I go to as many sf/ conventions as I can afford, which is actually not half as many as I’d like. I do without stuff to get there.

Last year I attended my second Worldcon, this one in Denver. I had a ball. Frankly, I always do, no matter how small or how large the con is. I go with that expectation, and I have never been disappointed. The little things that could have been done better are hugely outweighed by the things that are done right.

Today I received a lovely letter from Denvention with thanks for my contribution to making the con a success by my voluntary services – and a refund! Ohmigod.

Denvention, thank you. And in the interests of making sure the money is put to a good sf/f community cause, I am looking around for the next convention I can attend and volunteer for.

And all you readers, writers and sf/f folk out there – remember you don’t want to miss out on Aussiecon in Melbourne next year.

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Worldcons are not just about panels, of course. [Pamela Freeman, Brandon Sanderson, Karen Miller, Margaret Bonham, Patrick Rothfuss on a panel entitled: “The Return of the King: the novelist’s fascination with monarchy.]

There are so many good things …

The bid parties. The Hugo Awards. Meeting people. The room parties. The Masquerade. Chatting in the green room. Chatting in the bar. Chatting to writers, readers, publishers. The fan parties. The readings. The kaffeeklatches. Did I mention the partying?

For someone like me, living in a place where there are no other writers like me, where the opportunity to meet up with my editor or agent or beta readers or fellow writers is as rare as being able to read all the books I’d like to, a con is almost a necessity. And boy, did I revel in it. And I met so many interesting people I’d never met before, but had heard about or whom I had read. And they are all people who like to talk about reading and writing and books. Paradise.

I shared a panel with Robert J.Sawyer and had dinner with the Orbit US team; I found myself chatting to Elizabeth Moon about snakes and the environment; with Jim Frankel, Tor editor about all sorts of things; with Carol Berg about how to deal with a noisy husband when you want to write; with reviewer and fan writer Cheryl Morgan about all sorts of interesting stuff; with Kate Elliott about her new novel and her husband’s job as a forensic anthropologist and writing and reading and..; with Phyllis Eisenstein about collecting books; and with writer David Coe about covers and writing in general. My room-mate Donna and I had dinner with Gary K.Wolfe and Amelia Beamer of Locus Magazine, novelist Kate Elliott, academic Farah Mendlesohn and David Hartwell of Tor/Forge Books, who had just won a Hugo for Best Professional Editor. Kendall turned up to my reading; other fans brought along books for me to sign at various times, and Sarah and Andrew – who weren’t attending the con – came all the way into Denver to buy two sets of the Mirage Makers. How cool is all that?

I am already wondering just how I can possibly get to Montreal next year without breaking the bank. Never mind, the year after Worldcon is in Melbourne! Start saving folks…

Oh, and I know why obesity is a problem in USA. I got served the largest slice of cake I have ever seen in my life. That thing is sitting on a full-sized dinner plate.

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One of the things that people do at a sf/f convention is go and listen to the panels. There are plenty of them to choose from, and the problem is often which to choose because there are a large number of them on at the same time.And there are several different reasons to choose to attend a particular panel. After all, who could resist a panel that included Connie Willis, George R.R. Martin and Lois McMaster Bujold and (if I remember correctly) Larry Niven, all talking about how they started reading SF and what their early influences were? Or one (top pix) with Joe Haldeman, Connie Willis and Mike Resnik? The title of that one was: “The Best Convention Panel Ever”, but they spent most of their time talking about “The Worst Convention Panel Ever”, and similar disasters instead. It was a laugh a minute. Then there was the panel on “Making a Living Telling Lies” with Jo Walton, Jay Lake, Connie W., and Bill Mayhew.

So the first reason is simply for listening to the greats of sf/f talking about what they do best – writing – and their influences.

The second reason is for information. Want to know about agents and what impresses them? Or listen to Brandon Sanderson talk about the last Wheel of Time novel? Or learn about the reality of space drives? Or dinosaurs? Or a world without fossil fuels? Or the Future of Libraries? There were panels on all those things.

My three panels wavered between great fun and…not so much. As I thought, the birds and dinosaur panel would have been a bit of a disaster for the audience if they’d only had me to listen to. As birders, David Coe and I sort of faded into the background and let the experts on dinosaurs take over. They were much more informed and I ended up learning quite a bit.

The panel on kicking off a story by using the myths of our cultures was interesting and ranged all over the place, taking in everything from ‘have we had enough of King Arthur?’ to cultural appropriation (.e. should writers use the mythology of another living culture, especially if they are going to alter it for their own purposes, or if it is still part of the religion of that people. Short answer: No. Exception: if you really know and respect the culture, enough to ensure that you won’t offend, then – sure.)

The panel on writing in spite of one’s environment was fun. A small and interested audience added to the debate, and the panel – all of us very different in how we approach the same problems – was a good mix.

