Convention Reporter

No, not the Martians, the World Fantasy con reports.

Nancy Hightower wasn’t getting any sleep.

Blake Charlton detected an air of gloom over the industry.

Damien G. Walter found it “the best convention I have ever attended.”

Alex Telander has a report on the Writing Human Characters panel.

Mark R. Kelly also has several panel reports.

David Levine was impressed by the level of tweetage.

Karen Wester Newton writes science fiction and fantasy stories. Like many writers, Karen read a lot as a child. She was born in Honolulu, the third child of a U.S. Navy officer and his wife. After a peripatetic and bicoastal childhood as a Navy brat, she later became a teacher, a librarian, a project manager, a wife, and a mother, although not in that order.

She currently lives in the Maryland suburbs of Washington DC. Her day job is being an IT manager at a legal publishing company. She is a long-time and active member of The Writer’s Group from Hell, a surprisingly fun and helpful bunch of readers, writers, and critiquers. She often attends conventions such as Capclave, Philcon, Balticon, Worldcon and the World Fantasy Convention.

Karen is represented by Susan Gleason of the Susan Gleason Literary Agency.

See Karen’s reports here.

Jay Lake lives in Portland, Oregon, where he works on numerous writing and editing projects. His 2009 novels are Green from Tor Books, Madness of Flowers from Night Shade Books, and Death of a Starship from MonkeyBrain Books. His short fiction appears regularly in literary and genre markets worldwide. Jay is a winner of the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, and a multiple nominee for the Hugo and World Fantasy Awards.

See Jay’s reports here.

Sue Mohn (aka “Twilight” in the world of fandom) has been an con attending fan sine 1987. She’s worked on Worldcons from New Orleans to San Jose, as well as the occasional Baycon, Orycon, a NASFIC and regularly on Foolscap. From ops to masquerades to guest wrangling (from writers to editors to artists), she’s dealt with cons at all levels. She’s run smaller dealer’s rooms, worked on programming at various levels and even done press liaison work.

Susan’s blog can be found on Live Journal on the name “Twilight2000” and she Twitters under the same name. You can find her game strategy discussions on Gamegrene as well. She’s also working on getting her first fiction publication credits.

As one of our editors, Sue will be keeping an eye on the site from home so that our field reporters don’t have to.

Liz Gorinsky is an Associate Editor at Tor Books, where she edits a list that includes acclaimed speculative fiction authors Dave Duncan, A.J. Hartley, Mary Robinette Kowal, George Mann, Cherie Priest, Pamela Sargent, Brian Slattery, and Cat Valente. She also assists editors Ellen Datlow, Jim Frenkel, and Patrick and Teresa Nielsen Hayden and acquires and edits comics for Tor.com.

See Liz’s reports here.

Mary Robinette Kowal is the 2008 recipient of the Campbell Award for Best New Writer. Her short fiction has appeared in Strange Horizons, Cosmos and Asimov’s. Mary, a professional puppeteer and voice actor, lives in NYC with her husband Rob and nine manual typewriters. She is the current Secretary of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA).

See Mary’s reports here.