WorldCon Post-Mortem #6: Next time around (Next time?)

For all that Louis Prima's song "There'll Be No Next Time" is going through my head, the idea of another WorldCon is very appealing to me. Heck, I'd just want another chance to do this last WorldCon over again. (Though let's be honest: I feel the same way about some improv scenes I did years ago.) I heard stories about people up at 4 am, drinking and talking, and that sounds kinda appealing to try out. Maybe I'm still young enough to do so?

Well, even if I'm too old now--and certainly I'm not getting any younger--that's part of my plan for cons in the future. So much of the best times was chatting with people at the parties and elsewhere, that it has to be part of my plan for future cons. Similarly, if there are kaffeeklatsches at the con, I want to go to more of those; even if I've never heard of the person or only slightly know them, talking with them can be very fun and entertaining.

Since I'm also interested in, you know, being published, I'd especially like to attend more kaffeeklatsches with editors. Not to tell them my excellent story idea about a Jewish dwarf in a traveling circus who solves crimes. More to hear about what they want in general, what they're getting too much of, what they look for (or try to avoid) in their submissions. I'm particularly interested in editors of magazines, since the short story market may be more volatile and responsive to change.

And since my goal is to chat more, go to more parties, and generally hang out, I'd want to seriously consider getting a room at the hotel. Sure, I saved some money by staying a friend's house (and I discovered this incredible asthma reaction to cat fur); but when you're already taking several days off and spending money for the con itself, you might just consider going whole hog.

Now, with all that chatting and party-going, I'd still be interested in going to some panels, but my advice to future me on panels: if the panel feels weird or not helpful, feel free to skip out. (Also: even if you like the panel but have to go to the bathroom, consider heading out during the middle of the panel, when the bathrooms will be largely empty. That way you avoid the awkward moment of holding the door open for George R. R. Martin as he walks out and you walk in.)

Lastly, always carry your phone charger and powercord with you and make sure you take time to charge it. Twitter was an integral part of keeping connected with what was happening at the con. So, for instance, when Mur Lafferty tweeted out that people should come say hello at her lightly attended signing, I hopped right over and had a nice little chat. Or when Mary Robinette Kowal tweeted that she had trouble finding her kaffeeklatsch, I got that tweet and we sent out a rescue party for her. If I didn't have my phone charged then--she might be wandering the halls of the convention center even now!

WorldCon Post-Mortem #5: The Hugo Awards

This year, if we restrict the field to the Hugo Award categories I actually had opinions about, I correctly guessed quite a few of them. Let's say around 4/5. I mean, who was really surprised that Writing Excuses won for Best Related over The Cambridge Companion to Fantasy Literature. The average people who vote on this award probably listen to Writing Excuses a lot more than they read The Cambridge Companion to Fantasy Literature. (That includes me.) But just because I guessed them doesn't mean I'm totally thrilled with the awards.

But that's not what I want to talk about. Although, traditionally, after the awards are given out, the critics and opiners start argle-barging about what it means and/or why the one they wanted to win did or didn't win. No, let's skip that and go directly to the award breakdown.

Isn't that kind of amazing? As soon as the awards are announced, this breakdown of the voting becomes available. So here's what I am most struck by: Although there were 3412 members of WorldCon this year, there were only 1848 ballots cast.

I'll say that again: one of the most prestigious awards in science fiction was decided by 1848 people.


It gets even more squirrely when we get into the data:

• for Best Novel--1649 ballots counted
• Novella--1463
• Best Related Work--1091--and of that, 54 voted for No Award(!)
• and so on

And if you scroll down to the nominating ballots, you'll see that it only takes 38 nominations to get on the Best Novelette short-list; and 34 to get on the Campbell Award short-list.

Now, there's several different interpretations one can draw from these facts. We could say, "well, the core readership/leadership of sf is rather small (or if you prefer, tight-knit." We could say, "considering how close most of these races are, we should really push the short-list as a bunch of recommended works, rather than just hold up the Hugo winner as exceptional." We could say, "we need to boost attendance and voting." Or we could say, "is a Hugo Award measuring popularity in some way, and if so, does it differ at all from a best-seller list?"

