WorldCon, in summary, Part II
Aug. 16th, 2009 08:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mousmeMy summary of WorldCon, continued.
Friday:
I actually manage to get out the door stupidly early on Friday to go to the gym, then swing by work to sign some papers, and even stop by Zellers to get more yarn for the latest baby blanket of doom. I am so efficient I nearly blind myself, and I am in home in time to dress up like everyone else in Stargate "uniform." Much fun, although by the end of the day I am dying of heat.
We arrive bright and early-ish at the Con in order to sign up for the kaffeeklatches, only to find out that the sign-ups actually take place exactly 24 hours before the assigned time, and thus we have a bit of a wait ahead of us. Oh well. So we hit the dealers' room again, and caught up with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
karine and sandman7. I have pictures, but until I find my camera cable, they won't be forthcoming. Feh.
I line up for Connie Willis' autograph, and make a complete blithering idiot of myself in front of her. She is very nice and tolerant and kindly allows me to have my picture taken with her, although she is slightly bemused by my very enthusiastic gushing.
I end up at a panel on relativism and the superhero, which turns out to be a lot less interesting than I'd hoped for, and concentrates a whole lot on comic books that I've never read, more's the pity.
At 12:30 I attend what is arguably the best panel of the entire con: "The New Media." Panelists are Neil Gaiman, Melissa Auf Der Mar, Cory Doctorow, Tobias Buckell, Ellen Kushner, and another man whose name I have forgotten, which is a damned shame because he was awesome as well. Kushner moderates with aplomb, the panelists are all well-spoken, interesting and insightful. Words can't convey what a fun and enlightening hour and a half this turns out to be.
I head to a panel intitled "The Fiction of Neil Gaiman" which is such a disappointment that I don't stay for more than ten minutes. All of the panelists admit to not having read much Gaiman, and the panel quickly devolves into audience testimonials about how they discovered Gaiman and how much they love him. Not what I came for.
I decide to have a quick lunch with some of the usual suspects before heading to a panel on preparing to write a series, which to be honest does more to introduce me to some potentially interesting new authors rather than give me any insight into how authors prepare for a series. Annoyingly, most of the audience questions revolve around how to get published rather than on the prep work. *sigh*
I re-join the group for the Stargate Panel, which is fun but ultimately uninformative, and then we head out afterward for the ghost walk we signed up for. Sadly, due to a misunderstanding the ghost walk is a no-go, and we end up heading back to the Con to re-group, and eventually head home to collapse once more, whilejoane and shenlo head back to Alexandria in order to spend the night with their wee sproglet.
Saturday:
Saturday morning sees us all a bit groggy and out of it, but we get to the Con in time for the 10:00 panels. I attend a panel intitled "What About The Children?" which is so lacklustre I am tempted to leave. The audience keeps dragging the panelists back on topic, in spite of their apparent desire to discuss their own experience of parenting rather than what the role of children is in science fiction. Grr.
Luckily the following panel on "What Makes A Good Story" is waaaay better. Robert Silverberg and Nancy Kress steal the show with their banter, and generally it makes for a very good time. I seejteethy a couple of rows ahead of me, but don't get to talk to him right away. Equally entertaining is the subsequent panel: "We Are The Knights Who Say F***!" with Guy Gavriel Kay et al. The panel is marred somewhat by the presence of my ex, but luckily there is no drama, and I escape at pretty high velocity in order to get to my kaffeeklatch with John Scalzi.
So John Scalzi is a really nice, funny, well-spoken man. Also, by all evidence, he is, like me, a well-socialized geeky introvert. He entertains us with stories about the Con, previous Cons, and sharing a special moment with Robert Silverberg, to whom he demonstrated Twittering (or is that Tweeting?). I was very impressed, although not surprised, and have begun following his blog in earnest, rather than occasionally checking in when other people link to him.
I catch a glimpse ofshenlo in full Doctor Who regalia (you'll have to ask him which Doctor, 'cause I forget which it is: the one with the fancy scarf), and catch up with chibipunkdemon and toughlovemuse who are at the Con on a weekend pass. Together we attend a fun panel about Azimov (the magazine, not the author) and the various authors who get published in it and why they get published. Interesting stuff, and I believe that toughlovemuse has a blog post in the works about what Connie Willis had to say about the whole business.
I zip to an interview with Neil Gaiman about his role in fandom as a fan, and end up sitting up front on the floor, while Gaiman natters happily about Doctor Who and comic books and watching Batman. So much fun. The man really knows how to talk to an audience.
After the interview the usual suspects gather for dinner, apart frommangafairy and G who attends a radio play. Most of us reconvene for "Gaiman Reads Doctorow" which is entertaining, a bit disturbing (Doctorow reads a little bit like... well, like nothing I've read before, but also on crack), very enlightening (there was lots of discussion of the whole "copy-left" thing) and absolutely hilarious when Gaiman and Doctorow begin talking amongst themselves.
The day comes to an unfortunate end upon our return to the parking lot whereshenlo left the car, where we find that the car has been burgled, and joane's bag dumped out and the contents stolen. mangafairy and G head home, while the rest of us hie ourselves to the nearest police station to file a report, especially since joane's passport was among the stolen objects. We spend a fair amount of time at the police station, and, rather dispirited, go home much later than we'd originally planned, for some chatting and some much-needed alcohol.