Unfortunately, I never seem to get to enough panels because there is always so much other stuff going on – more about that next time.

Today (Thursday) I have a reading at 10 a.m. I have this awful feeling that I will be the only person who will turn up.

Denvention so far has been great fun. Met people I have been looking forward to meeting for years, like Cheryl Morgan and Kate Elliott, old friends like Karen Miller and Jonathan Strahan and Donna Hanson, met lots of industry people like Jim Frankel and David Hartwell, listened to panels with iconic writers like Connie Willis and Lois McMaster Bujold and Larry Niven and Robert Silverberg and G.R.R. Martin, even met a couple of fans who actually wanted to talk to me, including a delightful couple of Colorado residents who drove in the city just to meet me (Hi Sarah, Adam!) – I mean, what else could you ask for??? This is a writer’s fantasy – at least for a writer normally located in a place remote from the sf and fantasy scene…

And you know what? It has been raining in Denver, and I didn’t bring an umbrella. Denver folk stoutly declare that it never rains for this long, ever…

The other disaster is that the party hotel won’t allow the serving of alcohol. An Australian bid party without beer or wine??? You’ve got to be kidding.

The other nice thing was meeting someone who drove a long way from another state to see me again. He was only 9 or 10 years old when I saw him last…

I forgot to say yesterday that I am also giving a reading at Denvention. I shall probably read something from the new trilogy (Time of Random Rain) and I am going to keep my fingers crossed that SOMEONE turns up to listen.

And I have been writing like mad – all of a sudden back in the groove. I am now half way through the first draft of the second book, Stormshifter (working title). The final book will probably be around 180,000, but I aim to get the first draft to 170,000 because I always like – and invariably need – about 5,000 words more before I complete the second draft, and then another 5,000 between second draft and publication. So here it stands at the moment on picometer halfway to the end of the first draft:

And Hrugaar has pointed out that Interaction Glasgow was 2005, of course (see last post). Plus the fact that the book I was thinking of was Anne McCaffrey’s two Dinosaur Planet books. (And he says he has a bad memory. Huh.)

Today was a spend-the-time-at-hospital-clinic day, all re my 2 numb fingers. The good news is that they are SO much better. Not normal, but at least they don’t have the feeling of two bananas struck on the end of my hand any more. It has taken 10 months to get to this point.

And the other good news was an email out of the blue from someone I had not heard from in 25 years. I love search engines.

As you will have noticed, there is a red decal thingy to the left of this that links to Denvention. And Denvention (for anyone not into this sf/f stuff) is a world conference of science fiction and fantasy readers, writers, fans, aficionados and gamers, coming up in early August, in Denver Colorado. It’s affectionately called simply: Worldcon.

I have been once before, 19952005 Interaction in Glasgow, Scotland, and had such a hugely enjoyable time I swore I would go again. In August, I will be on my way between seeing one daughter (Nashii in LA) and the other over in Virginia (where I’ll do my stint of sitting the grandson during the summer holidays). And guess what, Denver sort of falls vaguely in between, so…

I will be arriving in Denver on 5th August around lunchtime and leaving on the morning of the 11th. I’ll be staying at the Hyatt Regency. So look me up if you are going too!

• Writing in Spite of Your Environment

• Using Myths to Kick Off a Fantasy World

Over on the Denvention3 webpage for the Denver Worldcon (World Science Fiction Convention to be held this August), they have started to put up the bios of participants.

Oooo – I love this. All those great names: Lois McMaster Bujold is the Guest of Honour. Then there’s Carol Berg, David Brin, Joe Haldeman, Phyllis Eisenstein, Robert Silverberg, Jay Lake, Kay Kenyon, Nancy Kress, Robert Silverberg, Steve Miller, Sharon Lee…and so many more.

And me. Yes, me. See here. I feel like a mouse in the shadow of so many talented writers.

And seeing as I am feeling all nostalgic after yesterday’s post, here’s another dollop of nostalgia. A photo take of our family back in 1989 in Alice Springs. Selina, aged 17, had just learned that she had been accepted at Oxford University. Nashii, the one on the right (then known as Tasha!), was 14.

I have bought a membership of Denvention, the World Science Fiction convention of 2008. My first worldcon was in Glasgow, three years back, which I went to because my daughter was then living in Glasgow.

She is now living in L.A., and Denver is somewhere between L.A. and my other daughter in Virginia, and the con is at the right time of the year [just before I take on my August-September babysitting-grandson-duties], so it seemed fated I must go…

And not long now to Easter and the Australian Natcon where I am a guest.

They will be my only two cons this year.

See you there?
And some memories from Scotland: With author extraordinaire Trudi Canavan, and Donna Hanson (who will be my room mate again in 2008).

With Paul Ewins, self, Donna, Nashii (my daughter), Trudi, in the Orkneys.

Me giving a reading.

Photos by Trudi and Paul.