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Fourth Street Fantasy Convention

skzb — Tue, 15 May 2012 09:03:11 +0000

This is a reminder to everyone who might be interested that Fourth Street Fantasy Convention is approaching. For those who don’t know, this is a small convention (100+ people) heavily oriented toward writing and writers–I sort of made it up back in, I think, the late 80′s so I could hear smart people argue about problems I was having. The theory is that anything that is about writing is also about reading; “How to Read Better” has always been an unstated discussion topic.

What distinguishes Fourth Street from most conventions are two things: 1. A very high percentage of professionals (writers, editors); and B. Strict single-track programming with lunch breaks, so everyone can be at every panel (and, of course, continue the arguments from one to the other). It used to be that did the programming; lately it’s mostly Alec Austin with help from Tom Whitmore and me, and I’ve been delighted by how things have gone. I have learned stuff. I think it has helped me write better; I know it has helped me get more out of my reading.

Check out who will be there (John Scalzi, Elizabeth Bear, Will Shetterly, Emma Bull, &c &c)

It’ll be in Minneapolis, June 22-24, and for actual, useful details, go here.

I’d love to see all of you there.

Traveling

skzb — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 01:28:39 +0000

I’m off to Minnesota. I expect to be there for a few weeks. During this time, my normal email won’t work, so if you have to reach me use the one this my first three initials and my last name at gmail dot com.

Back from MisCon

skzb — Tue, 26 May 2009 23:09:39 +0000

MisCon, in Missoula, Montana, was excellent. About five hundred people (a good size, in my opinion), and many of them very much worth talking with. I had a great time on panels, did a tiny bit of music. I won’t mention the various Cool People I got to hang out with, because I’ll forget someone and then wake up in the middle of the night feeling stupid. But it was a good time, and I was well taken care of, and it’s recommended.

Tomorrow, I hope to get back to work on Adam Smith.

Off to MisCon

skzb — Thu, 21 May 2009 18:48:35 +0000

I’m heading for Missoula, Montana. See you next week if they let me out.

Icon in Tel Aviv

skzb — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 21:53:30 +0000

First of all, all thanks and blessings on Tim and Serina Powers, who talked me into putting up with hours on a non-smoking flight to attend. They said it was worth it, and they were right. I have never been treated better at a convention, and rarely as well.

It was a blast. Lots of smart people, lots of interesting discussion. I also like Tel Aviv a great deal–which is something coming from a virulent anti-Zionist. I’ll probably drop a few more thoughts now and then as I think of them, but for now, I just want to say hello to all the wonderful people I met and hung out with there, and to thank them for a truly wonderful experience.

Hey we’re at a Con

kit — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 23:02:39 +0000

Hey–Steve, Reesa and I are at ConDFW. We neglected to put anything up till now. The Con is halfway over, but –we’re here.

Since I’m ranting anyway: Conventions

skzb — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 00:00:28 +0000

Whence comes this custom of, “If you will agree to be our guest, you may bring a companion at a special discounted rate.” What the hell? Now even Readercon is doing it; I had thought better of Readercon.

This should be part of a longer rant on how to treat guests and guests of honor, which I may get to someday, but for now, this business irritates me.

In general, as Conventions have become more diversified, they have been forced to invite more guests of honor for the same number of members. It is more or less expected now that there will be a writer, a fan, an artist, a filker, a gamer, a media guest, a science guest, and maybe one or two more. As a result, what is being offered the guests has generally dropped (with a few notable exceptions). It is been increasingly common in the last ten or fifteen years for a convention to say, “I’m sorry, but we cannot pay transportation for a companion for you.” As an Old Time Fhan, this is a little annoying, but it is also understandable.

But to invite someone who is NOT a guest of honor (that is, someone just being offered of free membership), and then not even offer THAT to a companion, well, there are several ways to interpret that and none of them are good.

1. We don’t actually care about you; we care about money.

2. Our financial condition is so desperate that there is a 50-50 chance you’ll show up to find the whole convention has been cancelled.

3. We’re idiots.

Are there other interpretations I’m missing?

Congratulations to the WFC winners

skzb — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 23:09:05 +0000

Especially to Midori Snyder and Terri Windling for special award, non-professional (although: huh?) and to Ellen Datlow for the anthology Inferno.

