I have been at Alt.Fiction all day. I had a lot of fun, but am now very tired. I will blog tomorrow. I have also bagged a quick interview with some of the organizers for StarShipSofa. G’night.

The schedule of events for Alt.Fiction is now available online. It looks like they are working some of their authors very hard, and the panel topics don’t seem very inspired, but this is a rather different sort of event and I suspect that those putting it together feel that it is rather more important to allow people to see celebrities than worry about what is being discussed. They are not catering to people who attend Worldcon regularly.

Given that I’m only popping up for the day, over 6 hours of which will be spent on train travel, I’m not too fussed about the programme. I want to talk to people, not listen to them. But I will also be very interested to see how the event works. I’m impressed that they have a whole stream of panels scheduled to be recorded and podcast after the event.

If you are a member of Aussiecon 4 (even if you are only a Supporting Member with no intention of going to Melbourne) then you are entitled to vote in Site Selection for 2012 — that is you get to choose where Worldcon will be in 2012. There isn’t actually much choice: Chicago is the only candidate (though you can write in a candidate if you want). However, voting is still worth doing if you are a Worldcon regular. Voting in Site Selection costs more money, but for it you get a Supporting Membership in whichever site wins (Chicago), and that gets you your Hugo voting rights for 2012. It is very useful for a newly seated Worldcon to have the pile of money from Site Selection in the bank when they get elected, so us regulars help them out by voting, even in unopposed elections. And of course if you are going to Melbourne then voting now means you don’t have to remember to vote during the convention.

So, PDF ballots are available from the Aussiecon 4 web site. You can print one out and mail it in.

Wait, sorry, what did you say? Why can’t you vote online? Well, that’s a long story. Bear with me.

The whole idea of the Secret Masters of Fandom is supposed to be a joke, in that they are not actually in charge of anything and they are not secret. Unfortunately that doesn’t stop people getting carried away with the idea. Issues affecting the way that Worldcon is run are discussed on a mailing list called SMOFs. You can’t just join it, you have to be approved. And the people who are on it absolutely hate having what they say there quoted publicly, because what goes on there is supposed to be secret and private. So much so that it is often referred to as “The List That Must Not Be Named”, because it is so secret that no one is supposed to know it exists.

I’m not on the list, I gave up on it years ago, but Kevin is and occasionally I provide a friendly ear when he needs to vent about the stupidity that is sometimes exhibited there. Very rarely, however, does he get so frustrated that he has to vent to the world. This is one of those rare occasions.

For those who don’t want to click through, the relevant portion of the WSFS Constitution is as follows:

Voting shall be by written ballot cast either by mail or at the current Worldcon with tallying as described in Section 6.3.

The reason that you can’t vote in Site Selection online is because, although Worldcons have for many years considered “mail” to include faxing and private delivery by an authorized representative of the voter, it is being argued that it explicitly excludes the use of email or online voting.

We have been here before, haven’t we? It is the same argument that held that a fanzine had to be printed on paper and delivered through the mail in order to be eligible for the Hugos. It is the same argument that held that the word “published” meant printed on paper in a book or magazine, not put on a web site. And it is the same people making the argument.

So, in order to allow online voting in Site Selection we need to pass a Constitutional Amendment that will explicitly allow online Site Selection voting. Kevin has a draft amendment posted to his LiveJournal. He would appreciate expressions of support (and, of course, actual votes in Melbourne and Reno). I’ve closed comments here. Please comment on Kevin’s post.

UK people, please take note: BristolCon membership rates go up in two weeks time.

Also we’ll be making a decision about how much programme space to take based on how many members we have at that point. So if you want us to have more than one track of programming, please sign up now.

Yesterday’s mini-convention in Oxford went very well. For those of you who are not regulars, it was the 5th Anniversary event for The Write Fantastic, a UK fantasy fiction writers cooperative. As such, it attracted a very fine collection of writers, including Geoff Ryman who is spending some time in and around Oxford these days. Paul Cornell was absent due to having to attend a wedding elsewhere, but otherwise there was an excellent local turnout.

The con took place in the The Jacqueline du Pré Music Building at St. Hilda’s College, a fine establishment of which Juliet McKenna is a graduate. Being a concert hall, it has only one program room, seating around 200, but there’s a foyer in which the dealers (Newcon Press and Murky Depths) were able to set up.

I did a brief interview with Juliet for StarShipSofa and I’ll let you know when Tony has that online. John Dallman was taking some fine photos that I expect to appear on his Flickr stream soon.

As with any convention, what you want at the end is to have no major complaints, to cover your expenses, and to have people asking about “next year”. Juliet and her team managed all of that. I look forward to this becoming a regular feature of the convention calendar (though I note that if it is to grow much it will have to find a new venue).

Here’s another reason to be sad that I can’t go back to San Francisco: I would like to attend FOGcon.

The cute name with the play on the Bay Area’s most famous weather condition stands for “Friends of Genre Convention”, but if you think that means it will be about pulp and the like you’d be wrong. The web site says it is, “a literary-themed San Francisco SF/F con in the tradition of Wiscon and Readercon.”

See, just my sort of thing. The first event will be March 11-13, 2011 and the Honored Guests are Pat Murphy and Jeff VanderMeer.

Timmi Duchamp Rachel Swirsky [fixed per comment below], who is on the committee, has more details.

Have fun folks, wish I could be there.

As people have been asking, here’s what’s coming up in the next couple of months.

This Saturday I will be in Oxford for the Write Fantastic 5th Anniversary Convention. Juliet McKenna has a great collection of writers lined up. Hopefully I’ll see some of you there. I doubt that I’ll make the first panel (sorry Kari!) but I should make it in time for the politics in fantasy panel.

Over the weekend May 22/23 I will be at the Bristol Comics Expo. BristolCon will have a table there (we’ll be in the small press expo in the Mercure). This is a good time to remind you that our membership rates go up after the expo, so if you want to take advantage of the £15 rate, buy now! We’ll be taking a decision on how much programme space to book based on the number of members we have by the end of the expo, so if you want us to run more programme you need to book early.

I have sadly given up on getting a room in Epinal for Imaginales. Some medical conference has booked most of the hotel space and event the con regulars are struggling. So no France for me this year. I will, however, be going to see David Mitchell in Bath at the end of May.

The beginning of June sees the first ever Stoke Newington Literary Festival. I doubt that I’ll be there, but it will apparently have China Miéville, Jon Courtenay-Grimwood and Toby Litt. It may be worth a look if you are in London.

On June 12th I will definitely be at Alt.Fiction in Derby, which has a stellar line-up of the usual suspects.

In July I am going to Finncon. That will take a big chunk out of my month.

Awesome, isn’t it.

It also says to me that this is a Worldcon bid with a bit of ambition. I like that. More information here.

My friend Marjorie has some excellent con reports up here, here, here, and here.

Well, that’s annoying. I was planning to attend Gaylaxicon in Montréal this year, but now I can’t, because it has been canceled. Obviously I won’t be able to go next year, because the convention is in the USA. Rats!

It also looks like my attendance at Imaginales is in doubt. There’s another event in the town the same weekend, and the hotels are all fully booked. I’ve put a request out to some people I know, but it looks likely that I won’t make that one either.

I guess it all saves money.