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Category: conventioneering

Westercon!

I’m at Westercon in San Diego! (Actually we arrived Wednesday, but Thursday was largely devoted to Legoland and the associated water park.)

I’m doing some panels and things! The schedule is here. Short form: Friday I’m on a panel about shared-world writing at 11, and a panel about writing irredeemably villainous protagonists at 2. Saturday I’m on a panel about fairies (or faery) at noon, and doing a reading at 2 (come to that, I’m good at readings), and doing an autograph session at 3. Otherwise I’ll just be wandering around and talking to people and avoiding talking to people. Hope to see those of you I hope to see!

Sandy Aygo

At WFC I did readings and met with editors and saw friends and went to parties and drank only slightly too much and interviewed an awesome writer for my day job and bought some books and finished writing a book, but that’s all standard con report stuff, and I’ve said it all or variations before. Instead I’ll tell you how the con was for my son River:

River was disappointed that there wasn’t more sand in San Diego. (I mean, as he pointed out, it’s right there in the name.)

He was also really quite angry that we were flying United instead of Southwest, because the Southwest planes are more colorful. (He asked one of our friends “what plane you fly on?” and when the reply was “Southwest,” he rounded on me and said accusingly, “I told you they come to San Diego!”)

He approved of the golf cart transportation at the hotel.

He hung out with our friend Sarah for a while, and was very enamored of the game they played, where they pretended to be lions and jumped out to scare passers-by. He later jumped out of the bathroom to scare his babysitter when she arrived.

He consistently called the dealer’s room the “Boring Room” but he liked the art show. We let him pick out a print; he went with a picture of a kitten and a baby dragon.

Mostly his days were spent hanging out in the pool, where he rode a giant inflatable dragon. He also enjoyed running around a couple of afternoon parties. He got a couple of autographs from writers, which delighted him. He collected postcards and bookmarks with a certain amount of zeal. He met a little girl two days younger than himself and ran in circles with her in the registration area.

We got a babysitter on Saturday night so Heather and I could both go out. He was strenuously opposed to having a babysitter — until she showed up with a bag full of toys. Then he looked at me and said, “Dada, why you still here? When you going?”

Things you can do with a (nearly) four-year-old around 6 am in the vicinity of the Town & Country hotel in San Diego: Ride up and down elevators. Throw a penny in a fountain. (He wished for a dinosaur, and was disappointed when a dinosaur didn’t materialize. I told him a dinosaur could take a while.) Walk across the bridge to the mall, pausing to marvel over the slimy water and to count ducks. Wander around an empty mall and peer in windows. Eventually, ride the trolley a few stops away and then back again, because preschoolers like trains.

While we were at lunch with our friend Greg, River said, “Do you want a cookie, or a diaper?” I said, “Uh, a cookie.” He said, “We’re all out of cookies, but we still have diapers.” It was like he’d independently created Eddie Izzard’s “Cake or Death” sketch.

River and my wife came to my reading. After 15 or 20 minutes, Heather wanted to leave, and told River they were going. He said, “Won’t that embarrass Daddy?”

One morning he was playing pretend on the bed and said to me, “I’m the king’s driver!” I said, “Way to aim high, kid.” Later he was jumping on the bed (we let him jump on hotel beds, because we are terrible people), and he said, “I’m the king of the jumpers!” I said, “That’s better.”

He dragged me away from Daryl Gregory’s (awesome) book launch party to hang out with him in a gazebo. He said to me, very matter-of-factly, “A gazebo is a kind of animal.”

And that was WFC!

Me at World Fantasy

World Fantasy! It’s so soon! If you’ll be there, and you want to see me read some things, that can be arranged:

I’ll read a tiny bit at the ChiZine Publications party on Friday night, at 8 p.m. in the Lanai Suite.

I actually got a reading slot on the program (whee!). That’s Saturday at 10 a.m. in Pacific 4/5. Drag your hungover bodies in there!

I’ll also take part in the Fantasy Magazine group reading at 3 p.m. on Saturday, room TBD.

