Posts Tagged ‘Worldcon’

Photos from Worldcon Part 2 (The 2014 London Worldcon, That Is)

Wednesday, August 19th, 2015

And here’s Part 2 of those London Worldcon pics.

Note that some pictures are labeled “…and company.” This is code for “I’m slightly less embarrassed about not remembering your name a year later than I would be about getting it wrong.”

P1000808

The lovely and talented Gail Garriger contemplates her next cup of tea.

P1000869

It’s only a matter of time until leopard-skin gloves are all the rage…

P1000802

Tobias Buckell, straight from his performance in Hipsters of the Caribbean.

P1000811

I’m 99% sure this is Martin Hoare with David Langford. After all, it’s Worldcon. How many bearded, gray-haired men with glasses could there be?

P1000870

Apropos of nothing in particular, here’s Mike Walsh.

P1000816

John Kessel.

P1000835

John Kessel in jacket.

P1000836

John Kessel in jacket and the shoes he stole from Lew Shiner.

P1000795

Michael Bulmlein.

P1000817

Jo Walton contemplates the five kilometer hike to her next panel.

P1000822

Your Humble Narrator and Ian McDonald.

P1000826

Stephen Baxter, taking a short break from 100,000 words of galaxy smashing.

P1000827

The ageless Ben Yalow. He stays the same while the original painting for Confessions of a Crap Artist gets older.

P1000828

Signs of the horrific mental degeneration that comes from being a science fiction bookseller…

P1000840

Just ask George Locke!

P1000829

Charlie Stross, caught in the middle of a very geeky plan for world domination.

P1000830

Ben Bova.

P1000831

Ben Bova and Your Humble Narrator.

P1000832

Lawrence Watt-Evans.

P1000833

Lawrence Watt-Evans and company.

P1000834

Lawrence and Lawrence, coming this fall to Fox!

P1000842

Matthew Hughes

P1000843

Ann VanderMeer

P1000844

Jeff and Ann VanderMeer.

P1000845

Stephen Jones.

P1000847

Joe Haldeman, Gay Haldeman and Jim Burns.

P1000849

John Douglas.

P1000852

Michael Swanwick, yet again.

P1000855

“Come, Mrs. Peel, we’re needed!”

P1000860

Henry Wessels, rocking the seersucker.

P1000864

John Clute and company.

P1000867

Teddy Harvia fooling around with a married woman known only as “Mrs. Thayer.”

P1000868

Robert Jackson Bennett, who I somehow had to travel 5,000 miles to see.

P1000814

Andrew Porter.

P1000871

Scott Edelman.

P1000876

Jeff Orth, one of the three chairs of the 2016 Kansas City Worldcon. Expect him to look approximately 30 years older 380 days from now.

P1000881

James Patrick Kelly, of the Gets-photographed-a-lot-at-Worldcons Patrick Kellys.

P1000885

Has anyone seen Jack Dann and Russell Blackford in the same room at the same time?

P1000886

Janeen Webb.

P1000888

Betsy Mitchell.

Photos from Worldcon Part 1 (The 2014 London Worldcon, That Is)

Tuesday, August 18th, 2015

So this year’s Worldcon is this week, and you’re posting photos from last year’s Worldcon?

Yep.

And didn’t you already post some of these photos?

Yep.

So why do it again?

Last year at Worldcon, I uploaded these photos in a big bunch to Facebook, then linked to the Facebook photos from this blog. However, Facebook, evidently hating the idea that people outside their walled garden of changing preferences and sunglasses spam might see said photos, keeps changing their URLs, thus breaking links to them. So the photos themselves disappeared from the old post. These I’m uploading directly to my blog.

Also, I didn’t blog all the images I meant to, so there will be some new ones in Part 2.

So without further adieu…

P1000746

Leigh Kennedy, who I had lunch and dinner with, along with Nick Austin, the Monday before the con. We have loads of common friends, but knew them at different times, so there was a lot of trading stories…

P1000853

In profile.

P1000765

Cory Doctorow, exhibiting his unique sense of style…

P1000766

…and with an actual top to his head.

P1000781

John J. Miller of Wild Cards fame, with Gail Gerstner-Miller.

