Locus, December 2012

by Locus Publications

  The Sheraton Hotel towers loomed directly over the convention area, housing the dealers’ room, art show, and programming on ground and subterranean levels, with the Best Western hotel linked by interior hallways. In the dealers’ room, the hucksters reported decent sales, with some very happy and others wishing they had done better. There were 37 tables with 20 dealers and two tables for auctions. Dealers offered the usual assortment of goods, including books, books, and more books (new and collectible); magazines; jewelry; and other associational items. Jacob Weisman of Tachyon Publications said, ‘‘Despite the fact that so many people weren’t able to attend the convention due to the storm, we sold far more books than at any previous World Fantasy. Debuting three new books – Steampunk III, Epic: Legends of Fantasy, and The Emperor’s Soul – helped. The American books were also somewhat of a novelty to the Canadian attendees, and the bad US dollar made our books very affordable.’’ Brett Savory of ChiZine noted, ‘‘Foot traffic was very solid for this WFC. We sold a pile of books, and there was a lot of buzz about us at the con overall, it seemed. Probably ’cause we had so many of our authors there due to Toronto being our hometown. We definitely sold much more than we usually do at other WFCs…’’

  Programming began on Thursday at 2:00 p.m. and consisted of 51 panels, including the guests’ panel and the WFA judges panel after the awards ceremony, 82 readings, guest of honor interviews, and the WFC business meeting. Many panels were full to capacity, including ‘‘Remembering Twilight Zone Magazine’’ with Nancy Baker, Lawrence C. Connelly, Elizabeth Hand, Scott Edelman, and Darrell Schweitzer; ‘‘Call Yourself an Editor?’’ with Jack Dann, Ellen Datlow, Gordon Van Gelder, Patrick Swenson, and Ann VanderMeer; and ‘‘The Lexicon of Horror’’ – a roundtable discussion about Clute’s The Darkening Garden, with panelists John Clute, Michael Dirda, Peter Straub, and Gary K. Wolfe. The program designers also made an effort to work in more art programming this year, including presentations by Charles Vess, John Picacio, and Todd Lockwood on their artistic processes.

  The art show presented 25 artists in the gallery this year, with special displays by artist guest of honour Richard A. Kirk, along with special guests Larry Dixon and Judith Clute. Half of the artists came from outside of Canada. There were 266 pieces in the show, with almost all of them in the auction. Thirteen artists also contributed over 140 works to the Print Shop. Around a quarter of the pieces shown sold during the weekend.

  Almost 200 authors participated in the mass autographing session on Friday night – ‘‘The room was packed out for most of the night,’’ according to Christopher Roden – and included such notables as Guy Gavriel Kay, Robert J. Sawyer, Pat Rothfuss, Mary Robinette Kowal, Karen Lord, Ellen Datlow, Tim Powers, James Blaylock, Garth Nix, Mercedes Lackey, John Picacio, Bradley Beaulieu, Karl Schroeder, Charles de Lint, Tanya Huff, Charles Vess, Peter Straub, Brandon Sanderson, David Drake, Joe Haldeman, Andy Duncan, Ellen Klages, L.E. Modesitt, Jr, Holly Black, Sean Williams, Daryl Gregory, Graham Joyce, David G. Hartwell, John Joseph Adams, Carol Berg, Jo Walton, Rick Wilber, and many more.

  The many room and suite parties included the traditional Tor party, where editors, authors, and agents rubbed elbows and took advantage of the plentiful bar and a tub full of beer; a ChiZine party with host Brett Savory launching new titles by Robert Boyczuk, Helen Marshall, Ian Rogers, and Robert Shearman; and a crowded Clarion West party, among others. Cheeky Frawg, the VanderMeers’s new imprint, hosted a popular and lively shindig with flash readings by authors and book giveaways, launching new titles by Karen Tidbeck and Holly Philips as well as Ann VanderMeer’s Steampunk III. Brian and Anita Hades of Edge Publications held a big party with a roster of readings by their authors and a steady crowd of partygoers. On Friday and Saturday nights, Charles de Lint & MaryAnn Harris held musical recitals, and Saturday the Crinoline Banjo Apocalypse Troubadors entertained attendees with ‘‘reading, singing, harping, cookies, and dramatic interpreting.’’ There were a host of other parties and get-togethers, including several off-campus events such as the Bakka Phoenix Bookstore Halloween party and Dragon Moon Press’s Pub Night.

