Sasquan Report

This will be a quick one. I was booked at a new hotel in downtown Spokane, about a mile from the convention center where Worldcon was held. It was a very odd hotel with a safari/no-tell motel theme. For example, a piece of furniture from my room:



There were also headboard mirrors in the front of the bed. So, waking up at 4am and looking up gives one this sort of impression:



This year, Haikasoru had a table in the dealer's room and we did very well, selling over sixty copies of Taiyo Fujii's Gene Mapper, which we started calling "the first cyberpunk novel about rice." Fujii was a guest at the convention and has pretty good English—he made many friends, did well on his panels, and basically rocked the house. I'm having daydreams of a Gene Mapper Hugo nomination next year. We also sold a couple hundred units of our backlist titles.

Being at the table meant that if there was drama on panels, I missed most of it. I did attend the Hugos as an acceptor for Edge of Tomorrow, which placed third behind two Marvel movies. The little lagniappes were a wooden asterisk—I presume both a symbol of the unusual Hugo ballot, and a a reference to Kurt Vonnegut's use of * to mean "asshole"—and a pair of BBQ tongs, dry rub, and an oven mitt provided by next year's Worldcon, which will be in Kansas City, MO. The pre-party was extremely tense; it felt like a dentist's waiting room. The post-parties were much more fun. My favorite part of the Hugos was at the first loser's party, when I asked the bartender to put some vodka in the remains my limeade and she filled the solo cup nearly to the brim. Publishing is glamour, let nobody tell you otherwise.

Naturally, Puppy Partisans are upset that their candidates mostly finished under No Award. Which means that it is time for the Second Mamatas Challenge. All one need do is this:

1. Select one Puppy Candidate from each category this year.
2. Explain why it deserved to win
a. with specific references to the text if a work, or
b. specific references to their efforts in 2014 if a person
but without
c. references to the number of nominating votes received, presumed sales of the work, achievements prior to 2014, or anything outside of the remit of "Best of 2014."
3. in an essay of 100 words, exclusive of quoted material.

I'll note that I did not automatically No Award puppies, and indeed voted for two of them. I also No Award frequently, and No Awarded two categories that actually did have winners this year. So if you have some sort of canned speech about SJWs, remember to go fuck yourself, early and often.

Moving on, I liked Spokane. I guess it looks like every other small-city-in-decline between the Mississippi River and California. Low brick buildings of several stories, interspersed with half-empty glass and steel office buildings. There was a river, some neat elevated train tracks moving freight at all hours, a tiny boho section with food co-op and art cinema and comic shop, a line of bars, and a convention center that really must not see very much use. Usually, Worldcon vanishes into the halls of the centers in which it is held—this time both the Hugos and the Masquerade used a ticketing system because the venue was about the right size for number of attendees. I noticed a fair number of locals, many of whom were young in fannish terms—late teens, 20s, 30s. I wonder now if Worldcon should aim for second-tier cities more often, as since there is nothing else going on most weekends, locals will try out Worldcon. In Chicago, Denver, San Antonio etc., there is always something to do.

Also, I was ambitious and did an informal push-hands club every morning right in front of the convention center.First day, seven people came. The next day, two. The third day, one. (Genevieve Williams is mighty!) You can tell from the people who didn't come back that we had decent levels of contact without blending into sanshou sparring. None of the people who demanded I say various awful things to their faces showed up to try me, shockingly enough. I was pleased to meet a number of friendly people at the table and in various bars, but I did not spend a lot of time at parties or barcon this year. Spokane was covered in smoke from the horrific wildfires burning around the town, and that knocked the wind out of me after mornings full of exercise and afternoons full of work. But overall it was pretty fun, and I am looking forward to Kansas City.