Posts Tagged ‘John Kessel’

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.”

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

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

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

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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?

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

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John Kessel.

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John Kessel in jacket.

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

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Michael Bulmlein.

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

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Your Humble Narrator and Ian McDonald.

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

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

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

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Just ask George Locke!

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

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Ben Bova.

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Ben Bova and Your Humble Narrator.

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Lawrence Watt-Evans.

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Lawrence Watt-Evans and company.

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Lawrence and Lawrence, coming this fall to Fox!

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Matthew Hughes

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Ann VanderMeer

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Jeff and Ann VanderMeer.

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Stephen Jones.

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Joe Haldeman, Gay Haldeman and Jim Burns.

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John Douglas.

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Michael Swanwick, yet again.

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“Come, Mrs. Peel, we’re needed!”

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Henry Wessels, rocking the seersucker.

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John Clute and company.

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

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

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Andrew Porter.

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Scott Edelman.

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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.

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

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

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Janeen Webb.

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Betsy Mitchell.

Galadriel As You’ve Never Seen Her Him Before

Wednesday, December 19th, 2012

Earlier this year, science fiction writer and North Carolina State University professor John Kessel declared that “I know the world does not care, but nobody could pay me enough money to go see The Hobbit. Well, maybe someone could, but nobody is going to.”

The Internet knows how to respond to such statements.

Soon a fundraiser for the SFWA Emergency Medical fund was launched, with various levels of funding support:

$250 — Prof. Kessel goes to see The Hobbit (the upcoming Peter Jackson version, in a movie theater before the end of the year, no cop-out home screenings of the Bass-Rankin animated classic)
$750 — Prof. Kessel will either before or after the film eat Denny’s The Hobbit-themed Ring Burger
$1000 — Prof. Kessel will dress as Gandalf when watching the film
$2500 — Prof. Kessel will dress as Galadriel when watching the film

And the result?

Well, feast your eyes:

The last picture is with John’s “Hobbit escort” Kate Maddalena, who took these pictures.

Click any picture to embiggen and more fully display all of John Kessel as Galadriel’s, um, glory.

If you’re impressed by this outstanding display of selflessness (or else you have a fetish for really tall, butch trannies), you too can donate to the SFWA Medical Fund.

You might also pick up one of John’s swell books, like Good News From Outer Space, Corrupting Dr. Nice, or his short story collection The Pure Product.

(And thanks to John and Kate Maddalena for permission to use these photos.)

Pictures from the 2012 Chicago WorldCon: Friday

Thursday, September 6th, 2012

The obligatory Stina Leicht picture:

Stina was a John W. Campbell Award nominee this year, and she moderated a panel that included Gene Wolfe, Martha Wells, and Joan D. Vinge (below).

After the panel I had lunch with Gene Wolfe, Gary K. Wolfe (below), Gene’s daughter Teri Goulding, and Gary’s girlfriend Stacie Hanes.

Gary ordered the Frank Gehry Sandwich, impressively postmodern and completely impractical.

Alaskan David Marusek:

Laura Ann Gilman. “Smile broadly! Drink heavily!”

Bookseller and Tiger Eye Press publisher Chris Edwards:

Allen Steele.

Jim Minz and Catherine Asaro. I trust you can guess which is which.

James Patrick Kelly, John Kessel and David Marusek. “Look into my eyes!”

Toastmaster and SFWA President John Scalzi:

Pictures from the 2012 Chicago WorldCon: Wednesday & Thursday

Wednesday, September 5th, 2012

Always willing to get cheap blog fodder document science fiction history, I tried to take pictures of just about everyone I knew that I bumped into there.

Scott Bobo and Kurt Baty pretend they’ve been hard at work setting up the art show.

Elizabeth Moon, hanging out in front of the Lone Star Con 3 table.

The ubiquitous Guest of Honor Mike Resnick at one of the approximately 700 parties he attended over the week.

John Kessel looms large in science fiction.

Scott Bobo sitting in front of the portal to London that suddenly appeared behind him.

A blurry Adam Troy-Castro stands in front of an equally blurry Charles Stross. Obviously there was some sort of temporal disturbance in the dealer’s room.

Sue Burke contemplates her life after the collapse of the Spanish economy.

Noted lush Scott Bobo yet again, doing what he does best. Bobo, Kurt, Ed Scarborough and I ended up eating out together three times during Worldcon, hence extra pics of some of them. This one is from the original Morton’s.

Ed Sacrborough and Jonathan Miles. “Is that bastard taking our picture again?”

Kurt and Grady, whose skin has lightened considerably since his stint on Sanford & Son.

More pics, probably tomorrow.