I'm not sure what it says, but now that I'm paying attention to how the sausage of the Hugo Awards gets made, I'm not sure I'm all that hungry for it.

WorldCon Post-Mortem #4: Craft

Here's some quick notes on some interesting craft-related comments.

First, here's a collection of stories that were recommended as great learning tools:

• Asimov, "Night Fall"
• Vylar Kaftan, "I’m Alive, I Love You, I’ll See You in Reno"
• Connie Willis, "At the Rialto"
• James Patrick Kelly, "Think Like a Dinosaur"
• Michael Swanwick, "Edge of the World"
• Swanwick, "The Very Pulse of the Machine"
• Gene Wolfe, "The Eyeflash Miracles"

Second, a few notes on writing:

• Your teaser/elevator pitch should include the main character, their problem, and the tone
• Consider opening the story with people interacting and doing something
• Long chunks of exposition and description can be skipped; dialogue not so much
• Raise dramatic question in the opening scene
• End of scene needs some rise; not only ever a rise in tension (as in cliffhangers) but rise in emotion, stakes, diction

Third, some notes about thinking about the future, often by looking at our own past and present historical moment:

• In our world, X exists still, but our passion/relation to X changes; so we still have crossword puzzles but there's no crossword puzzle craze anymore
• Future may be mixed, just like the present--we can have advanced computer technology and still hold to the crackpot 18th century economic thinkers
• Singularity as single pop is very tidy, not like messy uneven development, which is more realistic

I'm sure there was more, but those are the things that are sticking out as craft-related.

WorldCon Post-Mortem #3: Highlights for Lowlifes

For all the many mistakes I made at my first con, I also had a pretty great time through much of it. Now, I'd love to replicate these highlights at my next con, but so many of the highlights were serendipitous: you go to a panel for one speaker but find yourself really digging what another says and so on. Which might be the first rule of a good convention: enjoy the serendipity. (Maybe that goes along with yesterday's command to Be where you are.) 

That general principle out of the way, here's my con highlights.

First, panels may be interesting, but go to the kaffeeklatsches and literary beers for individual insight in a small group. Almost all of the kaffeeklatsches and literary beers I went to were fun, entertaining, and educational.

For instance, I got to ask Chuck Wendig about supporting characters and their thematic relation to the protagonist. (I also got a free copy of Blackbirds signed by Chuck Wendig when he had three books to give away and decided to have a portmanteau curse contest. After everyone patterned theirs off of Wendig's "cockweasel"--"dick-muffin," "cunt-snickers"--I decided I would have a better chance reversing the formula and came up with "glam-dick." Which, you can tell, I'm very proud of.)

The only less-positive experiences--not even negative, just neutral experiences--is that if you go to a kaffee or beer with someone who you know, you might hear some of the same stories over again. So when I went to Mary Robinette Kowal's kaffee, someone asked her about how puppetry informs her fiction, which is a topic she's covered at Writing Excuses and in our online class.

So, while I highly advise going to kaffees and beers, some of my favorite times were when I was talking to a writer who I maybe didn't know so well. At the Fantastic London panel, American author David Liss commented about how he'd left grad school to write books, so I immediately signed up for his kaffeeklatsch to get the full story. And we had a very nice discussion. Even better for me (though a little sad for him probably), while he's a published author with several books, he's not a hot new author like Chuck Wendig or an old established lion (dragon?) like George R. R. Martin; so the Liss kaffeeklatsch was very sparse and cosy.

Second, some of the best time at cons will be when you skip the scheduled programming for chatting with people. Not to bury the lede here, I had a fabulous, nearly hour-long chat with Kim Stanley Robinson, whose fiction is incredible and who is also just a really nice and interesting guy. We talked about his fiction, my aborted graduate career, semiotic squares--it was really a wide and deep conversation.