  Particularly complimentary comments were heard about the hospitality suite as one of the better seen in recent years, with hot food available breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and a steady supply of beverages keeping con-goers fortified.

  World Fantasy Convention 2012 continues after ad.

  AWARDS BANQUET

  The World Fantasy Awards Ceremony was held at 1:00 p.m. on Sunday, November 4, 2013. The convention issued 285 banquet tickets. Unlike most banquets, the food was plated at the tables, which meant the meal took a much longer time than usual, but the hot food was hot, and the cold food was cold, and in general seemed very well received. (The hockey puck nature of the butter tart dessert was daunting to some, but it was apparently an ‘‘authentically Canadian’’ dish, and perhaps made more sense to others.) After the meal, toastmaster Gary K. Wolfe opened the ceremony. The first order of business was the raffle, presented by Betsy Mitchell, representing Open Road Media, who thanked Canadian company Kobo for their generosity in donating a reader for the raffle. Liz Hand picked the winning ticket for Nancy Green. Wolfe then thanked the committee and Peter Halasz for their work organizing the convention.

  In his toastmaster speech, Wolfe noted that the cliché ‘‘it’s an honor to be nominated’’ is perhaps truer than you think. Wolfe went over the numbers: only 658 have been nominated over the 38 years of the award, only 278 have won. The first awards in 1975 covered two years, so it averages 17 nominees per year; this year was a bit more, because of collaborations and partnerships, with 45 nominees. ‘‘The World Fantasy awards process is one of the best of the season in terms of how the awards are decided: partly popular, partly juried. It could be worse, we could run the awards the way George R.R. Martin runs his novels, in which case all your favorite nominees would be killed sometime before the convention. Or like World Science Fiction, which every couple of years has a decision to rejigger its categories into complete incomprehensibility. Or like the US electoral process, the World Fantasy Awards could be decided entirely by people who live in Ohio. We could run them like the Grammy Awards, which this year have 400 nominees in 78 categories – imagine how long we’d be here if we did that!’’

  ‘‘One of the things beginning writers are often concerned about in their career path is where they belong, and that comes up often in the panel discussions, that thing that academics call subgenre – agents call it ‘‘niche’’, booksellers call it ‘‘shelf’’… Today people want to know where you are, not simply as a fantasist or a science fiction writer or a horror writer, but where within all the categories you land. Which we might think of as a kind of a train, separate cars on a very long train, for example, the Steampunk car is there – it has very few seats left in it – or the Romantic Urban Vampire car, which is crowded, but still very popular. The one that strikes me as a fairly recent addition is the Teenage Dystopia with Archery car, which I understand has really bad food service. Or you can take your chances in the interstitial spaces between cars. I think the best way for a new young beginning writer would be to just follow all these trends at once. I have a term for that; since it comes at the end of a long train of genres, we could call this Caboose Fiction. I think it would involve postapocalyptic, steam-operated, mechanical, zombie, circus angels, who are heavily into bondage.’’ After some more savvy jokes about labels, worldbuilding, structures, and a few very amusing bits about decoding of the secret reviewers’ lexicon, social media, and Amazon, Wolfe got to the awards portion of the afternoon.

