Convention Reporter

Here are some Eastercon reports from around the blogosphere:

• Danie Ware thinks that fandom has gone digital
• Christian Sauvé reports en Français
• Jim Mowatt has a recording of the Virtual Conventions panel…
• … and a bunch more audio coverage
• Paul McAuley had a great time
• As did Spinks, for whom it was a first convention
• Aliette de Bodard also enjoyed herself
• Al Reynolds was delighted at how busy it was
• Mark Charan Newton met lots of people
• MD Lachlan did martial arts
• Nukapai has a lot of panel reports
• Billy has an extensive write-up of the whisky tasting
• There are some excellent steampunk costume photos here
• WordPunk Radio has more audio coverage

And that only scratches the surface of a very well-blogged and tweeted convention.

Minicon 45 in the Twin Cities this year and the guest of Honour is Brandon Sanderson who can be found on twitter as BrandonSandrson and online as http://www.brandonsanderson.com/ .His first panel should be about now. The Guest Artist is Dan Dos Santos who can be found at www.dandossantos.com
The Minicon has its own twitter feed @minicon

Norwescon is in Seattle where Cory Doctorow is one of the Guests of Honour. His program is up at his website craphound.com and he will be reporting his activities at that event. His twitter is @doctorow. The opening ceremonies were held yesterday and apparently much hilarity was had.

Mary Robinette Kowal is also at Norwescon and gives her schedule on her journal. We’ll make sure you see her updates on events as they happen. You can also get her on twitter where she is @MaryRobinette.

Kevin and Cheryl have brought you the latest from Eastercon in the UK. Once we have updates for WonderCon in San Francisco, and Swancon in Perth, Australia we will bring you those.

Don’t forget you can get the links to the live coverage here

The first day of Eastercon is a long way from over yet, but already it has been very busy. Paul Cornell did a reprise of his panel on Kate Bush as a fantasy author, first aired at Worldcon in Montreal, and I was delighted to catch it this time. I also attended a panel on the state of European SF, which had panelists from Sweden. Luxembourg, Italy and Russia. The 2011 Eurocon will be in Stockholm, which is a lovely city. A Eurocon is a great introduction to European fandom for British and American fans. Because the attendees are from all over Europe, most of the programming is in English, that being the one language everyone has in common.

I’ve already spent a pile of money in the dealers’ room, but I’m disappointed at the lack of American books there. There’s no sign of books like The Windup Girl, or Boneshaker, or even the new Connie Willis novel, Blackout. Odd.

Next up for me is attending a panel on podcasting that is due up in about 20 minutes, so I had better stop blogging soon and get off there. The con hotel is very spread out and function rooms are hidden away down long corridors.

The site for the 2014 UK Worldcon bid will be announced tonight between 9:00pm and 9:30pm local time. I’ll be on a panel, but doubtless many people will tweet the news.

One of the panels I was on at Worldcon was intended to allow the Hugo-nominated fan writers to recommend other people whose abilities they admired. Chris Garcia, Steven H Silver, John Hertz and I were all there. Evelyn Leeper moderated, and Lenny Bailes joined us with some excellent suggestions. The full list of recommendations (based on emails from Chris and Lenny plus my notes from the panel) is below the fold.

Note that some of the people mentioned I did not have web links for. In other cases the people mentioned blog under a pseudonym. Even though I had links for some of them, I have not included that link if I could not get to the LJ in question by Googling the person’s name. If you are listed here and you don’t have a link, and want me to include one, please let me know.
Read more…

We are still collecting coverage to post to our archive pages, but in the meantime here are two fabulous sets of photos:

• Kyle Cassidy’s fan photo shoot from the Saturday
• Charles Mohapel’s official Masquerade photos, Part I and Part II

People have begun to drift away in ones and twos from Anticipation, Worldcon 09.

Alison Coad wraps up and talks about her first Worldcon. Catherynne Valente is ready to keel over but still had 2 panels to go when she wrote.   Claude Lalumière talks about the importance of fans in the Hugo Awards as well as giving the winning list.

Tor have updated from one of the panels at the convention : Gaiman and Doctorow Discuss Giving It Away

There will probably be a few more updates especially tomorrow when people get home and have time or energy to write about what they did. The tweets are still coming in about panels on Genetic Manipulation or the Pathology of Fandom.

Today’s post can not start anywhere without congratulating all the nominees this year and whoops of joy for those who won.

We have good cause to celebrate as our own Cheryl Morgan won the Hugo for Best fan writer.

Pablo kept the Tor site updated as the night progressed with the list of winners and their field of competition. The new Hugo Logo was unveiled and can be seen here on the Hugo website along with the list of winners and a picture of this years award.

