In Which There Is Much Swearing

Today I due to do three live panels. So today my netbook decided to die on me. I think it is only the screen that has gone, but even so it is unusable. I do have a laptop with me, but it doesn’t have much battery life so for live coverage it really needs to be tethered. There are plenty of power points around, but this could be a problem.

Fortunately I also have the iPhone, but I’d rather not have to use that for CiL because I don’t know what sort of controls I’ll have through that interface and I need the iPhone to keep an eye on Twitter. *sigh*

Why me?

Engaging Brain

Bleagh, morning.

I’ve just done a big update over at ConReporter.com. I have to do one for SFAW too. I don’t have the braincells to do one here as well. Sorry. Need more coffee.

#Eastercon Underway

I have arrived at the Radisson Non-Eucilidian and impressed with its space-bending properties. As we approached the hotel, both the GPS in the car and Google Maps on my iPhone ceased to work. Thankfully we managed to find it, and the nearby and much cheaper (and not fully-booked) Ibis where I’m staying.

The con is in full swing, and the free wi-fi is not only genuinely free but is of good quality. I am feeling very positive about all of the live coverage.

Paul Cornell’s talk on Kate Bush was superb. As a result I will be buying more Kate Bush albums.

Apparently I am on another panel. Farah needs to be at the UK in 2014 Launch Party (I guess she’s on the committee), so I’m taking her slot on Alternative Sexualities tonight.

There are lots of Americans here. Chris Garcia and I are conspiring to hold a BASFA meeting. Unfortunately he has to miss Monday, so we’ll have to declare another day to be Monday for purposes of meeting-holding, but there should be no problem in getting a quorate meeting.

And now I need to try to find the room for the European Fandom panel. This hotel manages to spread its function space to all corners of the multiverse. Wish me luck.

More Linky Stuff

It’s a busy day today:

– For those of you planning to attend the Hay Lecture at Eastercon, The Economist has all the gossip from a recent conference on geoengineering.

– The guys at Geek Syndicate have discovered a new UK comics convention, coming up in just a few weeks time.

– And the Archbishop of Canterbury reminds his fellow bishops that Christians in the UK actually have a pretty easy time of it compared to their fellow believers in other parts of the world, so maybe they should be a bit less vocal about their self-pity.

Menacing Again

Late last year I blogged about an editorial by Mike Resnick from Baen’s Universe. Mike had a bunch of good points, but also said some things that very much annoyed some people. Not long afterward, an article by Mike and Barry Malzberg appeared in the SFWA Bulletin. This was pretty much more of the same, including more dubious statistics purporting to prove that Worldcon was about to keel over any die any year now.

So I wrote something in response, and that article has just seen print. Somewhat to my surprise, it is the lead story in the latest Bulletin, and is available online. Doubtless people will very soon be complaining that I am once again proving myself a Menace to Fandom who is Hell-bent on Destroying All That We Hold Dear. I may have managed to tick off a few pros too.

Having had a quick read, I have discovered one error. I originally wrote that the Netherlands and Japan Worldcons both, “drew over 3,000 attendees”. Then I got some better data in (thanks, Peggy Rae!) and it turned out that the correct number to use for Yokohama should be 2852. Somehow the right number got in, but the change of “over” to “around” didn’t. My apologies for that.

Also, of course, I will no longer be able to attend SMOFcon 28. I will have to leave Kevin and the rest of SFSFC to run that without me. But I do hope that someone from SFWA will turn up and talk to the assembled SMOFs.

And now, a piece of raw egoboo.

SFWA Bulletin #187 cover

Live From #Eastercon (With #Hugos!)

It is convention coverage time again. I have a bunch of live events I will be running through ConReporter.com (see here).

The one I am most jazzed about is the 2010 Hugo Award Nominees Announcement. I suspect that a fair few nominees will be at the con, but a lot of them have obligations elsewhere (there are, for example, several big conventions in the US this weekend). I’m hoping that a few will drop by my coverage to celebrate. Kevin should be online from Norwescon (hopefully from a room full of fen watching the webcast on a big screen) to help moderate comments and answer any rules questions. It should be a great worldwide geek party. I want to see #Hugos trending.

If you’ve been following comments here you’ll know that we might also have the event live in Second Life. Fingers crossed.

All I need now is for the tech to hold up as promised.

Eastercon Schedule

Here’s what I expect to be up to over the weekend.

Panels I am on

I’m moderating both of these.

Sunday – 7:00pm Virtual Conventions

Monday – 11:00am Language & Dialect

Live Panels

These are panels I expect to be live-blogging using the CoverItLive software over on ConReporter.com.

