Live From Noreascon 4

Masquerade

There was no masquerade program, so I'll add captions to these when the Masquerade awards list turns up in the daily newsletter.

Uriel, The Archangel of Ecology (one of four new icons, based on the Hannah Shapiro paintings).

Half-time entertainment for the Masquerade was Charles Ross' One-Man Star Wars show, which was impossible to photograph because he was moving non-stop. He did the complete trilogy in sounds and gestures - here he's doing a tie fighter. He had all the music, voices, and sound effects, from the patrician British of Alec Guiness to the beeps and whirs of Artoo Detoo and the buzzing of the light sabers. You just had to be there - it was great!


(Dave Kyle came by as I was typing this in the middle of the ConCourse on Monday morning, and said "Stop looking so busy!")

Sunday: A Con Report

By Sunday morning I'm starting to feel the con burnout, but there's still so much left to see and do! I drive in and park under the Prudential Center, having been ripped off by the guy at the John Hancock garage, who refused to believe in my discount tickets. I've been walking enough to feel some guilty pleasure at being so close to the con.

I meet up with another writer I know online and we hit a couple panels. The first, one on promoting your first novel with Keith R. A. DeCandido and Laura Anne Gilman, is a practical look-- and a practical demonstration, in a way-- of the trials and tribulations of promoting a first (original) novel. The second panel is technically on going beyond sex, with David B. Coe, George R. R. Martin, Victoria McManus, Laura Resnick, and Melinda Snodgrass, but a lot of what the panel addresses is still sex. Not beyond sex. Which makes for an entertaining panel indeed.

Afterwards, I head down to the dealer's room and then over to Trader Joe's to grab something to eat-- I can't face the food court again. At three I head over to the panel on Defending the Writing Life, with Jack Dann, Melanie Fletcher, Gavin Grant, Gay Haldeman, and David Marusek. The panel is an interesting look at how they or their loved ones defend their writing time, but as the panelists themselves note, writing is something each person has to worm their way into on their own, in their own way, and the tips on how to minimize distraction for one person won't work for other people. I suspect that the panels in general are driving home the infinite variety of writers to everyone. Arguably, this panel contains some of the best advice for new writers: don't spend the advance.

After that, I hit my literary beer (actually, a literary CiderJack) with Diane Duane, which is good, followed by my final panel of the day, the panel on rejection with Janna Silverstein, Charles Stross, Teresa Nielsen Hayden, and Jo Walton. It involves a lot of talk about rejection, naturally, and a lot of talk about slush-- those who missed the panel could find a lot of the information over on Teresa Nielsen Hayden's weblog under the highly addictive blog post and discussion Slushkiller.

I grab dinner and then go sit outside for a while. Feeling like I need a bit of a break from the convention, I call up a friend. "I've been reading the blog," he says. "Do people really call you General?" Yes, Jeffrey. Yes, they really do.

I then go snag myself a seat for the masquerade. About five minutes in, I realize that I really should have done some research and worked out the rules. Original? Self-made? Reproduction? Original reproduction? I'm lost. The costumes are incredible, and I'm lost on the rules. Before the adult division, the MC says she's going to explain the adult categories for the one person in the audience who doesn’t already know, and I hang my head in shame, knowing that I am that one person. Fortunately, I don't need to know the rules to know that the costumes are bloody incredible. (I'm really hoping someone else knows how to reliably turn off their camera flash and can post some pictures here, because descriptions aren't going to do them justice.) My final thought: a spotlight on Terry Prachett might have made determinations of when he was blushing easier.

Morning and one Panel

Sunday

I slept a lot and had fun this morning just shooting the breeze with my husband and my roommate. Lunch was brief and I managed to post one update. Then it was off to a reading. I had missed Michelle's reading (darn) which I had really wanted to hear, but food was more important. I made it to Michael Burstein's reading. It was a lot of fun. He read a yet-to-be-published story that will be appearing early next year in an anthology "I, Alien" edited by Mike Resnick. It was a gas. I will be picking up the anthology just on the basis of that one story. And Michael was kind enough to sign the manuscript for me and gift it to me. *SQUEEE*

Now I'm off to the Strange Horizons tea party. Talley-ho!

Around the con 2

Debbie King on a "small" shopping run for the Volunteer Den on Saturday afternoon. (Photo by Laurie Mann.)

Chairman Hiroaki Inoue announcing information about the Nippon 2007 bid at this morning's WSFS business meeting.

