Worldcon diary: day 4
Saturday started off with a panel on "Web Publishing and the Future of Magazines". I wish I could say there was some clear paradigm emerging for fiction in the age of the internet, but at present things are still a tangled mix of different people trying different models with varying degrees of success. If any consensus emerged out of this discussion, it was a broadly painted one: print magazines will not dry up and vanish in the immediate future, but web publishing has already become too important to ignore.
"The Real Middle Ages" (Karen Anderson, Michael F. Flynn, Ellen Asher, and Sean McMullen) was an attempt to tease apart the reality of Medieval Europe from the pseudo-medieval world of much fantasy fiction. The panel was knowledgeable and dished out lots of interesting tidbits, but all I really took away is that if I want to write about the Middle Ages realistically, I better do some research first.
"The Craft of Writing Short Science Fiction and Fantasy" (Adam Troy-Castro, Jay Lake, Robert Reed, Michael Swanwick, and Connie Willis) gave a wonderful window on these accomplished writers' approach to writing short stories. Key points stressed were finding the few salient details that will help the reader paint a picture, putting stories away for a while to get distance and objectivity before revising, and having a strong beginning and ending. I plucked up courage to ask a question: how much time do you spending writing the first draft, as opposed to revising. Troy-Castro said 30%, then Swanwick said the story is done at the end of the first draft, because he revises as he goes. That seemed to close down the answers, but I would have liked to hear the other panelists answer. *sigh*
My kaffeeklatsch with Neil Clarke was good, though a bit strange. Two other people showed up, neither of which had any idea who Clarke was or what he did. I guess they were just bored and signed up to talk with him at random. Nevertheless, they seemed to talk a lot. Happily, we had a whole hour, so I was able to talk with him about editorial process and other things of interest to me - eventually. Although he has slush readers, he does look at everything himself as a kind of double-check. He also keeps a fairly detailed database of his submissions.
"The Big Bang Theory: The TV Show, not the Cosmological Theory": I won't describe this panel discussion, but just note with interest that this TV show, which derives much of its humor from depicting the word of obsessive geek fandom, now has its own obsessive geek fandom. Strange but cool.
Sheila Williams's Q&A about Asimov's completed the triad of talks by editors of the "big three" magazines. Williams was just as likeable and approachable as the other two, if perhaps a bit more serious and less casual. I was surprised to learn that (like Stanley Schmidt) she goes through the slush pile herself. Although the assistant editor sends out the form letter rejections, it is at Williams's direction. It was also interesting to hear that Asimov's digital subscriptions are now at about 7,000 (half as many as print subscriptions) and of course rising. It's nice to think that the digital format is actually expanding the reader base of the fiction magazines.
"Ursula Le Guin at 89" (she actually almost 82 now) with Eileen Gunn, Kim Stanley Robinson, Jo Walton, and Sheila Williams struck a nice balance between personal anecdotes of Le Guin and assessment of her writing career. I felt I got to know my favorite writer a bit better through this panel.
"Designing Believable Archeology and Anthropology" was a somewhat misleading name for a panel on how archeology and anthropology can inform world-building for fiction writers. Like the panel on the middle ages, there were plenty of fascinating details but not much overarching theme, making it difficult to summarize.
The focal point of the day, of course, was the Hugo Award ceremony in the evening. Interesting feeling being present at this event, which seemed so remote and awesome to me as a teen-ager. Jay Lake and Ken Scholes did some amusing shtick as presenters, and it was wonderful to see Christopher J. Garcia so genuinely and massively overwhelmed with emotion at winning the Best Fanzine hugo for "The Drink Tank". My own voting agreed with that of the other fans in a good number of cases (Sheila Williams, Best Editor Short Form; Inception, Best Dramatic Presentation Long Form, Lev Grossman, Campbell Award for best new writer; Clarkesworld Best Semi-Prozine), but I did not anticipate the winners of Best Short Story ("For Want of a Nail", Mary Robinette Kowal) and Novelette ("The Emperor of Mars", Allen M. Steele.) Best Novella went to Ted Chiang for "The Lifecycle of Software Objects", and Best Novel was awarded to Connie Willis for Blackout / All Clear. Without a doubt, the highpoint of the evening was Robert Silverberg, who had us all laughing so hard we could hardly endure it.