  Guy Gavriel Kay was deeply pleased to accept the Life Achievement Award on behalf of Alan Garner, saying that we bring honor on ourselves in conferring the award on Garner. ‘‘For a half century, Garner has written with power and intensity and artistic courage. In works for young adults that respect their intelligence; for adults, to deepen and extend our sense of the world.’’ He read a few words on Garner’s beh
alf, who noted that he has retreated into his workspace, hoping that the audience would not think him ungrateful. ‘‘In the chaos that is swirling around my refuge, there is a consensus that I am done.’’ However, ‘‘writing is not a job nor an occupation but a pathological state. And the only way out is horizontal. Therefore, and no more joshing, thank you for deciding what I do is worthy of note and for showing it. It matters; it really does matter. I have not finished, and your generosity has put extra fuel in the tank.’’

  The Life Achievement Award for George R.R. Martin was accepted by Evelyn Baker. ‘‘I am sorry I am not able to be with you today. My minions have chained me to my desk until I finish my next book. I was delighted… and even more thrilled when I heard that I would share the award with Alan Garner. Life Achievement, me? It seems like only yesterday I was a young Turk, serving my decade on the new writer panel that seemed to be obligatory at every con in the 1970s… Thank you once again, and do keep reading. The best is yet to come!’’

  Alisa Krasnostein, winner of the Special Award, Non-Professional last year, assisted Wolfe in presenting the award to Raymond Russell & Rosalie Parker, for Tartarus Press, accepted by Michael Dirda. ‘‘Thank you all for the great honor that has been bestowed on them…. They do handsome, beautiful books, so on their behalf, thank you very much.’’

  Special Award, Professional was awarded to Eric Lane, for publishing in translation at Dedalus Books. John Clute accepted for Lane, saying that he was surprised and pleased Dedalus had won the award. ‘‘They have published a wide range of extremely interesting books, taking huge risks at times with their survival. I’m very, very happy they’ve been honored here.’’

  The award for Best Artist was given to John Coulthart. ‘‘It was a surprise to be nominated for this award. I imagine many people are still saying John ‘Who’? It’s even more of a surprise to actually win it.’’ He thanked David Britton and Michael Butterworth at Savoy, Jill Roberts and Jacob Weisman at Tachyon, and Ann & Jeff VanderMeer, ‘‘all of whom have given me the opportunity to create some unique books. Thank you all.’’

  Elizabeth Hand replaced Alisa Krasnostein as official award presenter assistant, and announced the winner of Best Collection, The Bible Repairman and Other Stories by Tim Powers. Powers hopped up to the stage with his usual vigor and thanked everyone, saying ‘‘This is genuinely unexpected and humbling, because I did, this year, look at my competitors’ work. It almost makes me feel guilty. I am very grateful for this. It’s a tremendous reassurance, for when I look at friends of mine who have actual jobs, and I wonder if I’m wasting my youth…. It’s a genuinely magical object.’’ He thanked Jacob Weisman, Bill Schafer, and his first reader Serena Powers, ‘‘who doesn’t hesitate to tell me when I’m writing something pedestrian, lifeless, or stupid!’’

  Best Anthology went to The Weird, edited by Ann & Jeff VanderMeer. Ann said, ‘‘First of all, thanks to my husband, my partner, and my co-conspirator in this crazy project.’’ She thanked the judges and the members, their editors Mic Cheetham and Liz Gorinsky, and translator Gio Clairval. ‘‘Looking out into this room and looking at the ballot, I am surrounded by my heroes and the people that inspire me every day…. My heartfelt thanks go to all of those writers, whose contributions to this project made it what it is.’’ Jeff thanked his wife for putting up with him during what was ‘‘an immense and surreal project,’’ and pointed out three editors who helped them through their own works: David Hartwell, S.T. Joshi, and Ellen Datlow.