P1000767

Kim Newman, in his usual natty, multilayered attire. Wear this in Texas in August and you’re asking for heatstroke.

P1000769

Jonathan Strahan and David Hartwell.

P1000793

Pat Murphy, all scarfed-up.

P1000789

Lavie Tidhar, who used to do reviews for me back in the Nova Express days.

P1000820

Ian Watson and Lavie Tidhar, signing books at the PS Publishing table in the dealer’s room. I asked Watson what the genesis of the Watson-Aldiss feud was. “I’ve gotten to the age when I’m not sure I remember it properly anymore…”

P1000779

Connie Willis.

P1000790

Liz Hand.

P1000862

And looking slightly less crazed.

P1000848

Ellen Datlow and Liz Hand fan themselves and look down upon the peasantry.

P1000812

Elle Datlow solo.

P1000791

Guest of honor John Clute.

P1000788

Adam Roberts.

P1000786

Geoff Ryman peers at me suspiciously.

P1000784

Gary K. Wolfe.

P1000782

Andy Duncan.

P1000819

Didn’t get all the names, but this is something like 75% of the Israeli SF publishing industry.

P1000794

Kim Stanley Robinson.

P1000818

John Gibbons.

P1000805

Michael Swanwick, Geoff Ryman, and Ellen Datlow.

P1000803

Michael Swanwick and Gordon Van Gelder, looking way too befuddled for the first day of the con.

P1000806

Lisa Tuttle, who I had lunch with, joined by…

P1000809

…George R. R. Martin.

P1000810

George R. R. Martin and the Spanish George R. R. Martin.

P1000850

Michael Swanwick and George R. R. Martin, enjoying fine dining in an atmosphere of unpretentious ambiance.

P1000875

Parris McBride Martin.

P1000796

Alastair Reynolds.

P1000815

Pat Cadigan.

P1000846

Pat Cadigan in green.

P1000878

Pat Cadigan with fan-drawn cyberpunk.

P1000880

Finally, Pat Cadigan with her spiffy Doc Martin boots.

P1000823

The elusive Richard Calder.

P1000854

Michael Swanwick showing off his outfit. “This shirt is bespoke! Bespoke, I tell you!”

P1000883

Finally, Michael Swanwick showing off the t-shirt for MidAmericon II, the 2016 Kansas City Worldcon he’s Guest of Honor at. (Pat Cadigan is Toastmistress.)

Photo Gallery: Writers at the 2014 London Worldcon Part 1

Monday, September 8th, 2014

Leigh Kennedy, who I had lunch and dinner with the Monday before the con. We have loads of common friends, but knew them at different times, so there was a lot of trading stories…

In profile.

Cory Doctorow, exhibiting his unique sense of style…

…and with an actual top to his head.

John J. Miller of Wild Cards fame, with Gail Gerstner-Miller.

Kim Newman, in his usual natty, multilayered attire.

Jonathan Strahan and David Hartwell.

Pat Murphy, all scarfed-up.

With scarf and shoes.

Lavie Tidhar, who used to do reviews for me back in the Nova Express days.

Ian Watson and Lavie Tidhar, signing books at the PS Publishing table in the dealer’s room. I asked Watson what the genesis of the Watson-Aldiss feud was. “I’ve gotten to the age when I’m not sure I remember it properly anymore…”

Connie Willis.

Liz Hand.

And looking slightly less crazed.

Ellen Datlow and Liz Hand fan themselves and look down upon the peasantry.

Elle Datlow solo.

Guest of honor John Clute.

Adam Roberts.

Geoff Ryman peers at me suspiciously.

Gary K. Wolfe.

Andy Duncan.

Didn’t get all the names, but this is something like 75% of the Israeli SF publishing industry.

Kim Stanley Robinson.

John Gibbons.

Michael Swanwick, Geoff Ryman, and Ellen Datlow.

Michael Swanwick and Gordon Van Gelder, looking way too befuddled for the first day of the con.

Lisa Tuttle, who I had lunch with, joined by…

…George R. R. Martin.

George R. R. Martin and the Spanish George R. R. Martin.