Similarly, I had a great time when I was catching up with old friends, including three people from my online writing class with Mary Robinette Kowal. It was great to see them and chat in this different setting. That last day, I was late leaving San Antonio because I was having lunch and really getting into some interesting and deep family stories.

Third, meet new people! I really can't stress this enough (and I guess my chat with Kim Stanley Robinson and my kaffeeklatsch with David Liss could fall under this heading too). At the Jo Walton kaffeeklatsch on Friday, I met someone who used to work for the Onion's AV Club; and then later, at the Tor party, I ran into her again and had a real long talk about fan-dom and roleplaying games and just about everything nerd related.

Now, it's not always easy to meet new people, especially at a nerd-con, where many of the people are on some scale of introversion (or social anxiety). Even the authors may get a little worried look in their eye when someone approaches them (though there it's not just social anxiety but particular worry that you might be a nut). Still, I pushed myself a little and had very nice chats with Mur Lafferty, James Patrick Kelly, and Adam Christopher. And while I was (or hope I was) careful to give them some out in the conversation, I think in each case they were happy to chat.

Fourth, some of the scheduled panels were good and interesting--usually the panels where we just have one person giving a lesson. So Mary Robinette Kowal's lesson on Schmoozing 101 (i.e., don't be a creep or a jerk) should be scheduled before just about any social event; and Lou Anders's very structural approach to storytelling was very interesting. Let me put this in the form of a command that will be impossible to follow: Go to the panels that are worth it. (Or I guess the rule might be: follow the person, not the panel topic. I've heard Kowal and Anders discuss these topics before and knew they would give great information on them.)

Fifth, although I'm not super-thrilled with some of the Hugo Awards, the ceremony itself was a great deal of fun, with Toastmaster Paul Cornell making hilarious jokes, along with some touching calls for tolerance and equality within fandom. It was also just kind of heart-warming to see and hear some of the speeches. I don't know that the Hugos are a highlight, but Paul Cornell really was.

WorldCon Post-Mortem #2: If it wasn't for mistakes, I wouldn't have any misses at all

Since this was my first real con*, I'm not entirely sure about the mistakes I made. I mean, it's very easy for me to say, for instance, "I should've spent more time in the dealer's room"--but if I had spent more time there, maybe I would be saying, "I should've spent more time going to panels."

That said, here's what I'm taking away from this con in terms of mistakes--and hopes for a better time at cons in the future.

First, I got pulled over in Menard County for going a little fast, which is some lesson to me, especially since the sheriff asked to search my car. That cost me a little time. Still, it was a pretty interesting experience, though I think, next time, I won't tell the sheriff that I did smoke pot back in college--even if he asks very nicely. Don't speed.

Second, I planned to bring snacks, including (thanks to my girlfriend's advice) some celery and carrots (along with granola bars, pretzels, energy bars, almonds and dried cranberries, and chocolate-covered cranberries). I can't imagine surviving the con without those snacks.

That said, no matter how interesting a panel or discussion may be, I learned that you need to make time for yourself at a con, which includes sleeping, eating a real meal (with real vegetables, please), and going to the bathroom. Seriously, one day I skipped breakfast and lunch and by the time I went to dinner, I felt like I was going to faint and vomit at the same time. Take care of yourself.

Third--and here's a lesson from grad school and improv--you have to be where you are. If you're at one panel, wondering what's going on at another panel, you're not going to get anything out of the panel that you're in. There's a lot of shopping around (which I recommend), but once you're somewhere, just be there. (This is less a mistake and more a memo to myself that I always need to hear again.) Be where you are, grasshopper.