We’re bringing our kid to the convention, so my wife and I will be splitting up childcare, which means I won’t be in the bar as much as I might like — I imagine I’ll be in the pool with my son more often than I’ll be drinking with my colleagues. I am doing some other convention-related stuff — I’m doing an interview with an author for Locus, and have a couple of meals scheduled — and there are a couple of parties I hope to attend. I’ll be around.

That Was Worldcon

As I write this it’s 8:13 am in Reno on August, uh, I have no idea. (I doubt I’ll post it until tomorrow anyway though, so what’s it matter?) It’s Sunday, the last day of Worldcon. My wife is sleeping (she was out late at the Hugo Loser’s Party; she was the designated acceptor for Best Editor Long Form nominee Juliet Ulman. Shame she didn’t get to use Juliet’s lovely speech.) My mother-in-law, who came along to hang out with her grandson, is off having breakfast with the boy. It’s quiet in the room, apart from Heather’s steady sleeping breath and the everpresent exhalation of the air conditioner, so I thought I’d try to write a bit about my Worldcon experience, to nail down a few nice memories:


  • Seeing the women of Locus in their steampunk ball finery, especially my wife and her leather-corset based ensemble. (She’s understandably more proud of the tiny hat she made by hand last week, and it’s lovely, but… leather corset.)

  • My reading, which, though sparsely attended, had a very appreciative audience. And my other reading, at the EDGE party in the Con Suite, where I read a chunk of my story “Little Better than a Beast” and got some nice laughs from a casino robbery joke.

  • Dinner with my wife, my boss Liza, Liz Gorinsky, and Daryl Gregory. One of the most enjoyable convention meals I’ve ever had, both in terms of interesting yummy food and hilarious conversation.

  • Breakfast with Lynne Thomas and her husband Michael, the morning before Lynne won the Hugo for Best Related Book — I knew her when!

  • My kaffeeklatsch, which in a certain respect wasn’t all that successful, as only one person signed up. BUT that one person was someone I’ve met before, Joey, who’s a big fan of my work and great company besides. Plus: he brought me the gift of single malt Scotch, and small-cask bourbon, and peach brandy. (With a peach inside the bottle! They grow a peach inside the bottle before filling it with booze!) We loaded up the libations and went up to the Locus party and shared some liquor around, and Joey was very popular indeed.

  • The Locus party itself, where we toasted my late boss Charles, and generally made merry.

  • The release party for Lev Grossman’s The Magician King, where the ever-dapper Lev was induced to wear fox ears. (Read the book; it’s a topical fashion choice.) And where I had a chance to chat a bit with Lev and tell him how much I admire his books, and where we discussed the horrors of Dora the Explorer and the ubiquity of sloths in current speculative fiction.

  • Meeting David Malki of Wondermark fame — while wearing a Wondermark t-shirt, specifically this one.

  • I got a message on the voodoo board thing from a fan who was only at the convention on Thursday, hoping he could find me to get some books signed. So I called him up and arranged to meet him later at one of the parties, and he showed up and I signed and chatted a bit. Though sense we me in the Temple of Loud that is the Tor party, I don’t know how comprehensible I was. I pretty clearly made the guy’s day, though, which was wonderful if a bit surreal.

  • Hearing from a few people that my stories made them cry. (Not tears of rage, I assume.) Most tear-inducing stories seem to be “Little Gods” and “Restless in My Hand.”

  • Having the opportunity to thank Steve Feldberg of Audible for supporting my Marla Mason series and commissioning those awesome new Daniel Dos Santos/Lindsey Look covers.

  • Getting to talk about my “best critique” at a panel. My best critique came from my late boss Charles Brown, who actually read my first published novel in an early draft form, and gave me feedback that changed the whole way I thought about novels — that novels aren’t just long stories with extra subplots. Stories are jazz solos; novels are symphonies, with every character’s voice and viewpoint adding something different and complementary to the whole.