Michael Swanwick and George R. R. Martin, enjoying fine dining in an atmosphere of unpretentious ambiance.

Parris McBride Martin.

Alastair Reynolds.

Pat Cadigan.

Pat Cadigan in green.

Pat Cadigan with fan-drawn cyberpunk.

Finally, Pat Cadigan with her spiffy Doc Martin boots.

The elusive Richard Calder.

Michael Swanwick showing off his outfit. “This shirt is bespoke! Bespoke, I tell you!”

Finally, Michael Swanwick showing off the t-shirt for MidAmericon II, the 2016 Kansas City Worldcon he’s Guest of Honor at. (Pat Cadigan is Toastmistress.)

Photos from the 2013 San Antonio Worldcon

Monday, December 9th, 2013

I knew that dealing books at Worldcon would eat up a lot of time, but I had no idea just how much time it would take me to not only get all the books back on the shelf, but to catch up on everything I set aside while getting ready for, then recovering from, Worldcon.

Which explains why I’m just now putting up the pictures I took there. Here are the handful of pictures I took at Worldcon that came out decent.

Clotheshorse that she is, the lovely and talented Gail Carriger kicks off our review with the first of three outfits I managed to photograph.

P1000047

A second.

P1000065

And a third.

And here’s the same outfit she insisted I snap with her own camera. “You’ve got to include the shoes!”

P1000034

Stina Leicht, sitting next to me at the Rayguns Over Texas event at the San Antonio Library.

P1000035

Scott Cupp and Josh Rountree at the same event. The other photos I took there came out crappy.

P1000039

Bookseller and con chair Mike Walsh.

P1000043

Lou Antonelli channels Flavor-Flav.

P1000044

Howard Waldrop and Eileen Gunn, just before Howard went three rounds with a concrete step.

P1000066

And here’s Howard just after that bout.

P1000046

Andrew Porter, now free of the terrible burden of publishing a semi-prozine.

P1000048

Pat Murphy, back again.

P1000050

Ex-NASA employee Al Jackson.

P1000051

Ex-Austinite Maureen McHugh.

P1000052

Kim Stanley Robinson, back from whatever frozen locale he’s visiting this time. Possibly Iapetus.

P1000054

Gardner Dozois at full rant.

P1000055

Gardner Dozois at full rest. The two modes are deceptively similar.

P1000058

In 2012, Pat Cadigan asked me to take down one of her pictures. So this year I made sure that this picture with Robert Silverberg was 100% flattering.

P1000059

I think this is a very good picture of Dwight Brown.

P1000060

Rich Simental, who spent much of the con in his room working on a completely different con.

P1000062

Ben Yalow. Or possibly one of those hundreds of Ben Yalow impersonators you hear so much about.

P1000067

Max Merriwell, in a very clever diusguise.

David Kyle

David Kyle, who I think has passed the late Forrest J. Ackerman for Most Worldcons Attended.

I’m sorry that I didn’t get pictures of Alastair Reynolds, David Brin, Jack McDevitt, Joe and Joy Haldeman, and Lois McMaster Bujold (among others I missed), who were all kind enough to come by the Lame Excuse Books booth.

Library Additions: Stanley G. Weinbaum’s Dawn of Flame

Monday, September 16th, 2013

I’m still recovering from the 2013 Worldcon, LoneStarCon 3 in San Antonio.

Given how often I blog about additions to my science fiction library, you might be surprised at how parsimonious I am paying for those additions. From about 1985 (when I first started buying first edition hardbacks) to 1989, I never paid more than $35 (plus shipping) for a book, which was about what it cost you to buy a UK hardback from an SF book dealer like L. W. Currey, Mark Ziesing, Robert Weinberg, etc. at the time. (And you bought it from a catalog you received in the mail, called them up to hold the book, then sent them a check. No ordering from the Internet or paying via Paypal. Now get off my lawn!) Then I found a NF/VG+ copy of The Haunting of Hill House for $45 at the 1989 Boston Worldcon, and the dealer wouldn’t budge on the price, so I coughed it up.