Fourth, panels can be an incredible grab-bag of personalities (and skill levels); and the organizers who write the programs aren't the ones who actually hold the panel. So I was at one panel of "-punk" genres, where the description included "martial punk" and no one in the room knew if that was a real thing. Similarly, no one at the "Where Have the Ghost Stories Gone?" panel thought that that was a good question to ask: ghost stories are still with us. And worst of all, at the panel of C. J. Cherryh's worldbuilding, the panel itself didn't mesh, so it just felt like people talking past each other. (Mostly because of this one woman who wanted everyone to know that she was Cherryh's very good friend. Which is nice for her, but not really helpful in understanding Cherryh's worldbuilding.) Take panels with a grain of salt.

Five, as much as you need sleep and you find it a little exhausting to go to parties with strangers, you should make an effort to go meet people, which is one of the great joys of cons. (And to be clear, wherever I say "you" here, I mean "I.") I met some really nice people at one or other party; but there was at least one night where I took the easy route of skipping a party where I probably could've met some more interesting people. Go talk to people.

Six, my accommodations were very cheap, because I was staying with a friend of a friend. But since I wasn't downtown at the big hotels, I wasn't in the very thick of it. You know, it just changes the emotional calculation for the evening when you have to factor in "driving back"--even if it's only a 10 minute or less drive. Consider spending extra money to get closer to the parties.

Seven, eat breakfast tacos.

Eight, I got a bunch of free books and ran out of room to carry them, so a bigger bag might've helped. But then it's best to travel lightly. So, on my first day, I had my ipad and external keyboard, as if I was going to get some serious writing done. I really only needed the ipad. Travel lightly at the con. (There was one notable, positive exception: knowing that I would be driving for three-plus hours in my minimally air-conditioned car (read: "sweat lodge"), I wisely packed a small bag with a change of clothes. So my first stop on hitting San Antonio was a place where I could change. But the general principle holds while at the con. Carry less and be prepared to shake more hands.)

Tune in tomorrow for my highlights of the con.

*I did go to a Science Fiction Research Association conference that was attached to a Heinlein convention. But it was a much smaller convention and I didn't really do much Heinlein-related activities, other than give the side-eye to out-of-shape older white men who complained that Verhoeven missed the point of Heinlein's Starship Troopers.

WorldCon Post-Mortem #1: The bird's, NO, spaceship's-eye view

For the last five days, I've been in San Antonio for WorldCon, the World Science Fiction Convention, which was great fun (with some serious issues on the side). This post will be the first of a 5-part series, unless I get bored or decide I have more to say. Today's topic will be a general overview of the convention, both in the general (what there is at a con) and the specific (what I did).

First, San Antonio and the Convention Center: 

The convention center was a little confusing at first in terms of layout; and I think several times some author would get lost on the way to his/her meeting and tweet out an SOS. (Twitter was essential for the convention. But a big-ass map of the convention center posted somewhere would be pretty sweet too.) The convention center is also near some very big hotels and a very touristy riverwalk, which makes it convenient but not all that interesting. So when I asked a friend what he would tell his family (in Alaska!) about Texas, he said he hadn't really seen Texas. 

Which is probably what you would say at just about any convention, but doubly so for this one: when the temp in the convention center is so low and the outside heat is so high, it doesn't encourage a lot of exploring outdoors. Luckily, thanks to an article in Texas Monthly, I found a couple of interesting/intriguing places to go to just south of the Convention Center. Maybe I'm a minority in this, but when I go to a distant city, I like to go a little beyond the convention center. Then again, considering how many mobility scooters and canes there were, I can understand why "exploration" was not high on many people's wish-lists. Which brings me to...

Second, the Graying of Fandom and Exclusivity: 

Is science fiction fandom getting older or is the WorldCon merely a forbidding place to the newbie and the young? Well, clearly the first is not entirely correct, since YA SF is a booming industry. (Although we could discuss whether YA fantasy is beating YA SF's pants off and giving those pants to a sparkly vampire.) I don't have much to say on this right now--for one thing, I'm not really sure of the demographic stats--but the possibility that WorldCon is graying/shrinking is a serious issue that is getting some attention right now; see Chuck Wendig's blog and Andrea Philip's blog for serious discussion.