And, out of courtesy to their sensibilities I will not now be gnashing my teeth and screaming about rigged elections because neither Will Shetterly nor Emma Bull won. They would certainly not appreciate such a display on any level.

So I will quietly pout.

Your call is very important to us….

skzb — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 01:15:24 +0000

Just want to let you know that, yes, there will be more posts on our trip to Tel Aviv. Be patient. All three of us have been down with some ucky virus, and lots of other things to do. But we’re getting there.

skzb

Travel day 2 – From Heathrow to Tel Aviv

Reesa — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 01:30:29 +0000

I notice while over England that their neat regular rows of farm fields look suspiciously similar to the long, narrow rows of flats in their towns. I wonder how many other places modeled their cities after their farm structure, whether intentionally or not?

While airport food is usually sub-standard, it seems the English reputation for bad food extends even here; I count FIVE sandwich shops with near-identical selection of sandwiches–all fairly unappetizing–in one airport terminal. I was also rather confused by an entire shopping mall located INSIDE the “secure” sections of the airport; why have a whole mall that only transient travelers can access?

They do have a very cool water fountain in the outdoor smoking area, with several jets alternating in a cycle of patterns, complete with color-changing lights. Unfortunately, they turn it off right after sunset, which made us wonder why bother to have the pretty lights if you’re going to turn off the fountain right when you can begin to see the shifting colors.

Surprisingly, we do not have any strange delays on the second flight leg, which is a mere 5 hours and one timezone away from Israel. Sadly, I can’t watch the flight progress as the signal is so wavy to watch that I start feeling mildly nauseous, which is not something you want to encourage on an aircraft.

Steve notices on the plane that he has never before been in the presence of such a large percentage of “his people”–looking out over the heads in the plane seats shows a high number of men with Steve’s particular style of male pattern baldness.

As we begin descent, there’s another “we’re not in Kansas anymore” moment: You can’t take aerial pictures from the plane over Israel. Obviously someone has, since there’s an enlarged aerial photo hanging in the airport terminal in Tel Aviv, but it made me wonder whether they say similar things now when one flies into Washington DC.

Steve remarks that he much prefers the European airport custom of simply telling you that smoking is forbidden in the terminal, rather than the American custom of “we are pleased to bring you this smoke-free environment” “except in designated areas” (and then no designated areas are provided). I notice that international children seem to like me just as much as American kids tend to, I play visual peek-a-boo with a tired yet adorable little boy while we’re waiting to get through customs.

Tel Aviv is immediately visually different from the air, as nearly all of the buildings are very pale in hue. I remember hearing someone say during the visit that it was due to the particular mix of sand used in making the concrete for the buildings. The airport is definitely the most colorfully and enjoyably decorated of any I’ve been in; even the offloading ramps have brightly-hued Israeli ads and tourist posters lining both walls.

We’re met by Didi Chanoch and Michael Grosberg at the airport; they’re our GoH handling team. We have a positive first impression of both guys that certainly holds true for the rest of the visit. More about our awesome handlers soon…

They take us to check in and deposit our bags at Hotel Cinema, which is a hotel converted from the first movie-house in Israel. The decor is great, all huge archaic movie projectors and Frankensteinian switches and knobs decorating many walls. The mezzanine has a glassed-in display of old movie posters and other cool movie-house memorabilia. The night clerk is Alfonso from Plano, Texas, who is hilarious and Steve seems to particularly enjoy engaging with him in verbal banter.

The first thing noticeable about our hotel room is the size; it’s a perfectly nice room, but at most half the size of an average hotel room in the States. They’ve warned us that everything in Israel is built smaller and more efficiently, which makes a ton of sense for a country with insanely limited amounts of available land (compared to the land-profligacy of the USA). It is definitely one of the few aspects of our time there that Steve says would be the hardest for him to adjust to, were we to spend larger chunks of time in Israel.

We don’t have time to notice much else, as we fall over thud in the nicely firm bed. (Well, two twin beds pushed together, but they worked just fine.) We sleep the sleep of the newly-internationally traveled until it’s time to wake up for the events of the evening. And that’s as good a place as any to leave you wanting more, for now.