WorldCon Report: Friday -- Reflections, Observations, and Downtown Disney

I am going to open this part first with an advance apology: anyone looking for a rundown of the Masquerade won't get one and this has to do with my tastes. While I enjoyed the small scale Masquerade I went to last year (Gathering 2005), an Arena size one where costumes might or might not be out of references I know is not something that interests me; at least Gathering had a common context. Many people are costumed during the entire Con and I am quite satisfied to marvel at the work in that way. Kevin and I actually spent that evening at Downtown Disney at the Tortilla Jo's Mexican Restaurant (spicy food!) which turned out to be good move as the restaurants in the hotel lobby had immense waiting lines of people wanting dinner before the Masquerade. Though, I wasn't on the list for Priority Seating when I arrived -- I had called Disney Dining in advance several weeks earlier and was told I could book that far ahead, I'm guessing not -- they were still good enough to accomodate Kevin and I. There was a separate line outside for walk-ups and no telling what their wait was on a Friday night.

Bear in mind Kevin's not actually attending WorldCon, he just happens to live the next city over in Fullerton. Nice to have the boyfriend so close :)

Now to back up and chronicle the afternoon up to that point.

After lunch, I made sure to go up early and get a good seat for Anne McCaffrey's "Being Anne McCaffrey" spotlight panel. Though while I was waiting for the prior panel to clear, I noticed an overpacked room across from me. Turned out that was "The Women of Star Trek," including apparently Marina Sirtis and Chase Masterson. I tried to stick my head in and see, but as I said that room was standing room and then some. If Marina was there, I couldn't see her. Did see Chase though and the other participants (BarBara Luna and Suzie Plakson, according to the program, but I wouldn't have recognized either per se).

As a teenager, I totally ate up the Pern books. I made it through seven of them (the first two trilogies and "Moreta, Dragonlady of Pern") before I burned out and never went back. This has happened to my knowledge with only two other authors --
C.J. Cherryh and Mercedes Lackey (apologies Ellen, though fortunately your collaborations with her were at the tail end of that). All built such wonderful worlds I enjoyed visiting but I needed a breather from their worlds and style... and never ended up coming back to any of them.

Anne McCaffrey was wonderful, though now on a motorized scooter and apparently on blood thinners so we were given instructions not to come up and hug her, etc. afterward. Apparently she'd been signing nonstop for an hour prior and they had to cut off the line for her to get up to the panel. We were also told no autographs afterward because she needed the rest, but she certaintly put tons of energy into her hour with us. I thank her for every moment. Also, after hearing her stories, I must now without a doubt read "The Ship Who Sang" and break my McCaffrey burnout (Dad, if you're reading this, sorry for not listening to you years ago and reading this book... I think I will now). She told of how she grew up, how she came to be married and divorced, her love of horses, and how all of this influenced her writing. She also spoke of how her son Todd came to continue the world of Pern and how proud she is of him, as well as addressing how they currently collaborate (online). Anne came off as such a kind and giving woman. It was an hour well spent.

Next came "Doctor Who, Then and Now". While I really got hooked during the new series, Kevin has been a fan for a long time and has slowly been educating me about the various Doctors. So this panel, with people such as an audiobook writer from Big Finish, the person who is in charge of GalifreyOne (gee I hope that's spelled right, I'm still learning!), and other Dr. Who historians, I learned a lot from other people's views of the various older doctors versus just the "lens" Kevin has been teaching me through. Nothing too revealing for someone already a fan, though I did confirm that the Captain Jack spinoff series is the paranormal "Torchwood" starting in October over there which they described as more like "X-Files". I hope it does well, because I have to say, Captain Jack was the thing I liked LEAST about the series. I kept wishing he'd die. I actually cheered when he died (before, well, what happened next) in the two part finale. Despite his redemption he just never showed promise to me, he came off too flat a character. I would have liked him better if he'd died a hero in his actions in "Empty Child" and "The Doctor Dances". You're free to disagree. Panelists here were: Shaun Lyon, Scott Alan Woodard, Eric L. Hoffman, MaryAnn Johanssen, and Ric Meyers as moderator.

