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World Fantasy 2007 – Nov. 2nd

We got a late start on the day, having forgotten to set the alarm and, what with running on so little sleep over the last few days — we slept in. Finally, we got ready to leave and met a nice woman in the hotel lobby who was trying to get a cab to the convention center; so we offered her a lift. Valerie is from Canada and down for World Fantasy. She speaks with a French accent which she apologized for but I assured her that her English was much better than my barely remembered high school French. We (my husband, Valerie, and I) had a great discussion on science fiction, fantasy, films and the subtitles thereof and accents and their variations. One of my favorite parts of conventions is meeting interesting people and having discussions with people from various areas who have read the same books and authors and comparing reactions, thoughts, and such. I think the Harry Potter phenomena was one of the first that really meant that you could talk with just about anyone and they would have also read the books and you could discuss the characters and the story lines and possible future plot lines with a common background. Prior to HP, it’s only at SF/F conventions that I could connect with people with similar reading experiences/backgrounds.

Since I forgot about the camera yesterday, here’ s a few shots. A peek into the door for the art show and a bit of the dealer’s room. It’s just about all books and the room is huge. If you love books as much as I do it’s a bit of heaven to be able to browse and better still to have a chance to buy so many books that are not staples at any local bookstore no matter how big their SF/F section.

Peek into the Art Show Door

Bit of the Dealers' Room

At the convention center, we ran into some friends and ended up talking about books, publishing, authors and the convention program. (As an aside I found a lack of caffeine was starting to take its toll on my thought processes). So after much lively conversation, we formed a group and went in search of a late lunch. Lunch was found and partaken of amidst more lively conversation about books, authors, and strangely D&D (or perhaps not so strangely as I mentioned having read and reviewed Confession of a Part-Time Sorceress for SFRevu. Naturally, that led to sharing campaign stories and the role of story telling in the game, much to the bemusement of our sole non-gamer in the group who had a bit of hard time understanding the appeal.

Panel for Psychic Detective

Returning to the convention center, we managed to finally get to a program item. Psychic Detectives in Literature. Panelists: David Drake, Robert J. Sawyer, Howard Andrew Jones (moderator), Barbara Roden, and Kim Newman. The description of the panel was: “From Carnacki the Ghost-Finder to Kolchak the Night Stalker. Exploring the history of the supernatural sleuth story, and the strengths and weaknesses of this unique form.” The discussion of the panelists was far ranging with lots of specific authors mentioned but, being still without caffeine, I managed to get so concentrated on the panel I forgot to take notes. You know how you always think you remember ‘everything’ — well I don’t now that I sit here trying to write it all down. What I do remember is an interesting bit of discussion about the difference between a detective, investigating weird or psychic phenomena that might be ‘real’, and a psychic detective investigating a normal crime. Someone from the audience brought up the twist of a psychic detective (say a vamp) investigating a crime done by another psychic character. Which brought up a hmmm moment.

A change of pace here. Saratoga Springs is a racing area so there are these statues of horses throughout the main street and it turned out there was one outside the autographing session. So, while it’s not my favorite (I hope to get more pics of horses later) here’s the one in the hotel/convention center.

Convention Center Horse

It was now getting late and there was a break in sessions as they prepared the room for the mass autographing session to be held from 8-11PM. We met up with friends and chatted and then — still being without a coffee or caffeine I could barely keep my eyes open so we ventured forth to search for the elusive coffee. Luckily, there was a Starbucks a few blocks away. Returning for the autographing session, we met up with the rest of the SFRevu staff to attempt to speak with as many people as possible. For those of you who have not been to World Fantasy, they usually have a mass autographing session. All the authors are seated at tables in rows in a huge room and then the conventioneers are let in. I always feel sorry for those new authors or less well known authors who end up sitting next to an extremely popular one with a huge line. So, those tend to be the authors I try to talk with first. We also try to give our business cards to as many authors, editors, and artists as we can (and when we ran out of cards we gave out SFRevu/Gumshoe bookmarks. Mostly we’re trying to let people know we exist, set up future interviews, say hi and catch up with authors/artists/editors we’ve met before, and take pictures for our archives and convention reports. We also get to talk to a lot of people in lines waiting to get books signed and chat about what they like about these authors/books/convention. It’s always a lot of fun and very tiring.

Laura Anne Gilman Suzanne_Church and FriendsSarah Beth Durst

11PM and dragging, we managed to pop in for a few parties. This evening there were three on the fifth floor: Brotherhood Without Borders, Senses Five Press/Prime Books, and Shimmer Magazine. Actually there could have been more, or less, but the rooms, hallways, and elevator areas were all crowded with people deep in conversation and there seemed to be lots of drink — and there was even bottled water (for those of us who like to hydrate while talking). Everyone seemed to be having a fun time. However the hours were catching up to us so it was back to the hotel to write up this report, download our photos, and catch some shut eye to prepare for a full day tomorrow.

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