Saturday – 3:00pm Social Media (this one will also be on UStream)

Sunday – 6:00pm BSFA Awards

Sunday – 7:00pm Virtual Conventions (yes, I’m also moderating it, and will accept questions from the online audience)

Sunday – 10:00pm Hugo Awards Nominees Announcement (expect lots of tweeting from this too. I want to see #hugos trend, OK?)

There are a bunch of other interesting events that I plan to attend and may tweet from. Annoyingly the UK Worldcon Bid announcement clashes with the Alternate Sexualities panel, so someone else will tweet which city has been chosen before me, but I’ll catch up with it afterward. It is going to be a struggle to be up for the 9:00am Saturday panel on Welsh Language Science Fiction, but I’ll try to be there. I do not want to miss seeing Ben Goldacre, or Oliver Morton’s Hay Lecture on geoengineering, both on Saturday.

Note that this is all dependent on Internet access. Eastercon has told me that there will be free wi-fi, but if I can’t get access I can’t do the coverage.

I will have a voice recorder and the Flip with me and plan to grab a bunch of interviews. The audio stuff may turn up on Star Ship Sofa if Tony likes it.

Imaginales 2010 Web Site Live

I see that the web site for the 2010 Imaginales is now live. The guest list includes Joe Abercrombie, Jacqueline Carey, Kirstin Cashore, Greg Keyes, Elisabeth Vonarburg and Robert Charles Wilson, as well as all of the regular French authors.

So, anyone up for a fun weekend in France?

Dudcon III Web Site Live

The 2010 Australian Natcon, which exists, friendly-flea-like, upon the back of the ravenous beast that is Aussiecon 4, now has its very own web site. If you would like to find out how you, yes you!, could be Guest of Honour at an Australian Natcon, and many other exciting things that you didn’t know you didn’t know, go check it out.

Eastercon Update

For the benefit of Gary Farber and anyone else wishing to follow along from afar, Danie Ware has published details of the live panel she is running from Eastercon. It doesn’t appear to include a URL for the UStream coverage yet, but you could ask here there.

Virtual Eastercon

Interesting things should be happening at Eastercon this year, especially for those of you who can’t attend.

On Saturday afternoon there will be a panel in social media. I believe it is going out on UStream, and it is apparently using the hashtag #Livecon. Danie Ware is in charge of the festivities, and Paul Cornell is one of the panelists.

Early on Sunday evening there is a panel on virtual conventions. I’ve been asked to moderate this (yes, I know the draft program (PDF) says Maura, long story) and I’m planning to run it as a CoverItLive event. I will be taking questions from the online audience as well as from people in the room.

If I’m slightly breathless on that it will be because it follows directly on from the BSFA Awards ceremony, which I’m also intending to cover using CoverItLive.

More generally, I’m sure that a lot of people will be blogging, tweeting and so on. And, of course, it is a very busy weekend for conventions. Kevin will be at Norwescon. Minicon, Wondercon and Swancon are also taking place. I’ve put out a request for reporters for ConReporter.com. If you are interested, let me know. And if anyone knows of official hashtags for any of these cons, again please let me know.

And there may be one other live event on the Sunday. Watch this space.

Foodie Bristol

I spent most of today in Bristol. Part of that was for a Bristolcon committee meeting — putting our plans together for Eastercon — but I also got some shopping in. That included a fabulous new jacket (at 40% off) and new books by Al Reynolds and Glenda Larke, but mostly I bought food.

Bristol appears to be a pretty foodie place, which suits me just fine. My first port of call was Threthowan’s Dairy, a place that sells a range of cheeses made from unpasteurised milk. It is really good stuff. I’ll doubtless blog more about it in the coming months. Bay Area folks, if you can get to Cowgirl Creamery, ask for Gorwydd Caerphilly.

Trethowan’s is in St. Nicholas’ Market, and that is also home to the Hot Sauce Emporium, which claims to be the first specialist chili sauce shop in the UK. There I purchased this stuff, which looks to be absolutely divine.

There are also a number of fine looking cafes. I tend to eat in Sourdough Cafe, because it reminds me of San Francisco and because they serve lovely little shots of high quality Mexican hot chocolate. I’m also keen to try PieMinster. Both places are reviewed here, along with a whole lot more interesting Bristol venues.

