This year's WorldCon is now in full swing. Is anyone else from SP here? This year it's actually in a city I live in and, irony of ironies, it's probably the only year of my life that I wasn't able to scrape together enough money to stay for the whole thing. Oh well, I'll be there all day Saturday and I'm enjoying other convention events in the city that you don't need a full membership to attend. If any of you are here too, let's meet in a con suite for a homebrew and a bawdy song.

There's an amazing turnout this year: I've already got a book inscribed by George R R Martin (he wrote, "To Jennifer and Stephen, May all your winters be short, GRR Martin" so now we can't ever get divorced because the custody fight for the book would be too nasty) and if I could carry them all I could probably get nearly every book I own inscribed. All my favorite authors are here! Connie Willis, Terry Pratchett, Mike Resnick, Nancy Kress, Joe Haldeman, Spider Robinson, Larry Niven, Neil Gaiman, Guy Gavriel Kay, and more. And of course, our local hero Ed Greenwood, although I was disappointed to note he's not DM'ing at the con.

Sooo... any other science fiction convention addicts out there? Are you coming to this con? Do you have any great stories from previous cons? And do you favour Klingon makeup or Renaissance gowns as your con-wear?

I've never been, but I have heard that it is great. I'm glad that you are having such a great time.

Have fun and keep us posted on the happenings.

I'm not a big fan of the SF/F genre (the last book of such a genre was probably Ender's Game, read a year ago), but it sounds pretty cool. Have great fun there.

Hey! Who moved this to Booktalk? My fault for overemphasising the "author" aspect in my first post. Science fiction conventions are not just about books but also science fiction and fantasy movies, TV shows like Star Trek, Doctor Who and Buffy, comic books, LARP, D&D, collectible card games like Magic, costume contests, "real" science discussion panels, antique weaponry, art shows (not to be missed if you're an aficionado of the "babes in bronze bras" school of art) folk and filk music concerts, singalongs, theme parties and more. They are Geek Heaven. This was a particularly good one.

In addition to seeing lots of my favourite authors (Newsflash: one introduced himself as "Hi, I'm Terry Pratchett and I finished writing a book this morning!" to tumultuous applause) we attended panels on:
- Defining the nature of sentience
- Risks and benefits to accelerated genetic engineering
- Whether the "Chicks 'n' Chainmail" series is an insult to feminism
- Researching historical/scientific data to write a fantasy novel (Terry Pratchett and Connie Willis dominated this panel and we learned more about midwifery and falconry than I, personally, ever wanted to know)

Usually I spend a fair amount of time playing Dungeons and Dragons with interesting strangers but I didn't even make it to a gaming room this year as I could only afford one day at the con. Ditto movie rooms, although if I'd been there for the whole con I'd have gone to see Spiderman and Lord of the Rings, both of which were playing. Didn't attend the costume ball either although I will next year, as my wedding dress was a fabulous bejewelled blue velvet mediaeval gown I'm keen for an excuse to wear again. Plus, costume parties rule.

The Star Trek/Klingon contingent was not out in the usual numbers. Usually about 20% of the participants are in starfleet uniforms or have klingon makeup, but this year there were more people in mediaeval costume, which was decorative but not as good at scaring other guests in the hotel.

After participating in the discussion panels that interested us most, we went to the various filk sing-a-longs and concerts which is always my favorite part of a convention. First we heard some of my favourite local musicians (and a few amazingly talented ones I wasn't familiar with) perform a tribute concert to the late, great Stan Rogers, then we went to a Dorsai theme filk and sang along until 1 am with the kooky lyrics in praise of Gordon R. Dickson's novels about a futuristic Scottish-highland planet which produces the world's finest intergalactic mercenaries in kilts. There was good scotch, great voices, and a good time was had by all.

So what are you waiting for, troops? Next year I'll see you all at worldcon #62, which will be in Boston. You'll love it!

Well, your posts primarily talk about books and their authors, so it makes more sense here than in Whatnots. Not to mention Booktalk sorely needs good topics...

Hey Sprite, don't suppose you asked GRRM when he would complete the Song of Ice and Fire?

Just considering how long "A Feast for Crows" is dragging out, I hate to consider 2006/7 as the likely result for "A dance with Dragons" iirc, that's the title of the final volume.

Does he really look as wild as the picture on his website?

Viking- yes, he does look pretty wild and unkempt, and not only that, he wears Hawaiian shirts. :) And I think everyone *except* me asked him when he'd be finished, and he kept repeating in an increasingly frustrated tone, "As soon as I can! I'm working on it!" Poor guy. Apparently he gets total strangers coming up to him to make sure he's getting regular medical checkups, wearing his seatbelt, looking both ways before crossing the road etc to make sure he doesn't die before finishing the series. He says to ignore anything we read or hear about the finish date except for what's on his own website, because publishers and booksellers lie like rugs. So I'll just have to keep monitoring that "Still Sorry. Still Not Done Yet" box on his web page (http://www.georgerrmartin.com/) for updates.

He did read a chapter from the new book - a "Jon" chapter - and it was one in which a character got killed. Talk about building suspense for the next book!

I hope he appreciates that unlike Jordan's WoT it truly would be a disaster if this series was never completed. That's why we're all concerned. ;)

Oh well, I'm sure someone will post here as soon as we find out the definite date for the next one. I have a hunch it could be pre-order time then.