The last panel of the day was "Sherlock Holmes and Science Fiction", whoch actually surprisingly actually looked more at Holmes, Holmes and Watson, and Moriarity than their influence on science fiction pastiches. Pastiches were discussed in general, with Laurie King (I have read "The Beekeeper's Apprentice" of her Mary Russell stories) and "The Name of the Rose" with Brother William (blanking on author, sorry, though I've seen the feature film) being the most cited. A very educational afternoon. Panelists: John R. Douglas, Jody Lynn Nye, Fiona Avery (moderator), Jon L. Breen, and Barbara Hambly. Several of these people (Nye, Avery, and Hambly) I at least knew some stuff about their work, with the most being about Avery, given her roots working on BABYLON 5, later writing for TV shows such as CRUSADE and also writing comics.

Not sure when I'll find time today to write Saturday's block. Most likely after the Hugos which I do plan on attending (even though I didn't vote all categories, I didn't have the time to familiarize myself with most categories, but at least I voted media which I knew). I'll probably have to use the time pre-Hugos to do more work on the book. I look forward to the day.

WorldCon Report: Saturday -- From Heinlein to Showrunning

Before I begin, for those who haven't heard and would benefit from knowing, Denver won the 2008 bid by the closest margin in some time, as I understand it.

Today was a very diverse day. Got up, worked on the table of contents some, had an early breakfast (again an entree, no buffet) then came back up to nap for an hour before my morning began.

The first panel at 10am celebrated 99 years of Heinlein. Panelists here were short story writer (also TV writer and showrunner) and Heinlein fan Michael Cassett, Connie Willis, Pat Cadigan, Bill Patterson (the man who has spent the last 5 years working on Heinlein's oficial biography scheduled to be unveiled on his 100th birthday if all goes well), and another fellow unfortunately not listed who seemed as if he was associated with The Heinlein Report but I'm not sure. The panelists mainly dominated this conversation, first by discussing how they came to be introduced to Heinlein's work, then addressing various topics about Heinlein's impact (the lasting impacat of the genres, how Heinlein influenced Pat Cadigan as a personal friend as well as a writer, Connie Willis explored Heinlein's take on comedy, and also discussed was whether or not Heinlein continues to make an impact today directly or indirectly). After the small handful of audience questions squeezed in, they ended by sharing what their favorite Heinlein stories were (for several this was in fact "Podkayne of Mars" with the tragic ending, FYI). At one point Connie Willis challenged the audience with a show of hands as to what our first Heinlein's were. I'm not 100 percent sure but I *think* mine was "Rocket Ship Galileo". And that's because he recommended it to me. He owned -- in fact, still owns -- I think all of Heinlein's books and a fair number of short stories, of which I've read a bunch. My favorite though of all I've read so far is "Moon is a Harsh Mistress", though it's been so many years I can't recall why precisely. It's only one of two I've since bought for myself, the other being STARSHIP TROOPERS (and that was mainly because I knew people working on the animated ROUGHNECKS and wanted to refamiliarize myself with the premise; I really disliked it when I first read it as a teen).

Next came an early lunch because Housekeeping had just gotten to my room (sandwich and green tea Starbucks (tm) latte from the deli) and more time with the book to work on the Table of Contents. In the process I discovered I had made excessive use of the word "you" addressing the reader directly when most of the book isn't that way. So I then spent the next hour replacing every instance of "you" not spoken by an interviewee.

Then I rushed back at 1pm for the panel "What is a YA Novel?" Panelists Sherwood Smith, Mary A. Turzillo, Mel Gilden, James Frenkel, Buzz Dixon, and moderator Lauri Bell went in depth about why sex, drugs, blood and death can sometimes be considered OK in YA fiction - and also when it isn't appropriate. Very heated discussion at points. Time for a few audience questions, and it was interesting to me when one of the questions cited YA author Chris Crutcher's work in the 90s as someone who handled these topics and was very popular and not afraid to tackle them. For those who don't know, Chris Crutcher wrote from the Spokane area and I spent about 12 years in the Spokane area, and through the writers conferences at our local college crossed paths with him several times. It also turned out that I had connections to both him and the writer of "Vision Quest" because those two gentlemen, along with my high school shot put and discus coach (and I was a horrible athlete!) had been college buddies. Disneyland is right next door so I'm tempted to launch into a song but won't ;) Anyway an interesting reference to hear in this setting.