  The winner for Best Short Fiction was ‘‘The Paper Menagerie’’ by Ken Liu, marking a first in genre awards history: this was the first single piece of fiction to win the World Fantasy, Hugo, and Nebula Awards! The award was accepted by David Levine, who read a note from Liu. ‘‘I’ve always thought of fantasy and literature that literalizes metaphors…. I wish my grandmother had lived to see me win this award. She is the one who taught me origami as a child, and I’ll always remember the first time I saw her blow into one of her paper creations, seeming to bring it to life.’’ He thanked his publisher Gordon Van Gelder and his wife Lisa.

  ‘‘A Small Price to Pay for Birdsong’’ by K.J. Parker won Best Novella, with a tuxedo-clad Jonathan Strahan accepting. ‘‘It takes a lot to render a writer speechless. No matter how many emails I sent to K.J. Parker, K.J. remained speechless.’’ Strahan expressed thanks to the jurors, everyone who had read the story, and to Bill Schafer for publishing the work.

  The Best Novel Award went to Osama by Lavie Tidhar. In an act of astonishing brevity, a slightly shaken but happy-looking Tidhar, said, ‘‘It feels very strange to be standing up here at the moment. Thank you very much,’’ and then rapidly left the stage.

  David Hartwell closed the ceremony and the convention itself, thanking all of the judges for serving on the awards jury. He reminded attendees to purchase their memberships to next year’s convention in Brighton UK, and the following year in Washington DC. Noting that 122 members didn’t make it to Toronto, Hartwell closed with, ‘‘This convention always has some difficulties, and this year had a storm…. Those of us that were here seemed to have a really good time. I know I did.’’

  Next year’s World Fantasy Convention will be held October 31-November 3 in Brighton, UK, at the Hilton Brighton Metropole. Guests of honour will be Richard Matheson, Richard Christian Matheson, and Alan Lee, with master of ceremonies China Miéville. Special guests will be Brian Aldiss and Tessa Farmer. The theme will be ‘‘The Next Generation’’, honoring ‘‘a whole new generation of writers’’ who have ‘‘emerged on both sides of the Atlantic.’’ Washington DC won the bid to host the 2014 convention, to be held November 6-9 at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City in Arlington VA. The Board also accepted LASTSFA’s bid to hold the 2015 World Fantasy Convention in Saratoga Springs NY. More information is available at .

  A selection of images from the convention are included below.

  – Liza Groen Trombi

  S.T. Joshi, Richard Gavin, Simon Strantzas; Steve Rasnic Tem, W. Paul Ganley; Brandon Sanderson, Jacob Weisman

  K.T. Bryski, Leah Petersen, Erik Buchanan; David Willoughby; Alisa Krasnostein; Patricia A. Diggs

  Tanya & Tom Doherty; Christopher & Barbara Roden, Tim Roden; Sydney & Andy Duncan; Sean Wallace, Neil Clarke, K. Tempest Bradford

  John Clute & Elizabeth Hand, Callie Hand; Nicholas Kauffman, Anya Martin; Davey Snyder, Greg Ketter; Steve Saffel, Ginjer Buchanan

  S.M. Stirling, Tim Powers, Linda Poitevin, Ginjer Buchanan, David B. Coe, Adria Laycraft

  Eileen Gunn, Betsy Wollheim, Mary Robinette Kowal; David Gross, Bradley Beaulieu; Courtney Schafer, Carol Berg

  Karl Schroeder, Nancy Kilpatrick, Caro Soles; Amber Kimmerly, Grace Goldeen Ogawa; John Picacio, Lauren K. Cannon

  Kit & Joseph Reed; Tim & Serena Powers, Gary K. Wolfe & Stacie Hanes; Graham Joyce, Janeen Webb & Jack Dann

  K. Tempest Bradford, Ted Chiang, Annalee Newitz; Peter Watts, Karl Schroeder; Patrick Rothfuss reading

  E. Lily Yu, Jennifer Marie Brissett; Ann VanderMeer, Holly Phillips; Gordon Van Gelder, Sean Williams, David B. Coe

  F. Brett Cox, Rick Wilber; Cat Rambo, James Sutter; Mark Teppo, Rob Ziegler

  Dealers’ Room; WFC Mass Signing

  Sarah Beth Durst, Michelle Sagara, Tanya Huff, Nalo Hopkinson; Halli Villegas, Carolyn Clink, L.E. Modesitt, Jr., Derryl Murphy

