Capclave 2007, Saturday October 13th
Early to rise but stymied by the search for breakfast which was eventually found and consumed, we missed the panel on P.O.V. Then it seemed greeting friends and checking out the dealer’s room which, with all the books displayed, seemed a dangerous place for me and my checkbook/debit card.
Finally got a photo of the Guests of Honor Jeffrey Ford, the Editor Guest of Honor Ellen Datlow and Capclave Chair for 2007 Colleen Cahill. 
I want to add a note or a disclaimer — I’m giving my impressions of the panels and workshops and my impressions may or may not accurately present what actually happened.
Luckily there were a few openings in the Reviewers Workshop so Paul and I joined in. The workshop, taught by Peter Heck, was very informative and allowed us to discuss reviewing, the differences between criticism and reviewing, the problems of dealing with series that build on prior knowledge, and how much plot to give away. The discussion among participants was illuminating, informative, and well worth the time.
I sat in on the Harry Potter Autopsy (Panelists: Ann Crispin, David Louis Edelman, Davey Beauchamp, Andy Duncan, Maria Snyder, and Doug Fratz (moderator)). This one was a fairly rowdy panel and audience. A good time was had by all in discussing the series as a whole and whether the payoff in the 7th book was satisfying. Opinions of course varied considerably.
Next up was Best Books of 2007 (Panelists: Jim Freund (m), David Hartwell, Ernest Lilley, Scott Edelman, Doug Fratz. Photo above is of the panel in name order.). Essentially the panelists listed the books that they thought were the best of the year. I’m not going to list them all but some that were mentioned were: Blindsight by Peter Watts, New Space Opera edited by Gardner Dozois, Coyote Road edited by Ellen Datlow, Halting State and Jennifer Morgue by Charles Stross, Pirate Freedom by Gene Wolfe, Cauldron by Jack McDevitt, Sun of Suns by Karl Schroeder (and the other books of the Virga series), Harm by Brian Aldiss… There was also a lot of talk about what a best of year book should be — with no definitive definition as you’d expect from such a diverse group.
Next was Why is “Genre” a Dirty Word? (Panelists: Ian Randal Strock, Dennis Danvers (m), Scott Edelman, Mary Jo Putney. Photo of panel below in name order.) I missed part of this panel but one of the interesting topics discussed was how it seemed like film legitimizes fiction. If you have a movie made from your book then the book is okay — as if the novel somehow transcends the genre stigma by being filmed. It was also mentioned that the best length for films is a short story or novella but that it was usually novels that had to be cut to pieces in order to fit the time limits for a movie that got made and that was probably why movies of long novels sometimes (mostly) don’t work well. Discussion then moved on to how maybe the internet will save the short fiction as print markets shrink and ezines increase. There was some talk about the difficulties of cross genre writing since it had to hit the expectations of two genres rather than one.
What’s on your Netflix Queue? (Panelist: Mike Zipser, Ernest Lilley, Jim Freund, Barbara Krasnoff, David J. Williams. Photo above is in name order.). The panelists listed some of the movies that they thought should be seen by more people the list included: Enemy Mine, Sunshine, Running Man, Serenity, Metropolis, Evergreen, Solaris (both the Russian version and remake), The Quiet Earth (one of my favorites), The Haunting, The Wickerman (British version), Buckaroo Bonsai, Big Trouble in Little China, Into the Night, …. The audience joined in listing their favorites.
One of the major pluses for panel was the great opportunity that was available for audience participation not just with a Q&A at the end but throughout the time slot.
Later in the evening, Capclave celebrated with a 60th birthday party for the Washington Science Fiction Association (WSFA) and also awarded the 1st WSFA Small Press Award in a short ceremony. The award is for the best short story published in a small press during the previous year. This year’s award went to Peter S. Beagle for “El Regalo”. Unfortunately, the nominees and winner could not attend this tag. Michael Swanwick accepted for Peter S. Beagle and Lawrence Wat-Evans accepted for two of the nominees. See <A TARGET=”_blank” href=”http://www.wsfasmallpressaward.org”>WSFA Small Press Award Website</A> for more detail on the award.
The celebration was a chance for everyone to have some birthday cake and get to talk to other members, participants, and guests of Capclave. While formal attire was not required many attendees did dress up for the occasion and this made it even more special. Attendee seemed to have a fun time relaxing and chatting about the convention so far.
The last panel of the evening (11PM to Midnight) was Current and Changing Gender Roles in SF/F (Panelists: Nancy Jane Moore (m), Barbara Krasnoff, Ernest Lilley) Since the panel was so late in the evening and after a party is quickly became more of a round table discussion with included the audience. The discussion was far ranging covering the handling of gender in fiction; the factors that effect gender roles; recent neurological and biological research, religion, societal effects, among many other tangents. The discussion was far ranging and filled with many possible areas to explore further.