P-Con GoH Speech – Nick Harkaway

The P-Con folks have uploaded a video of Nick Harkaway’s Guest of Honour speech to YouTube. They’ve done a fine job of it, which relieves me of the responsibility of processing my own footage. Nick is very funny, so do check it out. Due to YouTube upload limits it is broken into 6 parts as follows:

  • Part I (including why Nick no longer does scriptwriting and talks about his new book)
  • Part II (in which Nick talks about the SF v literature argument and his space opera in the style of Dylan Thomas)
  • Part IV (in which Nick talks about the 100 Stories for Haiti anthology and his wife’s human rights work)
  • Part V (in which Nick talks about Bletchley Park and other charity work)
  • Part VI (in which Nick reads from The Gone-Away World)
  • Part VII (more from The Gone-Away World)

No, I don’t know what happened to Part III.

New Linkage Collection

Guess who has spent most of today staring at code rather than blogging.

– Alex C. Telander interviews AussieCon 4 GoH, Kim Stanley Robinson (podcast).

The Guardian puts the boot in to bad fantasy character names.

– Mark Kelly starts gathering some interesting statistics about how SF&F books are published.

– A Western Australia newspaper has a very positive article about Aussiecon 4.

– Jeff VanderMeer has compiled a wonderful list of recommendations of good 2009 SF&F from many different countries.

– Charles A.Tan talks to the publishers of an anthology of Tamil Pulp Fiction.

– On Saturday I tweeted about a group of people in V masks who were demonstrating outside of the Scientology offices in Tottenham Court Road. I now suspect that they may have been the racist and homophobic group talked about here.

– The Scavenger has an excellent interview with trans activist, Julia Serano.

The Guardian publishes another trans-positive article (which I note because it shows they are making progress).

– Australian resident wins the right to have no gender.

Neil on CBS

Those of you who, like me, did not get to see Neil Gaiman’s appearance on CBS Sunday Morning can view that segment online here. They ended up not talking about the Hugos at all, but there are a number of scenes from Worldcon in Montreal. Mostly, of course, they went for people in weird costumes, but there are a few familiar faces. My friend Anne KG Murphy is briefly visible in the background busily keeping Neil’s life smooth and organized.

P-Con Wrap

P-Con should have been well and truly dead-dogged by now. There might still be a few people in the Porterhouse, but as the dead dog started at lunch time anyone who is left will be pretty horizontal by now, I think.

It sounds like Nick had a wonderful time, which makes me very happy, because it was partly my fault that he was there.

For my own part I have learned something very valuable: if you are going to record an audio report from a convention, make sure you have very good notes to hand, because once the recording goes live you won’t be able to remember anything about the convention. Proof of this fact can now be found here. I shall try to do better next time, Tony.

Because I will probably have forgotten by next year, here’s a reminder about the wi-fi in the Central. It does work, and it is free. The problem is activating it. With most hotel wi-fi you just connect, launch your browser and sign in. Eirecom, however, have managed to create a system where the sign-in process only works in Internet Explorer. The stupidity of this should be obvious to all, and now you have all been warned about just how dumb ISPs can be.

I wasn’t at the dead dog as I had to get back to Somerset and re-pack ready to head out to California. However, I did spend Sunday evening at the convention. Diane Duane and Peter Moorwood turned up, which was very nice, and a whole bunch of us headed out to dinner at a nearby Japanese restaurant. Good eating was had by all, despite the sad lack of unagi on the menu.

There was also some obscure tweetage and, because Irish people were present, discussion of religion. Ireland has, apparently, come a long way in the last 40+ years. I am reliably informed that back in the 1960s it was considered deeply shocking for a bishop to actually see a lady’s nightie. Obviously this was true if the lady was in it, but also the mere sight of such a risqué garment was liable to cause undue stress for episcopal persons. Sadly this proved far too much of a temptation to some dreadful sinners.

The things you learn at conventions…

P-Con: Day 2

The morning began with a panel about gender genre bending. The panelists elected me moderator and I paid them back by asking them to define “genre”. Confusion inevitably followed. I have discovered that Laura Anne Gilman is allergic to the term “post-modernism”. This may be useful in the future.

The “aliens in Dublin” panel was great fun. I had brought a costume — a cat mask. Between us Juliet, Laura, John Vaughan and I managed to talk complete nonsense for an entire hour.

A panel titled “Is the Internet Indispensable” cries out to be subverted by technology. Some of the best comments came from the online audience via Twitter, but pride of place should probably go to RF Long who noted: “what happens on the Internet stays on the Internet; forever”.

Closing ceremonies have happened. Nick proved a very popular Guest of Honour. Next year’s GoH will be the very wonderful Ian McDonald. Julian West won the Frank Darcy Award with a very funny drabble. I did not win anything in the auction, but I did bag a very splendid “Friend of P-Con” certificate for (ahem) “services rendered”.

I have filed an audio con report with Star Ship Sofa. For all I know it might be online already. I, however, am headed back to the bar.