Mike Glyer's new look.

More photos

Keith Stokes reports that photos from both Hugo cermonies and around Noreascon have been going up during the convention at www.midamericon.org/photoarchive.

Upcoming Conventions and Bids

The current rate for the Nippon 2007 Worldcon is $160 U.S. ($100 for pre-supporters, and other discounts for Friends and voters). These rates will be in effect until Dec. 31, 2004.

The other existing Worldcons and Worldcon bids made brief presentations to the Business Meeting.

The current rate for Interaction (Glasgow 2005) is $170 until Sept 30. Their hotel reservation page opened this weekend, and the on-site hotel rooms are filling up fast.

The current rate for LACon 4 (2006 Worldcon in Los Angeles, California) is $125, going up to $150 on Sept 12. They take PayPal and offer an installment plan.

CascadiaCon, the 2007 NASFic in Seattle, has a rate of $85 to Nov. 30. They announced a special anime GoH Inoue-san. Booking for hotels opens Sept. 21. There are currently about 650 registered members.

Three 2008 bidders made presentations. Kent Bloom announced a new bid for Denver Colorado. The dates of the convention would be 6-10 August 2008. They are holding an organizational meeting in the Marriott this afternoon.

TR Smith and Vince Docherty announced the Geneva Convention bid. They promised hot and cold running chocolate in all program items. "Don't vote for us; vote for our opponents - we're just trying to have a good time". The assembled crowd clamored for t-shirts.

The Chicago in 2008 bid announced that Dave McCarty will be the new chair of the bid. They are still deciding on hotel and dates, looking at Labor Day, but trying to find the best rates. Considering airport hotel.

For 2009, a bid was announced for Anticipation, Montreal in 2009. The bid was formed only 12 hours ago, although the organizers insisted they were not drunk at the time. They are accepting pre-supports for $20. The convention date is uncertain. The convention would be bilingual.

Margene Bahm announced a 2009 bid for Kansas City, with the theme of the phoenix rising from the ashes. Also "Exploring the library of your imagination". They will have table in ConCourse starting at noon. Bidding same facilities they used before, for Labor Day weekend. Pre-supporting $20, $25 for pre-opposing, $50 for friend of the library, $100 for patron. What is official language of convention? Ans: calculus. (actually, English).

Rick Zellig from St. Louis announced that Archon is bidding for NASFic of 2007. Not sure of dates, possibly at Adams Mark downtown, possibly in August. Archon is normally a 2500-person convention. PS $20, PO $25.

Rose Mitchell represented Australia in 2010, in the place of chair Steven Boucher, who could not attend Noreascon. Despite how the bid started, it is now a serious bid. We would like to thank the very strong pre-support that we've had so far. (600 people have signed up) You'll see us at Glasgow in 2005. Haven't decided on a site. Melbourne likely, but not locked in. What time of year? Spring. Will be updating web site soon.

TR Smith announced a "protobid" for 2011 in Washington DC. This is contingent on hotels actually being built near the convention center. They're having a party tonight in 708 with the theme, "DC supports the Geneva Convention".

Nippon 2007 Wins Site Selection

At this morning's WSFA Business Meeting, site selection administrator Patrick Molloy announced that vote counting took place last night, taking 1 hr and 36 min. 1686 valid ballots were received. 38 selected "No Preference", leaving 1648 valid ballots expressing a preference, requiring 825 votes for a majority. The results were:

1 Highmore SD
1 Dunadin
1 Rottnest Island
1 Monkey's Eyebrow KY
1 Monkey's Elbow KY
1 Louisville in '94
3 Minneapolis in '73
12 None of the Above
692 Columbus in 2007
935 Nippon 2007

Chairman Hiroaki Inoue read some brief remarks in Japanese that were translated into English by another committee member. He thanked the voters, the Columbus committee, the Noreascon 4 committee, Peggy Rae Sapienza, agent Andrew Adams, and Takumi Shibani, who first started the bid.

Convention name will be "Nippon 2007" and the dates will be Aug 30 - Sept 3, 2007, in Yokohama, Japan.

Author Guests of Honor will be Sakyo Komatsu and David Brin. Artist Guests of Honor will be Yoshitaka Amano and Michael Whelan. Fan Guest of Honor Takumi Shibano.

Their PR0, with detailed hotel, travel, and conversion information was distributed.

The chair clarified that the vote for the 2007 NASFic will be held at Cascadiacon next year.