Sept 18-20: FantasyCon in Nottingham, at which I may be on a panel about ebooks unless they have found someone else who knows more about them than I do. Also I’ll hopefully report live on the British Fantasy Awards. I’ll let you know how when I have got to the hotel and tested Internet access.
Sept 26: BristolCon, at which I will be talking about SF in countries other than the UK and pimping out the Hugo to raise money for Equality Now.
Oct 3-4: Birmingham International Comics Show. I’ll definitely be there for the Saturday. I may stay overnight so that I can see Steve Green’s panel on Adapting the Classics.
Oct 10-11: Octocon, at which I am on a panel about LGBT issues in speculative fiction.
Oct 30 – Nov 1: World Fantasy Con in San Jose, at which I will be doing many things, including probably unveiling a sekrit projekt.
I’ve only just discovered this, so apologies for the lateness, but if you are planning to go to Reno for Worldcon you may find this report, by author Christina York and her husband, Steve, to be of interest. There’s no video, but there are plenty of photos.
It isn’t often that I report hot news from the movie business, but this one has me hopping up and down with delight. Disney has announced that there will be a new Pirates of the Caribbean movie out in 2011. Johnny Depp fans immediately squee with glee. But even better news may be concealed in the subtitle: On Stranger Tides.
Yes people, that is the title of a Tim Powers novel. And right now the movie world is abuzz with the rumor that the movie is going to be based on Tim’s book. (See here for a sample.)
Now of course I am very happy for Tim, who happens to be one of my all time favorite writers. It is about time he got a movie break. But I’m also very happy because in 2011 one of the Guests of Honor at Worldcon is going to be none other than Tim Powers. So if the movie really is based on his book, Hollywood has just handed Patty Wells and her crew a monumentally huge PR boost.
Is done at last. Sorry it took so long. It is over 7,500 words, but that’s no excuse. Mainly I just had far too many other things to do first. There are photos too, but no video as yet. Anyway, here it is.
I have a very busy convention schedule coming up. FantasyCon is now just a week away, and a week after that there’s BristolCon. You may remember me saying that I rather liked the facilities at our hotel. It can’t support a huge con, but for a small UK regional I think it has a lot of promise. There are two main function rooms (only one of which we are using), and two fairly spacious social areas, one of which is set up to have a small private bar. There’s also a “break room” set up for coffee and snack services that we may be using for Colin Harvey’s book launch (yay Angry Robot!), and a bunch of small meeting rooms that could be used for microprogramming. I have some pictures from our site visit below.
Just as a reminder, BristolCon is on Saturday Sept 26th, in the afternoon. We have Al Reynolds, Charles Butler, Juliet McKenna, Colin Harvey, Eugene Byrne, Andy Bigwood, Gareth Powell and a host of promising young (and not so young) writers. If you are into Joss Whedon there’s a Serenity & Dr. Horrible screening on the Friday night and a Browncoat Ceilidh on Saturday night. The hotel is very near Temple Meads so the convention is an easy day trip from anywhere with a decent train service into Bristol (London, Birmingham, Cardiff, Reading, Oxford, Swindon, Exeter…)
And finally, in answer to the question you have all been waiting to ask: bottles of Bath Ale have been seen in the hotel bar.
Iain (M.) Banks is Guest of Honor at P-Con in Dublin next year. To encourage people to buy their memberships early, the convention is running a prize draw for signed copies of three Banks novels: Consider Phlebas, The Algebraist, and Matter. The deadline for buying your membership to qualify for the draw is 23:30 (Dublin time) on Tuesday 23rd September. Here’s the convention web site.
And if that isn’t enough to convince you of the joys of a weekend in Dublin, I note that the guest list also includes C. E. Murphy, Charles Stross, Chaz Brenchley, Colin Harvey, Eugene Byrne, Ian McDonald, John Reppion, Juliet E. McKenna, Ken MacLeod, Kim Newman, Laura Anne Gilman, Leah Moore, OisÃn McGann and Paul Cornell.
Lou Anders has posted a report of his visit to Dragon*Con. Go take a look. See all those authors, artists and editors that he saw there, who were not at Worldcon? Still think we don’t have a problem?
Well, not quite free, because you are supposed to attend Worldcon and write a trip report. But hey, trip to Australia, what’s not to like?
If you are in North America you need to take an interest in DUFF, the Down Under Fan Fund. If you are in Europe it is GUFF, the Going Under Fan Fund, for you. Those links will tell you what you need to do to apply. Good luck.
