World Fantasy Convention 2010 Report
The World Fantasy Convention is like summer camp for fantasists: a yearly reunion to see how everyone's changed, hear news of projects completed and underway, and leave daily life behind for a little ridiculousness. The major difference between summer camp and WFC seems to be the lack of canoe lessons and the presence of a hotel bar.
This was my third WFC, and the tone felt very different. Last year, I talked to several different professionals about the declining economy and the potential dangers of ebooks. While I did catch notes of such sentiments this year, such apprehension seemed largely absent. The death of publishing did not happen after all. Or, maybe, it hasn't happened yet. Most pros I talked to seemed cautiously optimistic.
Now for the blow-by-blow / shameless-namedrop recount of the Con.
I didn't make it to the Con until late Thursday night. After short run and shower to sweat and then wash off the airport grime, I made it to the hotel bar and caught up with some of my most favorite people in the world: Paolo Bacigalupi, Liza Trombi, Liz Gorinsky, Liz Argall, Peter V. Brett, Deanna Hoak, Myke Cole, Brit Mandelo, John Joseph Adams, Jayne Gates, Christina Yant. Also had the pleasure of sharing a few drinks with one of the fantasists I admire most, Scot Lynch.
Friday kicked off with a reading by my roommate Matt Kressel. Matt did a great job reading a creepy, epic piece that I could call a mash of a Peter S. Beagle fable with Nightmare on Elm Street. It'll publish in Beneath Ceaseless Skies in December. After I sat down with Brent Bowen and had a whole lot of fun recording an interview for Adventures in Sci-Fi Publishing. We're not sure when that podcast will run, likely when the pre-sales for Spellbound open (more on that in a second). Thereafter I joined Peter V. Brett, Deanna Hoke, and Myke Cole for dinner and met artist Lauren Cannon, who designed a kick-ass bookplate for Pete. Depending on the state of Blake's Med Student Debt, I'm thinking about commissioning one such for the Spellwright Trilogy. Afterward we crashed the "group signing event." Sam Sykes and I goofed off while the lines stacked up behind Guy Gavriel Kay, Gene Wolf, and the other rockstars. Then real function of the con got started in the bar. The gurus of the internet represented themselves strongly in the presence of John DeNardo, Daniel Goodman, John Anelio, and Pactrick Hester. Staying up late is easy to do with so much great company…and it's double extra special easy to stay up late when one's mind is still on Pacific time. My head didn't hit a pillow until 3:30am.
Saturday, I managed to sleep through my alarm and wake up only 40 minutes before my 11o'clock panel. Speed shower, shave, gulp a cup of coffee and jog to the convention center. The panel was titled "The Continued Viability of Epic Fantasy," the wording of which of course calls into question the genre's viability and its continuation. Put another way, there was no panel entitled "The Continued Viability of Urban Fantasy." Put yet another way, the panel was gentler revision of the title "Epic Fantasists, Why Aren't You Dead Yet?" Naturally, this sparked some strong comments from those of us on the panel, all epic fantasists. The resulting conversation was wonderful fun for me, and I think the audience seemed to agree.
Moderating the panel was my good friend, talented fantasist, and king of snarky remarks, David B. Coe. Perhaps I've never seen a panel moderator do such a good job as David did. He included everyone and kept the conversation on subject and moving forward without being overly controlling. Freda Warrington provided great insight based on her publishing career on both sides of the Atlantic. I was happy to sit next to John Fultz, who knew a good deal about both epic fantasy and comic books. The most strongly stated perspective came from the renowned David Drake. The two Davids were in rare form. The whole panel was filmed and I'll be sure to post it here.
After the panel, had the pleasure of meeting James Enge, whose Blood of Ambrose was nominated for a World Fantasy Award. James and I sat down with John Anelio of the Functional Nerds podcast to talk about maters linguistic, literary, and musical. Really fascinating conversation.
Four years ago, at the World Con in Anaheim, I accidently spilled beer on Paolo Bacigalupi's shoes while he was talking to Liz Trombi. Back then Paolo had published only a few short stories, Liza was an assistant editor for Locus, and I had just started applying to medical schools and was negotiating a contract with Tor to rewrite a book called Spellwright. Time brings wonderful changes. Nowadays, Liza is the Editor and Chief of Locus; I've half of an MD and one published novels, and Paolo published some book about some springs or something. It might have won an award or two. I can't remember just now…but the dinner this year was crazy always and included Paolo's attempt to apply his steak knife to my bicep, for reasons that are still mysterious to me.
Saturday night was party night. The one I spent the most time at, naturally, was the Tor party, where I got to shake hands and exchange a few words with _the_ Tom Doherty. Also notable, our fearless Lord of SFWA was kind enough to fondle Spellwright's artwork. Now, witness the powers of this fully operational battlestation Scalzi.
Sunday was, as the last day of the con always is, like the last day of summer vacation. Spent the morning packing, watched the awards ceremony with some friends, and then sprinted to the airport.
Unmentioned above was a three hour business meeting with my editor, in which we ironed out the finer points of how to make Spellbound the best possible book it can be. We also talked possible publication schedules; however, much of it hinges on how quickly I can execute the desired changes. We're both optimistic because so few major changes are needed. But even so, I can't give any specific news about publication dates until I send this manuscript in for production. So, looks like the next few weeks I'm going to be busting my tail to do just. Hope to have more good news there soon…