After that, it took some time to find the room for the next panel, which was on running TV shows. My background being animation, I knew I'd want to hear tales from the trenches from folks on the live action side of the fence. Both JMS and Marti Noxon were scheduled to appear but didn't; however, let me say showrunners Michael Cassett, Rockne S. O'Bannon, Tim Minear, and moderator Gillian Horvath did not disappoint. Their best known showrunner credits are "Outer Limits," "Dante's Cove", "Angel", and "Farscape" respectively.

Now I'm back here catching you all up and trying to work more on the table of contents after having an early lunch of a chef salad on what appears to be a very rare patio on my building. The other tower has them all over, but as I looked up walking across the street, I realized only the corner suites have balcony patios on this tower (the Oasis). And I have one. Cool.

More on my last panel and the Hugos later tonight!

WorldCon Report: Saturday Evening - Of the Whedonverse and Hugos

Just back from the Hugos. A wonderful evening! I can't believe it's all over tomorrow :(

Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself.

After working on my table of contents for an hour, I raced back to catch "Crafting the Whedonverse" with writers Tim Minear and Jane Espenson, and visual effects supervisor Loni Pestiere. It was interesting to learn that Loni has been with "Buffy" since year 1 (though not supervisor to year 3), and on every project since through "Serenity". They shared tales from the trenches but many were very positive. They even told some interesting stories such as the twin concept with Nicholas Brendan was actually pitched by Jane seasons before it happened but Joss turned her down at the time... but when the time came around he said to her out of the blue - "NOW it's time for the twin story". Lots of gems I know I retained but am too overwhelmed to recall.

After that I raced back and finished formatting my table of contents, getting ready for the page numbering. That will follow as soon as I'm done here.

Because of that I won't break down every Hugo award winner, at least not at the moment. Connie Willis, with a little fun collaboration with Robert Silverberg, kept the humor running all throughout the night. One point though where I laughed and cried is when she told a story about when she and more than a few other SF writers were in Spokane at Riverfront Park, and the people wanted to feed the mamets that you find there and turned to her for advice she she'd "lived in the West". The advice she ultimately gave (meaning it as a joke) was that their native food was cookies and that you hold them out to the mammets calling "Here, Cookie Pants!" And apparently Bob Silverberg, Gardner Dozois, and many others fell for it. I can so see this... I know the park and the mammets well. So it was a very funny image. But it also just reminded me of my recent trip home since my parents are near Spokane, and how much I miss my family, and how much my Dad wanted to be at WorldCon beside me this year. Daddy, if you're reading this with the URL I sent you, I love you.

I only voted the media categories simply because I was out of the loop in the other categories because I haven't read much in the last year or so in the genre, though I usually read some. Neither of my first choices won, but I'm not unhappy with the results per se: "Serenity" for film and "Dr Who: The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances" for short form.

Special awards were given to Besty Ballantine for a lifetime of service and Harlan Ellison for 50 years of SF writing, who also both acted as presenters. And the Big Heart Award, that would have gone to Howard DeVore if he'd been alive, instead went to Forrest J. Ackerman and the old award name has in fact been retired and Big Heart award has now officially been renamed the Forest J. Ackerman Big Heart Award.

Sorry I can't do more, but I need to finish this table of contents tonight.

Sunday's I'll try to do from Kevin's house, they're cutting the power to the building around noon due to construction so we need early checkout.

Talk to you again when I can.

I don't want it to end.


EDIT: Oops!

"One thing - they may have mammets in Boston, but we have marmots up here. You have been gone too long." - Dad

Ack, didn't realize I was getting that burned out! Oh well, at least I know he's reading ;)