I'm yoking "graying" and "exclusivity" together here because WorldCon has been going for a long, long time; and it's got some long-standing traditions. Which is great: I love tradition. On the flipside: oy vey, tradition. When a long-standing community has a set of in-jokes, it can be off-putting not to get the jokes; when they have a whole set of traditions that are fundamental to the operation of the convention, it can be exclusionary. There was a great joke by Paul Cornell when he was hosting this Hugo Award ceremony about this: when it came time to give the award for "Best Semiprozine," he noted that "semiprozine" sounds like something you ask your doctor for (when he said it "may cause drowsiness," part of the audience gasped) and then went on to list the counter-intuitive rules for that category.

So, as someone pointed out, a lot of the con business isn't science fiction and fantasy--it's the con. So there's the bid parties (where the city that wants the next available WorldCon throws a party to show you what a good time they have in, say, Helsinki). Which can be fun, but may be hard to navigate for a newcomer. Similarly, my membership allowed me to vote in lots of WorldCon business, but I didn't really find a lot of material in my con packet to help prepare me for those issues.

But I will say this: as a dude who spent a fair amount of time walking around with a woman, I didn't see much creepy interaction. But like I said: dude--so I'm not sure I would see the creepy interaction. And it was very nice to hear message of inclusivity and tolerance espoused by several people, including Paul Cornell and Best Artist John Picacio, as well as others.

Third, Con Events:

There are several things to do at a con like this, including

• walk through the dealers' room and exhibit hall, where you can see weapons and books for sale, some Doctor Who memorabilia, and a giant plastic Iron Throne (from Game of Thrones);

• go to panel discussions on

• some book or book-related topic (e.g. Robert E. Howard's boxing stories, The Left Hand of Darkness, C. J. Cherryh's worldbuilding);

• some trend (e.g. YA books, urban fantasy);

• some craft issue (e.g., plot problems);

• some speculative-related issue (e.g., space law);

• go to an author signing;

• go to an author reading;

• go to an author Kaffeeklatsch or Literary Beer (a small group discussion);

• go talk to someone in the hallway or on line (but never in the bathroom);

• go to various parties (like the bid parties or the publisher parties).

Four, What I Did (and a Quick Note on How I Felt About It--positive, negative, or neutral):

Thursday:

• Fantastic London panel (+)

• C. J. Cherryh's Worldbuilding panel (-) 

• the Haikasoru party (+) and several bid parties (-)

Friday

• Kaffeeklatsch with Chuck Wendig (++)

• Schmoozing 101 with Mary Robinette Kowal (+)

• History of Science and the Experience of Science Fiction panel (+/-)

• Literary Beer with Jo Walton (+)

• My Dragon Torched the Prince and Other Plot Problems panel (+/-)

• How to Sell to Ellen Datlow (-)

• the Tor party (++)

Saturday

• How to Write a Short Story panel (+/-)

• Kaffeeklatsch with David Liss (+)

• Punking It panel (+)

• Screenplay Structure for Novelists (++)

• Short Stories--What's Next (+/-)

• Kim Stanley Robinson reading (++)

• Masquerade (-, but surreal enough to warrant going once)

• the Drabblecast and Brotherhood without Banners party (I barely was there)

Sunday

• How to Write a Teaser (+)

• The Future Two Hundred Years Out (++)

• Kaffeeklatsch with Mary Robinette Kowal (+/-, but mostly because I'd heard most of these stories before)

• Norman Spinrad Guest of Honor speech (+/-)

• Where Have the Ghost Stories Gone (+/-)

• the Hugo Awards (+)

• Post-Hugo Award drinks at the bar (+)

Monday

• How to Write a Novel (+/-)

• Literary Beer with Paul Cornell (+)

Now, these were just the official things that I went to; many of my highlights were the unofficial chats that I had with people. (And I guess parties aren't totally "official" official.) But now that we have a rough overview of the con, I'll fill in tomorrow with my mistakes and highlights.