As I made more money at my day job, I could afford to buy more expensive books, and the amount I was willing to pay for a single book slowly and surely crept up. Eventually I ended up spending $400 for a very clean, signed, ex-library edition of Roger Zelazny’s Lord of Light. Since then I’ve spent around $400 for a few more books, but have only exceeded that amount thrice:

  • I ponied up $1,250 for the 44 volume Jack Vance Integral Edition (plus $350 or so in shipping). But that’s less than $30 a book…
  • I paid $675 for an ultra-limited edition of Stephen King’s The Colorado Kid (10% off cover price) because, while I’m not one of those fanatic King collectors, I do like his work and, well, I certainly wasn’t going to lose money on it.
  • I spent $500 on a first edition of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four.
  • But I’ve never spent more than $675 for a single book.

    Until now:

    Weinbaum, Stanley G. Dawn of Flame. Ruppert Printing Service (for The Milwaukee Fictioneers), 1936. One of only 245 copies of the Currey B state (with the Lawrence A. Keating introduction), a Near Fine+ copy with very faint spine creasing and either slight gray staining to bottom page block (or possibly where the red page block staining has worn away), sans dust jacket, as issued. Currey, page 510. Chalker/Owings, page 279. Bleiler, Checklist (1978), page 204. Locke, Spectrum of Fantasy (I), page 224.

    Bought at the San Antonio Worldcon for $1,200 (negotiated down from $1,500) from Erle Melvin Korshak. And if I’m remembering correctly, it was on consignment from Sam Moskowitz’s widow through Robert Weinberg to Korshak. (Korshak, of course, was the owner of Shasta Publishers, and is now back in publishing as Shasta/Phoenix Publishers.)

    This copy contains the ownership bookplate of Richard A. Frank, an early science fiction fan who was also an SF small press publisher in his own right, having published “The Bizarre Series” in the late 1930s, featuring works by A. A. Merritt, David H. Keller and Eando Binder.

    Frank also had one of the first legendary SF collections. “Richard Frank’s entire book collection was fantastic. He had it, originally, in the house, but the weight of the books had begun to pull the floors away from the the walls, so he moved it all down to his first floor garage and set it up like a real library. Most of us felt that if Richard didn’t have a copy—it hadn’t been printed.”

    That’s an awful damn lot of money to spend on a book, but I’ve long wanted a copy, both because I love Weinbaum’s work (a visionary and ground-breaking Sf writer in his day), and because this is the very first SF small press book. It’s often called “the bible of the field,” because it physically resembles a bible, right down to the flexible black binding, red-stained page block edges and rounded corners. Save for the one Ray Palmer introduction copy sold at the Jerry Weist Auction, this is the finest copy I’ve seen offered for sale recently, and I did well enough at Worldcon that I felt I could afford it.

    Hugo Congrats

    Sunday, September 1st, 2013

    Congrats to Pat Cadigan, John DeNardo, and John Picacio on their Hugo wins!

    Preview of My Story in Rayguns Over Texas

    Sunday, August 11th, 2013

    Editor Rick Klaw has been previewing one story a day from the forthcoming Rayguns Over Texas anthology due out at LoneStarCon3, and today he’s previewing my story, “Novel Properties of Certain Complex Alkaloids.”

    First hit’s on me…

    Rayguns Over Texas Contents Set

    Thursday, January 10th, 2013

    The final contents of Rick Klaw’s Rayguns Over Texas has been announced:

  • “Pet Rock” by Sanford Allen
  • “Defenders of Beeman County” by Aaron Allston
  • “TimeOut” by Neal Barret, Jr.
  • “Babylon Moon” by Matthew Bey
  • “Sovereign Wealth” by Chris N. Brown
  • “La Bamba Boulevard” by Bradley Denton
  • “The Atmosphere Man” by Nicky Drayden
  • “Operators Are Standing By” by Rhonda Eudaly
  • “Take a Left at the Cretaceous” by Mark Finn
  • “Grey Goo and You” by Derek Austin Johnson
  • “Rex” by Joe R. Lansdale
  • “Texas Died for Somebody’s Sins But Not Mine” by Stina Leicht
  • “Jump the Black” by Marshall Ryan Maresca
  • “An Afternoon’s Nap, or; Five Hundred Years Ahead” by Aurelia Hadley Mohl
  • “The Nostalgia Differential” by Michael Moorcock
  • “Novel Properties of Certain Complex Alkaloids” by Lawrence Person
  • “The Chambered Eye” by Jessica Reisman
  • “Avoiding the Cold War” by Josh Rountree
  • “The Art of Absence” by Don Webb
  • Congrats to my fellow writers for making the cut, and for Aurelia Hadley Mohl for not letting the fact that she died over a hundred years ago slow her down!