More to come in later entries. Stay tuned!
Friday:
I actually manage to get out the door stupidly early on Friday to go to the gym, then swing by work to sign some papers, and even stop by Zellers to get more yarn for the latest baby blanket of doom. I am so efficient I nearly blind myself, and I am in home in time to dress up like everyone else in Stargate "uniform." Much fun, although by the end of the day I am dying of heat.
We arrive bright and early-ish at the Con in order to sign up for the kaffeeklatches, only to find out that the sign-ups actually take place exactly 24 hours before the assigned time, and thus we have a bit of a wait ahead of us. Oh well. So we hit the dealers' room again, and caught up with
karine and sandman7. I have pictures, but until I find my camera cable, they won't be forthcoming. Feh.I line up for Connie Willis' autograph, and make a complete blithering idiot of myself in front of her. She is very nice and tolerant and kindly allows me to have my picture taken with her, although she is slightly bemused by my very enthusiastic gushing.
I end up at a panel on relativism and the superhero, which turns out to be a lot less interesting than I'd hoped for, and concentrates a whole lot on comic books that I've never read, more's the pity.
At 12:30 I attend what is arguably the best panel of the entire con: "The New Media." Panelists are Neil Gaiman, Melissa Auf Der Mar, Cory Doctorow, Tobias Buckell, Ellen Kushner, and another man whose name I have forgotten, which is a damned shame because he was awesome as well. Kushner moderates with aplomb, the panelists are all well-spoken, interesting and insightful. Words can't convey what a fun and enlightening hour and a half this turns out to be.
I head to a panel intitled "The Fiction of Neil Gaiman" which is such a disappointment that I don't stay for more than ten minutes. All of the panelists admit to not having read much Gaiman, and the panel quickly devolves into audience testimonials about how they discovered Gaiman and how much they love him. Not what I came for.
I decide to have a quick lunch with some of the usual suspects before heading to a panel on preparing to write a series, which to be honest does more to introduce me to some potentially interesting new authors rather than give me any insight into how authors prepare for a series. Annoyingly, most of the audience questions revolve around how to get published rather than on the prep work. *sigh*
I re-join the group for the Stargate Panel, which is fun but ultimately uninformative, and then we head out afterward for the ghost walk we signed up for. Sadly, due to a misunderstanding the ghost walk is a no-go, and we end up heading back to the Con to re-group, and eventually head home to collapse once more, while
joane and shenlo head back to Alexandria in order to spend the night with their wee sproglet.Saturday:
Saturday morning sees us all a bit groggy and out of it, but we get to the Con in time for the 10:00 panels. I attend a panel intitled "What About The Children?" which is so lacklustre I am tempted to leave. The audience keeps dragging the panelists back on topic, in spite of their apparent desire to discuss their own experience of parenting rather than what the role of children is in science fiction. Grr.
Luckily the following panel on "What Makes A Good Story" is waaaay better. Robert Silverberg and Nancy Kress steal the show with their banter, and generally it makes for a very good time. I see
jteethy a couple of rows ahead of me, but don't get to talk to him right away. Equally entertaining is the subsequent panel: "We Are The Knights Who Say F***!" with Guy Gavriel Kay et al. The panel is marred somewhat by the presence of my ex, but luckily there is no drama, and I escape at pretty high velocity in order to get to my kaffeeklatch with John Scalzi.So John Scalzi is a really nice, funny, well-spoken man. Also, by all evidence, he is, like me, a well-socialized geeky introvert. He entertains us with stories about the Con, previous Cons, and sharing a special moment with Robert Silverberg, to whom he demonstrated Twittering (or is that Tweeting?). I was very impressed, although not surprised, and have begun following his blog in earnest, rather than occasionally checking in when other people link to him.
I catch a glimpse of
shenlo in full Doctor Who regalia (you'll have to ask him which Doctor, 'cause I forget which it is: the one with the fancy scarf), and catch up with chibipunkdemon and toughlovemuse who are at the Con on a weekend pass. Together we attend a fun panel about Azimov (the magazine, not the author) and the various authors who get published in it and why they get published. Interesting stuff, and I believe that toughlovemuse has a blog post in the works about what Connie Willis had to say about the whole business.I zip to an interview with Neil Gaiman about his role in fandom as a fan, and end up sitting up front on the floor, while Gaiman natters happily about Doctor Who and comic books and watching Batman. So much fun. The man really knows how to talk to an audience.
After the interview the usual suspects gather for dinner, apart from
mangafairy and G who attends a radio play. Most of us reconvene for "Gaiman Reads Doctorow" which is entertaining, a bit disturbing (Doctorow reads a little bit like... well, like nothing I've read before, but also on crack), very enlightening (there was lots of discussion of the whole "copy-left" thing) and absolutely hilarious when Gaiman and Doctorow begin talking amongst themselves.The day comes to an unfortunate end upon our return to the parking lot where
shenlo left the car, where we find that the car has been burgled, and joane's bag dumped out and the contents stolen. mangafairy and G head home, while the rest of us hie ourselves to the nearest police station to file a report, especially since joane's passport was among the stolen objects. We spend a fair amount of time at the police station, and, rather dispirited, go home much later than we'd originally planned, for some chatting and some much-needed alcohol.More to come in later entries. Stay tuned!
