The 73rd World Science Fiction Convention:
Fourteen days to Worldcon 2015, the annual Sci-Fi convention where the Hugo award has been presented almost annually since 1939. This year’s convention site is Spokane, Washington. The highlight of this year’s festivities will without a doubt be my attendance at the conference!
Seriously, this year’s Hugos will be anything but dull, especially when you factor in the Puppygate scandal where block voting resulted in full slates of nominees being added to the ballot. As Puppygate is not the focus of this post, should you care to read about the topic just google “sad puppies Hugo Awards.” Your browser of choice will serve up a plethora of articles covering every aspect and side of the issue.
The convention will open its doors at noon on Wednesday, August 19 and close up shop at 4 PM on Sunday, August 23 (Except for the Dead Dog filks). The full Sasquan program is online now, and the lineup looks great. I am particularly excited about the Literary Beer and Kaffeeklatsch events that I will be attending:
Literary Beer – Elizabeth Bear
Kaffee Klatche – Wesley Chu
Literary Beer – Joe Haldeman
Kaffee Klatche – John Joseph Adams
I registered for the John Scalzi Kaffee Klatche, my spot was confirmed, and then in a few days my registration was canceled by a site administrator. Turns out that when I registered the program registration site was in test mode. Certainly would have been nice if a bar across the top of the page notified site visitors that the page was only accepting test registrations. I had linked in from outside the official website or Twitter feed, so I was totally unaware that all my registrations were bogus! Oh well, I did manage to re-register for the events listed above – just no Scalzi. Sniff . . . . Sniff. Waaaaaaaaaa! Waaaaaaaaaa!
OK, let me pull myself together and look at the bright side. Drinking beer with Joe Haldeman and Elizabeth Bear! Outstanding. Kaffee Klatche with Wesley Chu, and the venerable John Joseph Adams. Sweet. And did I mention DRINKING BEER WITH JOE HALDEMAN. Nice. Triple nice as “Forever War” is one of my all-time favorites.
Time permitting I will be posting convention news here on Offworlders: Fear and Loathing at the Hugos!
Till then.