World Fantasy 2007 – Nov. 1st
What a day! That deserves an exclamation point. After getting the zines on line last night we got about 4 hours sleep and it was up, shower, finish packing, pack the car, and off to Saratoga Springs — Saratoga is about 7 hours and 50 some odd minutes. And, that’s about what it took to get here. The scenery was gorgeous (camera was packed so no photos). There was actually some orange and red leaves — at home we’re in a sea of yellow with some tinged towards orange and very, very little red. And in truth a lot of leaves that haven’t changed yet.
Arriving we checked into our hotel (Hilton Garden Inn). It’s actually very nice with lots of amenities that I’m not used to seeing in a Hilton (or at least not in Hilton’s we’d been in previously). The room is comfortable and homey. We didn’t bother to unpack but just grabbed our coats and my purse and headed off to the conference center and registration to hopefully get to some panels before the dinner break.
We did manage to get to “Sleepy Hollow: The Beginnings of the Supernatural in American Literature”. We were about 30 minutes late but the panel was still excellent. Panel members were: Saladin Ahmed (who’d passed out a short bibliography — which I managed to pick up off a chair after the panel), Joseph Bruchac, Barbara Campbell, Lloyd Currey, and Mary Turzillo (moderator). From the time we quietly moved into the room the panel conversation ranged over Washington Irving’s works, especially “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”. They discussed the layers of the story and how it has held up over the years. There was some comparing and contrasting with the works of Poe, Lovecraft, other writers of the Knickerbocker Group, and Cotton Mather. There was a wonderful give and take covering the American Folk tradition of tales and their origins. I’m really glad that we managed to catch this panel.
After a break for dinner with several friends we managed to get back in time for the Opening Ceremonies & Ice-Cream Social. Managed to talk to Tamara Siler Jones and Andi Ward for a while to catch up and talk conventions, life, whatever. We then met up with Drew & Kat Bittner who agreed that “The Fantasy Graphic Novel” panel sounded like something worth sitting in on. Panelists were: Mike Dringenberg, Alisa Kwitney Sheckley, Matthew Smith, Charles Vess, Andrew Wheeler (moderator), and Doselle Young. The conversation here was all over the spectrum but mostly focused on how the synergy of words and art becomes more than either separately — lots of comparison to jazz, mention of artists/writers/works they admire. I got so involved in listening I forgot to take notes. [NOTE: I added links only when I was fairly sure that the link I found was to the right person — when in doubt no link.]
We then dropped in to the Australia party, where we met up with some other people from the DC area and with Sam Tomanio (SFRevu’s short fiction columnist). We then moved on to the Zombies Need Brains Party — where there was some excellent chocolate confections and more good conversation.
Tomorrow we hope to remember to bring the camera (now that we’ve unpacked) and add pictures to tomorrow’s report.