  • Paddling around the indoor swimming pool with River, and his absolute delight at being able to swim so much. His joy at riding up and down in the glass elevators, watching the world outside rise and fall.

  • Sitting with a laptop early in the morning outside by the pool, before the heat of the day really ramped up, and getting news that a book deal has been finalized. That tends to brighten up one’s convention-going day. (I’ll give details when I can.)

There were other nice moments, but those are the ones that stand out the most.

I haven’t seen much of Reno, having barely left the hotel, but I don’t think I’ll make a point of returning to see more of the city. I don’t have the gambling gene — nothing against it, it just doesn’t interest me, especially the ubiquitous slot machines where you’re essentially playing against uncaring Math itself. I could do without the cigarette smoke. If you’re not into gambling or smoking, there doesn’t seem to be a lot here for you, but again, I’m not the most educated observer.

This is my fourth Worldcon in ten years. Not that many, I know! I’ve only gone to west coast-ish Worldcons (San Jose, Anaheim, Reno), except for the convention in Boston, when I was a Campbell nominee. The one year I was a Hugo nominee, the convention was in Japan, my wife was VERY pregnant, and travel didn’t seem prudent, especially since I didn’t expect to win, so I didn’t go to the con. It’s not my favorite convention, honestly — a bit bigger than I like, though compared to DragonCon or ComicCon it’s tiny, I know. Still. I like a convention where you’ll pretty much run into everyone there a few times just by walking in the hallways, and Worldcon’s too large for that — there are friends and friendly acquaintances I know are here (I see their tweets!) that I haven’t managed to bump into.

This was a weird con, because most of my very closest friends in the field aren’t here; the people my wife and I tend to hang out with more-or-less constantly at conventions couldn’t make it for a variety of reasons. Which means we’ve spent a lot more time with people we like a lot but don’t know as well, and, you know, it’s been good! I’ve had conversations with people I normally don’t do much more than say “Hi” to.

I’m glad I came. But now I’m ready to vanish into fiction-writing isolation at home in Berkeley for a while, to emerge again at World Fantasy…

My Worldcon Schedule

[This post is going to be the first thing on the blog for the next ten days or so, because *I* need to be able to see it quickly as my schedule expands…]

Where I may be found at Worldcon in Reno, August 19-20 (I’ll be there on Thursday afternoon, but am only doing programming Friday/Saturday):

  • Fri 11:30 am – 12:00 pm, Reading: Tim Pratt, A14 (RSCC)

[So what should I read from?]

  • Fri 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm, KaffeeKlatsch, KK1 (RSCC): Eileen Gunn, Adam-Troy, Castro, Scott Edelman, Tim Pratt

[Maybe it can be a BoozeeKlatsch instead. For me anyway]

  • Fri 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm, Locus party in the fan lounge at the Atlantis

[The party actually runs from 5 to 7 pm, but I’ll be there for the last hour.]

  • Sat 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm, Giving and Receiving Critiques (Panel), A16 (RSCC): Many writers participate in writers workshops, but it can be difficult, especially for new writers, to give critiques helpfully and receive critiques gracefully. Experienced workshoppers discuss techniques for critiques. Scott Edelman (M), Margaret McGaffey Fisk, Daniel Abraham, Sheila Finch, Tim Pratt

[I suspect I will say things on this panel that will annoy people.]

  • Sat 2:00 pm – 3:00pm (ish), I’ll be reading for ten minutes at the EDGE party in the Con Suite sometime during this hour, probably closer to two.

[A selection from my story “Little Better than a Beast.”]

  • Sat 3:00 pm – 4:00 pm, Fantasy in the Real World: The Rich World of Urban Fantasy (Panel), D05 (RSCC). When you ask people outside of our community what “fantasy” is, they either think of Tolkien or Rowling or of paranormal romances. But urban fantasy remains one of the richest parts of the fantasy field. Lisa Goldstein (M), Larry Correia, Sharon Lee, Tim Pratt, Madeleine E. Robins

[This should be interesting.]