Alma Alexander promises pictures, in the meantime tells all about her last 2 days in Montreal. Bob Neilson discusses whether size matters. Jay Lake assures us that both pre- and post-[hugo-]parties were great fun. Jenny gives a charming description of the night of the Hugos. I can imagine being there. John Scalzi is happy with his Hugo. Kate Heartfield discusses what counts as SF prior to the Hugos.

Kevin updates on the Hugo logo and Hugo winners enthusiastically. Neil Gaiman thanks Charlie N. Brown and talks about his Hugo.

For those of you reading in French Lionel Davoust has updates.

terilee07 has a good reason to attend conventions. I went to my first only a few years ago and would have to agree wholeheartedly.

Photos from Rani Graff here. Photos from the Masquerade here.

I won’t go to twitter because mostly attendees are in recovery and congratulations are still coming in from all over.

@TheHugoAwards Ladies and Gentlemen, Robots and Aliens, we now present the 2009 Hugo Awards.

Hugos Live

@pat3001: LIVE FROM THE HUGOS: 8:19pm: Forrest J. Ackerman Big Heart Award goes to Andrew Porter. http://is.gd/29IRS #tor #scifi #hugo

@pat3001: LIVE FROM THE HUGOS: 8:22pm: The first Fandom Hall of Fame Award goes to James Gunn. #tor #scifi #hugo

@pat3001: LIVE FROM THE HUGOS: 8:28pm: The winner of the Hugo Logo Contest is Jeremy Kratz. http://is.gd/29IRS #tor #scifi #hugo

@TheHugoAwards: And now, this year’s trophy, designed by Dave Howell. It has a granite base designed to look like an asteroid. Again, photos later tonight.

@LonesomeRobot: This year’s Hugo’s are cool-lookin’. The base is an asteroid-like rock with rocket exhaust shaped like maple leaves. #worldcon

@TheHugoAwards: Stanley Schmidt will present the John W Campbell Award for Best New Writer.

@TheHugoAwards: The Campbell Award goes to David Anthony Durham

@jackwilliambell: Best Fan Writer: Cheryl Morgan #worldcon09

@TheHugoAwards: Best Fan Artist goes to Frank Wu.

@LonesomeRobot: Fan Hugos: Cheryl Morgan (best writer), Frank Wu (best artist), Electric Velocipede (best fanzine) #worldcon

@jackwilliambell: Best Semiprozine: Weird Tales #worldcon09

@TheHugoAwards: Best Related Book goes to Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded, John Scalzi

@jackwilliambell: Best Related Book: Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded – John Scalzi #worldcon09

@rangercraig: #worldcon09 Best Dramatic Presentation WALL-E

@CanuckLibrarian: Doctor horrible’s sing along blog wins hugo award for best short form presentation #anticipationsf

@JohnGunders: Dramatic Presentation: Short Form goes to Dr Horrible’s Singalong Blog, Joss Whedon #hugos [mixed feelings: it was up against Dr Who]

@TheHugoAwards Best Editor: Long Form goes to David G Hartwell

@TheHugoAwards Best Editor: Short Form goes to Ellen Datlow.

@TheHugoAwards Our brand new category, Best Graphic Story, presented by Neil Gaiman, goes to Girl Genius, Kaja and Phil Foglio.

@TheHugoAwards: Best Professional Artist goes to Donato Giancola

@TheHugoAwards: Best Short Story goes to “Exhalation”, Ted Chiang

@jackwilliambell: Best Novelette: Elizabeth Bear #worldcon09
(“Shoggoths in Bloom”)

@rangercraig: #worldcon09 Best Novella The Erdmann Nexus

@LonesomeRobot: And the Hugo for Best Novel goes to ‘The Graveyard Book’ by Neil Gaiman. #worldcon

That concludes the announcement of the 2009 Hugo Awards. Thank you for joining us.

The Hugo Awards Best Fan Writer goes to

Cheryl Morgan

But not including them unless this post takes me longer than expected to write.

Alison Coad notices that the thing  about WorldCon: there are many mini-Cons going on at the same time as the larger one. Amy Sturgis posts pictures and comments about day 2 – and a look at dystopian works for the young adult in the next post, more is promised. Jenny returned to up date her blog with more of days 3 and 4 for her. Day numbering tends to depend on when the attendee arrived in Montreal so don’t worry if the day numbers don’t seem to match.

John Scalzi has an update brief here and Kyle Cassidy updates more photos from his fan photo project. Mary Robinette Kowal has some highlights. Tor has news in the entry entitled “Populating a Brave New World”  regarding Leonardo DiCaprio in Ridley Scott’s adaptation of Brave New World..

Matthew Surridge & Claude Lalumière again have photos and a number of reports  :

• Worldcon: the Masquerade
• People at Anticipation