    Pictures from the 2012 Chicago Worldcon: Monday

    Monday, September 17th, 2012

    And here’s the final set of picture from the Chicago Worldcon, taken on Monday before I left, including some book dealers.

    Willis Siros, bookdealer and next year’s Worldcon Fan Guest of Honor:

    Mike Walsh, owner of Old Earth Books (and if you’re looking for any of his Howard Waldrop books signed by Howard, I can hook you up).

    Greg Ketter of Dreamhaven Books, along with a big of the dealer’s room. For some reason pictures that include large interior spaces always seem to come out orange on my camera.

    Larry Hallock of Ygor’s Books.

    Sheila Williams, holding her Hugo.

    Stephen Haffner, of Haffner Press.

    Mel Korshak, founder of Shasta Publishers and someone who attended the first Worldcon in 1939!

    I’ve put up two crappy pictures of Charlie Stross, so finally here’s a good one, after he came over to join me, Pat Cadigan and Gardner Dozois for drinks.

    And that’s all she wrote for the 2012 Worldcon! See you in San Antonio!

    Pictures from the 2012 Chicago Worldcon: Sunday

    Sunday, September 16th, 2012

    Yes, more Worldcon photos. I’ve broken them up across multiple posts so the page didn’t load so slowly readers would think they were back in the Geocities era.

    Dantzel Cherry and her friends charge up their eye lasers.

    Legendary fan David Kyle, who attended the first Worldcon in New York City in 1939!

    How many legends can you spot in this photo? David Hartwell, Robert Silverberg, and Joe and Gay Haldeman all talk to David Kyle.

    Connie Willis, enjoying the first Worldcon where she wasn’t required to present an award since she was six years old.

    With Mary Robinette Kowal, who survived the ordeal of being a SFWA officer.

    Michael Cassutt, just minutes before he was tragically bored to death at the Robert A. Heinlein Society annual meeting.

    Adam-Troy Castro. “I said sell Greek bonds! SELL!”

    Steve Jackson, who was there with his Chaos Machine setup. “What’s that? I can’t hear you over the sound of all that money my Ogre Kickstarter made.”

    Not-so-secret master of Fandom Ben Yalow.

    John Picacio, in the last known photo of him before he won the freaking Hugo Award.

    James Patrick Kelly and Robert Silverberg.

    Saturday night I dined with Scott Bobo, Kurt Baty, Sarah Felix, Ed Scarborough, and Spike and Tom at Everest, a 7 course meal that took three and a half hours and cost $200. Sunday, before the Hugos? I ate at Chipolte with Dantzel and some of her friends.

    Remember, pictures of attractive women are your best blog-visit drivers!

    David Brin is the Belle of the Ball:

    Molly Nixon, ready for the Hugos.

    As is Mary Robinette Kowal.

    Jim Minz and Mike Resnick at the door of the Baen party.

    Scott Edelman and Robert Reed, in a diagonally framed shot to get both of them in.

    Jay Lake, embossed by rocketship.

    You go, I go, for podcasting Hugos:

    Neil Gaiman, after the Hugos.

    John Scalzi in Murder by Hugo (Neil’s, as it happens).

    Scott Edelman’s fashion approaches David Hartwell levels of taste.

    And now, for the full effect: With the shoes.

    A better picture of Sue Burke, with 85% less “about to be eaten by zombies” grimness.

    Texas Worldcon Chairman Bill Parker looking sharp.

    Jim Mann, proving that some moose ties kan be pretty nasti.

    Another crappy picture of Charlie Stross, this one wearing his “Christopher Priest yells at a cloud” inspired t-shirt.

    It’s not my fault! She kept changing her outfit!