A Curious Statistical Anomaly

Sunday’s programming was as good, interesting, and informative as Friday. So even though we were exhausted from Saturday’s excitement, panels, discussions, socializing, and partying, we rose early in order to get to the 10AM panel, Where’s the new and recent YA science Fiction? (Panelist: John G. Hemry, Victoria McManus (m), Davey Beauchamp). John and Victoria are members of the Andre Norton Award committee that gives out an award for excellence in YA literature for the previous year. Needless to say, they’d been reading YA all year in preparation for the award and had a lot of books to discuss and recommend to the audience — not that that stopped the audience from giving their own recommendations. Here’s some of the books discussed/recommended/commended: The Invasion of the IQ Snatchers (Arther Slade’s Canadian Chills) by Arthur Slade, Faeries of Dreamdark: Blackbringer by Laini Taylor, Dragon’s Keep by Janet Lee Carey, Iris, Messenger by Sarah Deming, Into the Wild by Sarah Beth Durst, Flora Segunda by by Ysabeau S. Wilce, Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer, The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex, Tempting Fate by Esther Friesner, Zahrah the Windseeker by Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu, City of Bones by Cassandra Clare, Voices by Ursula K. Le Guin, and last for this list but certainly not the last book Spacer and Rat by Margaret Bechard.

Next was a panel entitled Astronomy and Science Fiction (Panelists: Yoji Kondo (who writes as Eric Kotani) and Roger MacBride Allen) The topics of discussion ranged over many subject including: the Big Bang, dark matter, quantum effects on black holes, the classification of Vesta and Ceres and what they might be like (or what we’ll learn from the probe), how to figure gravity, stories from science and scientific possibilities, ways of achieving an EMP pulse and could one be caused by gamma rays, could Ben Franklin have actually done the kite experiment and lived, MythBusters, and many other topics as the audience asked and panel replied. My head got full so that’s about all I wrote down.

Yoji Kondo recommended his book: Interstellar Travel & Multi-Generational Space Ships published by Apogee Books Space Series 34.

Next was LibraryThing and other bibliophilic sites. (Panelists: Colleen Cahill (m), Lawrence M. Schoen, David Louis Edelman, Barbara Krasnoff). Check out Library Thing for yourself. It’s a great way to catalogue your personal library and since it’s on the internet you can access it from anywhere with a PDA (or download to a file and print) so you don’t end up re-buying books you already own. Then on to Online Books, a site that has ebooks available for free. Then a short look at Wowio another site for books that are free but only in PDF format at this time. Other sites were covered but I forgot to write them down in the dark (this was a demo panel and they had a laptop hooked up to show the sites on a screen).

Everything old is new again: Re-imaging and remaking the classics. (Panelists: George Scithers, Ernest Lilley (m), Paul Haggerty, Michael Zipser). The panel and audience covered remakes, remakes of remakes, remakes of a film based on a book that remade the film not the book and those that went back to the original source material. It was a very active and interesting panel. (But you can tell the long hours are getting me, I FORGOT to take notes!!!)

Last, we went to the Gripe Session or Dead Dog panel. Most SF conventions have a panel near the end of the last day of the convention with either this or a similar title. This is the time that convention attendees can air the gripes or give the praise for the convention. This year it seemed that all the gripes were things that the convention couldn’t control: the temperature of the meeting rooms (all on one thermometer so you pick a room to be comfortable in and the rest are either warmer or colder), the locking of the public restrooms after midnight (hotel policy), the lack of an large area to sit and talk to friends (the hotel expected all renovations to be done by the date of the convention but some things ran late and the central atrium area with restaurant and bar was not completed; however they set up two meeting rooms — for food and beverage). Then some things came up that should have been thought of but got over looked (signs by each meeting room door listing the panels within), a no scripts option for email addresses on the website, a handout listing the winner of the WSFA small press award after the ceremony, etc. These were all taken down and will be addressed by the Capclave 2008 and 2009 chairs.

During the meeting, Colleen Cahill received a copy of the Dodo Noir artwork used for this year’s theme of pulp noir, from E. Kovar.

All in all it was a great convention. There were lots of interesting, worthwhile panels to sit in on. There were many opportunities to talk to authors, editors, publishers, and other fans. The workshops are a great idea and I enjoyed the one I sat in on. All in all a great weekend.

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 7^th 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 60^th birthday party for the Washington Science Fiction Association (WSFA) and also awarded the 1^st 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.

Well a 1 1/2 hour drive took about 3 hours because of traffic but getting to the new hotel (Rockville Hilton) was fairly easy. Unfortunately, the free parking garage was barricaded and we ended up parking in the hotel lot for $10/day. Then we learned we forgot the powercord to the wireless network router — okay we can deal; just use the card in the laptop, although that means only one of us can use the network at a time, right? Wrong again — it seems the software on the primary laptop is out of date and you must connect to the corporate website in order to download the new version. But, of course, without the software you can’t connect. Luckily the backup laptop is sufficiently up-to-date that we can get a connection, download the newest software, install it on both laptops (but first, you have to uninstall the older software, and hope the new one works), and then cross your fingers. Luck finally smiles on us and network connectivity is restored. Internet joy commences.

At the hotel, registration went swiftly and without a hitch, both for our hotel rooms and for the convention. Since traffic held us up we only got to sit in on the last half of the Guest of Honor Interview. This year the Guests of Honor decided they wanted to interview each other so Ellen Datlow and Jeffrey Ford sat and essentially talked, asking each other questions about life, writing, books, stories, and the universe. It was a totally entertaining event. It was funny and serious in turn as they bantered back and forth. Really, this would be worth coming to Capclave if that was all they had but they also have some great panels.

Next, up (for us) was “Is that a Maltese Falcon in your pocket or are you just happy to read me?” Moderator was Davey Beauchamp. Panelists were David J. Williams, Matt Jarpe, and Lon Prater. The tagline for the panels was: Neo-pulp: What is it; Who’s writing it; and where do you find it?

It was pretty much agreed that pulp focuses on plot and has a feel to it of excitement, optimism — and harkens back to the Shadow, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (comic not movie) and and that neo-pulp has a bit of noir feel to it. Early pulp was more black and white in morality but with noir it’s now lots of shades of grey. This panel turned into a real audience participation as the convention members in attendance joined enthusiastically into the discussion — I love it when this happens because it expands the boundary from panel/audience to a truly inclusive discussion of the topic by those who find the subject interesting.

Since it’s now late, we skipping the 11PM panel in order to take an early night and be bright eyed for tomorrow’s day long schedule of panels and events. Did I mention we had to go up three floors to find an actual ice machine in the ice machine room. The hotel is new and renovations didn’t actually finish in time for the convention, but it’s a great venue with all programming items on one floor and by next year it will be fully operational.