Well, these days it calls itself the British International Comics Show, which sounds a bit pretentious. However, a bunch of great people will be there: Paul Cornell, Liam Sharp, Tony Lee, Gary Erskine, Bryan Talbot (to list the ones I know), Howard Chaykin, Alan Davis, Hunt Emerson, David Lloyd and many, many others. (John & Leah are, I suspect, deep into baby production and giving it a miss this year.) The dates are October 3/4. I’m currently trying to decide whether I should just go up on the Saturday or book a hotel room for Saturday night. Anyone else going? And which hotel are all the cool kids staying in?
The 2010 TAFF race (Eastward: North America to Europe) is now open for nominations. The winning delegate will attend the 2010 Eastercon, Odyssey, in London over the Easter weekend, 2-5 April, 2010.
To stand as a candidate, you must provide:
Five nominations from known fans, three of whom must be resident in North America and two resident in Europe. All of these should send a signed nomination via postal mail – or, if sending the nomination by e-mail, include a phone number for verification
A written platform, not exceeding 101 words
A $20 bond (US or Canadian dollars)
A pledge you will take the trip if you win
All nominations, platforms, pledges and / or bonds must arrive with either the North American or European administrator (see below) by midnight GMT on Sunday, 4 October, 2009. Provided at least two candidates meet these requirements, the distribution of ballots will begin immediately thereafter. If you have any questions, feel free to contact the administrators. If you plan to run, please alert them as soon as possible.
Chris Garcia (TAFF Administrator, North America)
garcia [at] computerhistory [dot] org
962 West Weddell Dr. #15, Sunnyvale, CA 94089, USA
Via Tero I learn about the tradition of Zombie Walks. As the web site for the latest one explains:
Zombie Walk Oulu is an event where people dress up as zombies and walk a predetermined route through the city playing their roles. There is no special meaning behind it but enjoyment and fun.
The event is open for every age, gender and state of decomposition.
I think the World Horror in Brighton next year should organize one of these. Where’s James Bacon when you need him?
Just for the record, neither Kevin nor I contributed anything to Locus’s reporting of the WSFS Business Meeting this year.
Why do I say that? Because the new Locus apparently describes Kevin as “World Science Fiction Society President”. Of course he isn’t. There is no such post. Kevin chaired this year’s Business Meeting and a couple of committees. But this is just the sort of thing that tends to make SMOFdom excitable, and indeed encourages them to fight everything we do on the grounds that we are trying to “take over” the society. It is silly to think that anyone could, and the use of that title is a mistake by Locus, not anything to do with us.
I’m in another one of those SF Signal Mind Meld things. This one is all about what Worldcon and Conic-Con can learn from each other. The responses are interesting, but perhaps not as useful as they might be because most of the people responding haven’t actually run a Worldcon, or indeed any convention. Almost some of them have little idea about WSFS politics and don’t know what would get howled down.
So Diana Gill’s idea that Worldcon should learn to stay in one place is basically silly. I don’t think it would even be that good for major publishers to have Worldcon just try to ape Comic-Con or Dragon*Con.
Several respondents talked about widening the net to bring in more people who have an interest in SF&F but are currently not well catered for by Worldcon. Lou Anders made the mistake of calling for more special-interest “Guests of Honor”, which is bound to irritate traditionalists, but lots of people commented on how good having Paul Krugman at Anticipation was, and he wasn’t even billed as a Guest. Admittedly the con should have done more to promote his presence, but no one is suggesting, I think that he should have been made a GoH. He was just a high profile panelist. We need more of those, and we need to advertise their presence (and the presence of the very many we already have).
My favorite response was from John Picacio who had some simple, concrete ideas about how to make better use of your headline artist guest. This is something that Imaginales does very well. Every year their chosen artist does a picture for them, and picture is everywhere, from the web site to publications to banners around the town. I’ll just quote a little bit of John’s response, because it makes a huge point. He’s talking about last year in Denver:
The con shared a cavernous convention facility with two other gatherings — a John Deere convention and a statisticians’ convention — and both had signage that was bigger, more graphically compelling, and just more visible than Worldcon’s. Let that sink in for a moment: science fiction art is some of the most compelling, evocative imagery anywhere. Who could believe then that a farm equipment con and a statisticians’ con would visually own THE World Science Fiction Convention in a side-by-side comparison?
Shortly after Worldcon, John C. Wright, a man whose bizarre ideas about sex and gender should come as no surprise to anyone, posted a deeply homophobic rant (since deleted) on his LiveJournal. This prompted a group of people to found The Outer Alliance. Those who have signed up (of which I am one) adhere to the following:
As a member of the Outer Alliance, I advocate for queer speculative fiction and those who create, publish and support it, whatever their sexual orientation and gender identity. I make sure this is reflected in my actions and my work.