  Michael Marano, Nivair Gabriel, Charlie Jane Anders, Annalee Newitz, Christie Yant, Sandra M. Wickham; Scott Edelman, Diane Weinstein, Brenda Cooper, Eileen Gunn, Lee Weinstein

  Hayden Trenholm, Michael Marano, Matthew Moore; Matthew Bennardo, Folly Blaine, David Malki!; Al Bogdan, Amy Sundberg

  Amal El-Mohtar reads at Cheeky Frawg Party; Aliette de Bodard, Michael DeLuca, Elwin Cotman, Scott H. Andrews, and others at Cheeky Frawg reading

  Cheeky Frawg reading with Garth Nix and Jeffrey Ford; Karen Tidbeck reads; MaryAnn Harris & Charles de Lint

  Bar Scene; John C. Chu, E. Lily Yu;
David J. Fortier, Erika Holt, Christie Yant & John Joseph Adams

  Andrew Penn Romine, Sandra M. Wickham, Alan Smale, Christopher M. Cevasco; Charles E. Gannon, Ticia Isom, Alistair J. Kimble, Griffin Barber

  WFC Convention Committee: Peggy Rae Sapienza, Barbara Roden, Kim Czigareko, Christopher Roden, Evelyn Baker, Kim Kofmel, Joseph T. Berlant, Amy De Ruyte, Peter Halasz

  Robert Shearman, Christopher Golden; Olivia Do, Tanith Korravai, Natalie Reese Sage; Eddie Schneider & Alaya Dawn Johnson, Janine Young

  Derryl Murphy, Daryl Gregory ; Kate Baker, Neil Clarke; Eugene Myers, David Mercurio Rivera, Amy Sundberg

  Andrea Hairston, Matthew Kressel, Liz Gorinsky; Shelly Rae Clift, Scott Edelman; David Gallaher, Kim Kofmel, Keri Bas

  Charles Vess, Barry Goldblatt; Jo Walton, Teresa & Patrick Nielsen Hayden; Ellen Klages, Nalo Hopkinson

  Jennifer Marie Brissett, Elizabeth Hand, Genevieve Williams, Malissa Kent, Adam Mills (Stonecoast Writers); Ellen Datlow, Brett Alexander Savory; Karen Lord, Ann & Jeff VanderMeer

  James & Viki Blaylock, John Berlyne; Alisa Krasnostein, Kathleen Jennings, Lisa Hannett, Emily Craven; Betsy Mitchell, Jacques Post; Garth Nix, Graham Joyce

  Bella Pagan & John Berlyne, Rani Graff, Gili Bar Hillel; Sean Williams, Jonathan Strahan, Justin Ackroyd; Don Hutchinson, David Nickle

  Jack Dann, David G. Hartwell, L.E. Modesitt, Jr.; Tara Smith, John Picacio; Marco Palmieri, Max Gladstone, Tina Connolly

  David Anthony Durham, Nene Ormes; David Lunde & Patricia A. McKillip; Gay Haldeman, Gregory Manchess, Irene Gallo, Joe Haldeman

  Anita Hades, Michael J. Martineck; Bradley Beaulieu, Aliette de Bodard, Michele Shaw, Carolina Valdez Miller; Rodger Turner, Tim & Serena Powers, Jeffrey Ford

  MaryAnn Harris, Holly Black, Charles de Lint, Amanda Sun; Guy Gavriel Kay, Ilana Teitelbaum, Stacie Hanes, Peter Straub, Gary K. Wolfe, John Silbersack

  John Clute, Michael Dirda, David G. Hartwell, Peter Straub, Gary K. Wolfe