This was the culmination of the convention; Sunday will be a wind-down day. It's been wonderful being able to participate in a Worldcon at last, reconnecting with my youthful passion with science fiction and fantasy,
"The Real Middle Ages" (Karen Anderson, Michael F. Flynn, Ellen Asher, and Sean McMullen) was an attempt to tease apart the reality of Medieval Europe from the pseudo-medieval world of much fantasy fiction. The panel was knowledgeable and dished out lots of interesting tidbits, but all I really took away is that if I want to write about the Middle Ages realistically, I better do some research first.
"The Craft of Writing Short Science Fiction and Fantasy" (Adam Troy-Castro, Jay Lake, Robert Reed, Michael Swanwick, and Connie Willis) gave a wonderful window on these accomplished writers' approach to writing short stories. Key points stressed were finding the few salient details that will help the reader paint a picture, putting stories away for a while to get distance and objectivity before revising, and having a strong beginning and ending. I plucked up courage to ask a question: how much time do you spending writing the first draft, as opposed to revising. Troy-Castro said 30%, then Swanwick said the story is done at the end of the first draft, because he revises as he goes. That seemed to close down the answers, but I would have liked to hear the other panelists answer. *sigh*
My kaffeeklatsch with Neil Clarke was good, though a bit strange. Two other people showed up, neither of which had any idea who Clarke was or what he did. I guess they were just bored and signed up to talk with him at random. Nevertheless, they seemed to talk a lot. Happily, we had a whole hour, so I was able to talk with him about editorial process and other things of interest to me - eventually. Although he has slush readers, he does look at everything himself as a kind of double-check. He also keeps a fairly detailed database of his submissions.
"The Big Bang Theory: The TV Show, not the Cosmological Theory": I won't describe this panel discussion, but just note with interest that this TV show, which derives much of its humor from depicting the word of obsessive geek fandom, now has its own obsessive geek fandom. Strange but cool.
Sheila Williams's Q&A about Asimov's completed the triad of talks by editors of the "big three" magazines. Williams was just as likeable and approachable as the other two, if perhaps a bit more serious and less casual. I was surprised to learn that (like Stanley Schmidt) she goes through the slush pile herself. Although the assistant editor sends out the form letter rejections, it is at Williams's direction. It was also interesting to hear that Asimov's digital subscriptions are now at about 7,000 (half as many as print subscriptions) and of course rising. It's nice to think that the digital format is actually expanding the reader base of the fiction magazines.
"Ursula Le Guin at 89" (she actually almost 82 now) with Eileen Gunn, Kim Stanley Robinson, Jo Walton, and Sheila Williams struck a nice balance between personal anecdotes of Le Guin and assessment of her writing career. I felt I got to know my favorite writer a bit better through this panel.
"Designing Believable Archeology and Anthropology" was a somewhat misleading name for a panel on how archeology and anthropology can inform world-building for fiction writers. Like the panel on the middle ages, there were plenty of fascinating details but not much overarching theme, making it difficult to summarize.
The focal point of the day, of course, was the Hugo Award ceremony in the evening. Interesting feeling being present at this event, which seemed so remote and awesome to me as a teen-ager. Jay Lake and Ken Scholes did some amusing shtick as presenters, and it was wonderful to see Christopher J. Garcia so genuinely and massively overwhelmed with emotion at winning the Best Fanzine hugo for "The Drink Tank". My own voting agreed with that of the other fans in a good number of cases (Sheila Williams, Best Editor Short Form; Inception, Best Dramatic Presentation Long Form, Lev Grossman, Campbell Award for best new writer; Clarkesworld Best Semi-Prozine), but I did not anticipate the winners of Best Short Story ("For Want of a Nail", Mary Robinette Kowal) and Novelette ("The Emperor of Mars", Allen M. Steele.) Best Novella went to Ted Chiang for "The Lifecycle of Software Objects", and Best Novel was awarded to Connie Willis for Blackout / All Clear. Without a doubt, the highpoint of the evening was Robert Silverberg, who had us all laughing so hard we could hardly endure it.
This was the culmination of the convention; Sunday will be a wind-down day. It's been wonderful being able to participate in a Worldcon at last, reconnecting with my youthful passion with science fiction and fantasy,
Thanks again for posting! I think it is very cool that you got to speak to Neil Clarke. The panels that you went to sound very interesting.
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