Today is the first ever Outer Alliance Pride Day. Members around the world are posting about queer issues. I have a number of posts I’d like to highlight.
As part of that I had to write a brief Gender 101, which I have posted here.
Given that book reviewing is something I do, I have written a review of a book by a lesbian author which has a lesbian central character: The Red Tree, by CaitlÃn R. Kiernan.
And finally, as almost everyone else is posting fiction, I figured I had better point you at something. This is something I wrote last year: a short tale of gender confusion in ancient Greece. It isn’t very good, and I keep meaning to find the time to work on it, but it is all I’ve got.
A round up of all posts can be found here, but here are a few highlights I have seen so far today by friends of mine.
I’d also like to point you at this post about the LGBT issue of Crossed Genres, which I will have an article in once I get around to writing it.
And finally, mention of John Coulthart reminds me that the city of Manchester celebrated its Pride Weekend a few days ago. As part of the celebrations the local LGBT community put together a little video based, with kind permission, on Lily Allen’s magnificent anti-bigotry rant, “F**k You”. Listen and enjoy.
Update: added Nicola whose post doesn’t seem to have come through the OA email system.
The UK has an awful lot of municipal literary festivals. None of them are at all welcoming to speculative literature, unless they are specifically aimed at children. I have thought for a long time that there was a huge gap in the market here, and that some enterprising city ought to step up and found a new event that would cater to what is, after all, a huge market. Unfortunately this is one project that I haven’t had time to pursue, but I’m pleased to say that it has almost happened anyway. Almost.
Yes, the UK is still wallowing in prejudice, but the Irish have taken the lead. Take a look at WexWorlds. This is just the sort of thing that our genre needs – a full-blown literary festival being organized with the full cooperation of the local authorities. Entrance to most events is free. This has the potential to be as big as Imaginales and Finncon. Sadly the inaugural event conflicts with an event I’m supposed to attend in California after World Fantasy, but I’m hoping it goes well because I’m going to plan on being there next year.
And guess which hard-working fellow told me all about this, because he’s involved in organizing it? Hat tip: James Bacon.
If you have been waiting for my panel write-ups from Montreal, I’m pleased to say that I have one done. My notes from the Best Fanwriter panel are now online at ConReporter.com. I don’t have web links for everyone, so if you know of links please let me know. But please don’t let your enthusiasm get the better of you. If people don’t have their names attached to their LiveJournals that’s probably because they don’t want the connection made.
The write-up of the Future of Gender panel, plus a whole lot of convention reporting, is still to come.
Going through the Anticipation LiveJournal in search of material for ConReporter.com’s archive page, I discovered this post about a survey of Worldcon attendees. I have often heard people say that if we are to make Worldcon better we need data, and propose doing surveys of the membership. Generally I pour scorn on this because most people in fandom have no idea how to design a good survey, let alone analyze the results of one.
However, this particular survey was created by a professional: Dr. June M. Madeley of the Information and Communication Studies Program at the University of New Brunswick. Most of the questions seem quite sensible (though there is one glaring error of asking people if they chose which bid to vote for based on the proposed Guests of Honor), and Dr. Madeley ought to know how to analyze the results. I have no idea whether the data will be made available to the Worldcon community, but I do know that the survey will be useless unless lots of Worldcon attendees participate.
So, go ye here and learn about the survey (and shudder at the awful web design) and then fill it in. This could be very useful.
Having booked my flight to Octocon, the next task is to sort a hotel room. I need somewhere to stay for Fri/Sat/Sun nights. Female non-smoker preferred. Any takers?
As the guitar comes out Patrick bolts for the door, muttering curses. The woman… sings a song about… oh, I don’t know. Who could listen? At this point I’m just watching the exodus of audience members, wishing I was one of them.
Then the audience got in on the act and things went downhill from there.
I’ll be busy traveling for much of today, but I wanted to do a quick post about the bizarre panel that was the talk of much of the parties last night. Apparently it resulted in Patrick Neilsen Hayden walking off the panel, Geoff Ryman banging his head on the table, and mass exits by the audience. I wasn’t there, but Kathryn Cramer has a few photos with which she attempts to capture the surreal atmosphere.
Of course the vast majority of the panels at the convention went fairly well. Somehow the occasional oddity only adds to the entertainment, except perhaps for the panelists at the time.
