Worldcon Through A Timewarp -- Sunday

Posted by Colin Harvey Aug 16, 2009

Panel day. And on a slightly less narcissistic note, Hugo day.

I meet with Marco and talk about the detail on Winter Song, artwork concepts for Damage Time, and forward plans for the next couple of years. Run into Caitlin in the restaurant corridor, but saying goodbye when we go would mean interrupting her dessert, and somehow for all Caitlin's slim physique, I sense that coming between A Woman and Her Dessert is not a good idea...

Onto the first panel, on Is Climate Change Storyable? A hideously ugly word, but an interesting concept. Sadly the panel itself is marred by sub-standard moderating and two panelists who refuse to allow anyone else to interrupt their pontificating -- one of them the moderator himself. But Mark L. van Name -- who I'd read in a Dozois Year's Best years ago-- proved to be a thoughtful and erudite speaker, and the audience didn't seem to notice any tension, so that passed off okay. Speaking to Mark afterwards, he was philosophical, and hewould have been amused to know that soon after someone sought me out to complain that the two of us hadn't spoken as much as she would have liked!

A quick solitary dinner before meeting up with Laurence Schoen and the rest of the Codex crew. Sit with Elaine Isaak, but Matt and I have a 10 pm panel with Leah Bobet, so we all sneak out just as Neil Gaiman accepts a thoroughly deserved Best Novel Hugo for The Graveyard Book. That was about the only correct call that I made all evening. Aliette missed out on the Campbell, which was sad, especially by three votes - 158 to the winner's 161. Doctor Who lost out to Joss Whedon. I wonder how much having two episodes cannibalized its votes? Other Hugos went to Nancy Kress - her first in seventeen years, Elizabeth Bear for the second consecutive year, and Ted Chiang.

The panel --ironically dubbed Young Turks, ironic since neither Matt nor I will see our 40th birthdays again-- is a revelation; we expected maybe one or two people, but over a dozen turn up to hear Matt, Leah and I talk about hints to help aspiring writers break through to that critical first sale. We make it as informal as we can, and with some really nice questions from Tom Crossfield it seems to me that we've provided some of them with food for thought. I certainly found it useful. It's nice to know that some people put panels ahead of parties. Not that I'm one of them, judging by previous nights. In fact, I nearly crash the parties again, but with a night flight next day, I display rare common sense and duck out