans. Some of the costumes were fabulous! See what I mean:

Don't blink! Really cool weeping angel!

A Dothraki checks his email

Watching this guy get into the elevator was fun!

One of several women warriors.

The 2014 Hugo Finalists Have Been Announced!

The Hugo ballot for this year is final!  Lots of interesting works are represented. I always like to look at how many ballots were cast in each category. This year novels are the clear winner with almost 1600. Nothing else is even close. Even the "long form dramatic presentation" (i.e., movie) category only got a little under a thousand.

But the list of categories is proof that science fiction and fantasy take many forms, and fortunately, there are talented people working in all of them.

Now I have to remember to buy a supporting membership to Loncon. I won't be in London for the convention, but a supporting membership gets me a) the free Hugo voting packet, containing most of the nominated works in ebook form, and b) a ballot, so I can vote!

Hugo bargain basement shopping

This year, Worldcon will be Chicon 7,  because it's being held in Chicago, IL.  I won't be heading to Chicago in August, but I did buy a supporting membership to Chicon.   If you want to know one big part of my reasons, take a look at this list of Hugo nominations for 2012, just announced today.

There are 5 novels, 6 novellas, 5 novelettes, and 5 short stories nominated, as well as several works of nonfiction and some screenplays. As a member of Chicon, I get to vote for the Hugos; to help voting members decide how to vote, Chicon will send them each a digital packet of pretty much all the nominated works, all 5 novels, all 6 novellas. etc. The last couple of years, they've been very good about providing a variety of formats, so putting these works on an ereader is pretty easy.

It's a lot of stuff! My usual plan of attack is to read the shorter works all the way through.  With the novels, if it holds my interest, I finish it. If it doesn't, I move on.  But when I get my ballot, I have a pretty good idea how I want to vote, and I feel much better about picking one work over another because I've at least started everything.

If you're interested, check out the online registration page. Supporting memberships are still $50.  But don't put it off, because you'll need time to read all those works in time to vote!

Conventions

Science fiction has a long history of fan involvement in the genre. Every weekend in the year there is at least one convetion of science ficiton and fanasy fans somewhere in the US. I live in the Washington, DC area and we have our own local convention called Capclave (from Capital Conclave) that happens every October somewhere in the DC suburbs. This year it starts today, in Gaithersburg, at the Hilton Washington DC North/Gaithersburg.

We also have Balticon, which, not surprisingly, is in Baltimore, although really it's north of Baltimore at the Marriott Hunt Valley Inn, and it's always on Memorial Day Weekend.  Further north, if you feel like driving, is Philcon (now in Cherry Hill, NJ) which happens in November, and this year they're celebrating their 75^th anniversary.  Further south and much newer is RavenCon, in Richmond, VA (or its suburbs), which happens in April. 


Cons are fun. Usually one or more writers are invited to be Guests of Honor (GoH); sometimes there are also editor, artist, and fan GoH's. Local writers (and some not so local) and fans attend, with some of them serving on panels in which topics are discussed (e.g., Why do so many adults read YA fiction?  What is the appeal of steampunk and will it last as a subgenre?  What is the "new weird" and is it still new?).  Folks who buy a membership can attend panels, shop in the dealers room (which always has books and often has jewelry, craft items, costumes, clothes, etc.), see the art show (if the con is big enough to have one), and hang out in the con suite where free sodas and nibbles are provided. 


There are cons with a wider scope, too, like Worldcon, Dragoncon, and World Fantasy Con (not that big attendance-wise, but that's on purpose). Dragoncon is always in Atlanta but the others move around and can even be out of the US. There's also ComicCon, which started as being just for comic book fans and morphed into a huge media extravaganza with TV and movie stars and crowds so enormous sometimes you can barely move. There are now ComicCons in different cities, but I don't really consider them science fiction cons. 


There are movie and TV-based cons as well as literary cons. If you've never been to a con, and you think you might be interested, visit this list to find a con  near you!


Breaking news! Between when I started this post and when I finished, it was announced that Sir Terry Pratchett will make a surprise appearance tomorrow at Capclave! Quite a coup for a small local con!  If you're in the DC area, be there!

Baltimore Book Festival

Mother Nature sure showed Baltimore who is in charge! When she wants to rain in torrents, she does, without regard to the size or the outdoor nature of the Book Festival.


I was amazed the “Which eReader is Right for You?” panel got as good a turnout as it did; I certainly had fun, and I met some nice people.  If you are coming to this page from what I said there, looking for ereader info, be sure to click the eBooks & eReaders tab at the top of the page.  Interestingly, our panel of five writers had two Nook owners (both original Nooks), two Kindle owners (a Kindle 2 and a Kindle 3), and one Sony owner who mostly reads on her iPad/phone. From what I have read, those are not typical statistics, but then again, the sample was pretty small.


I was also surprised by how much of the book festival wasn't about books. Ikea had a booth, as did several banks and telecommunications companies. But the Maryland Romance Writers tent was centrally placed, well organized, and equipped with microphones and speakers. The tent itself had a few small holes and gaps in the roof, so the organizers had to spread tarps over the electronic stuff. We still heard some popping noises that didn't sound good at all, and one mic stopped working.  MRW members deserve some credit for sticking with it in the face of daunting weather.


The festival continues throughout the weekend. It's in a neat part of Baltimore, right around the tall column that is Baltimore's version of the Washington Monument.  There's a public parking garage nearby, but do bring an umbrella, just in case.

A reminder about the Hugos

Attention! The deadline for voting in the Hugos using the online ballot is July 31. If you are either an attending or a supporting a member of Renovation, you get a vote to say which short story, novelette, novella, novel, editor, movie, etc. should win a Hugo. In fact, you get a Voter Reading Packet that lets you read virtually all the nominated prose for free (well, free in the sense that it doesn't cost extra; you do have to buy a membership/.

I downloaded my packet a while ago and I'm frantically trying to finish reading everything. Well, not really every novel. If I didn't like it, I just stopped reading. Otherwise I wouldn't have time for the shorter works.  But I plan to have at least assessed everything before I cast my ballot.