I know I worried in my previous post that I’d used up all the serendipity I was allowed for 2011 last Saturday, but it seems I had a little more left Thursday morning, because as I waited for my 8:20 a.m. United flight out of Dulles, who should appear at the gate but Daryl Gregory. Unlike the old days when I could hang out in the aisle and have conversations with friends in different parts of the plane other than in my own seat, we couldn’t talk our way to San Diego, but it still made it feel as if the con had started on the East Coast rather than the West.

The oddest thing about arriving in San Diego is that except for a brief visit back in 1984, every trip I’ve taken there has been during Comic-Con, when the city has been packed with con attendees, some more obvious than others. World Fantasy is small, and so doesn’t have that affect on the place. Who were all these normies I was surrounded by? Give me back my cosplayers!

I picked up my rental car and headed over to the WFC, where I grabbed lunch in the con suite, which so far has seemed both well stocked and well run. Then a quick tour of the dealers room, a blur of schmoozing, and it was off to the opening ceremonies, which if you missed, you can watch below. (more…)

Saturday’s run into Manhattan from New Jersey—where Irene was attending the annual NJ Romance Writers conference—began with everything going my way. When I hit the lobby, the hotel shuttle was waiting with an open door about to head to NJ Transit, and when we got to the Metropark station, the next train to New York (they were running every 30 minutes) arrived almost immediately. But that wasn’t all the serendipity Saturday had in store for me.

When I stepped up from my track in NY and into Penn Station, a voice called out behind me, “Scott! Scott!” It was Chris Kalb, the art director who’d made Sci-Fi Entertainment and then SCI FI magazine look so pretty during the eight years I edited it for Syfy. We’d had no plans to meet that day. He just happened to miss his train out of NY to an old-time radio convention in New Jersey, and if he’d made it, he’d have been gone before I arrived. We chatted until his next train, talking about (among other things) old pulps and the editing of James Schmitz reissues (which was discussed on a World Fantasy panel of mine, “The Moral Distance Between the Author and the Work,” last year—check out this video starting at 11:52).

You’d think that was all the serendipity I deserved in a single day, But no, there was to be more. A lot more. (more…)

I’ll be heading off to Dulles in about 20 hours to fly to San Diego for World Fantasy Con, and I realize I haven’t yet told you where you’ll be able to find me. (Well, aside from all those Man v. Food restaurants, anyway.) So here’s my official schedule.

You’ll note I only have one panel. That’s because WFC has the highest ratio of writers, editors, artists, and critics of any convention, and so unless you’re one of the Guests of Honor, you only get one slot—you’re allowed to choose a panel or a reading, but not both.

Here’s what I’ve been assigned:

Metafiction
Saturday, October 29, 10:00 p.m., Pacific 2/3
Taking literature to the next level, metafiction exposes the fictional illusion and openly addresses the devices of fiction. It takes many forms: stories within stories, footnotes that continue the story, characters aware that they are characters, and authors commenting on and even entering their own stories. Going back at least as far at the Canterbury Tales, these devices are particularly popular of late. What do they add to the reading (and writing) experience? Is the trend just self-indulgence?
with Victoria Schwab, Steve Rasnic Tem, and Rick Wilber (moderator)

Unofficially, of course, you’ll find me many other places, such as listening to Nalo Hopkinson, Robert Shearman, Eileen Gunn and others read, and the panels on “How to Survive the Coming Zombie War” (how could I not?) and “Founders of Steampunk,” and the conversation between Neil Gaiman and Connie Willis …

… and then there’s the bar.

See you there!

When I dashed early Friday morning from the Renaissance Woodbridge where Irene was attending the annual conference of the New Jersey Romance Writers and headed for the Metropark New Jersey Transit station, what was uppermost in my mind wasn’t how much fun I’d have catching up with friends, or the restaurants I’d hit, or the sights I’d see while wandering Manhattan. No, what I couldn’t stop thinking about was a mission I had to complete, a mission the details of which I dared not share until it was completed.

What can I say? I guess I was being superstitious about the task and didn’t want to jinx it.

Many of you thought, when I hinted at my mysterious goal for the day on Twitter and Facebook, that I was in town to interview for a new job or freelance gig, but it wasn’t anything like that. Instead, one of the things I needed to do while I was in town was deliver the package in the photo below, and until I put it in the hands of its intended recipient, I was going to be extremely nervous.

Any guesses, before you look below and see the contents revealed, what was inside? (Those of you who were following along at the time are, of course, exempt.)

But before I could be relieved of my burden, I had a brunch date with my boss Craig Engler at (where else?) Shopsins, which has my favorite restaurant menu ever. After walking down from Penn Station to the Essex Street Market to meet him at around 10:15, I had a Happy Breakfast Tray made up of bread pudding French toast, raspberry pancakes, and cheddar corn cakes. Everything was, of course, excellent. As far as I’m concerned, a visit to New York isn’t a visit to New York without a visit to Shopsins. (more…)

As Irene and I have done for quite a few years, we used her attendance at the New Jersey Romance Writers annual conference to swoop down on Marie Severin, the nicest lady in comics, with whom we worked at Marvel during the ’70s.

She was back then, and continues to be now, a hoot.

We swung by Thursday and took her out for Italian, plying her with wine and swapping stories of the old days. As usual, we filled her in on news of all our old friends (and all our old non-friends, too).

She asked after Stan Lee, and was tickled to hear he now had a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. We tried to figure out who the oldest surviving comics creator was, and thought that it had to be Joe Simon, who just turned 98. (You’ll tell me if I’m wrong, right?) We got her talking about the old EC days, which I don’t think we’d ever done before, and she told us what a good boss Bill Gaines had been to her.

But in addition to the comics gossip—unavoidable when we get together—we of course caught up on life in general, with much laughter. (There’s GOT to be laughter when you’re around Mirthful Marie.)

And here’s the lady herself, looking 82 years young.

We’ll continue talking by phone often, but I hope we won’t have to wait until next November to see her again in the flesh.

We love you, Marie!

On Sunday, I moderated the final panel at Capclave, “Endings: Varieties of Wrapping Up,” during which I wrangled Brenda Clough, Ann Crispin, and Bud Webster. Actually, hardly any wrangling occurred. The four of us have known each other for at least twenty years, I think, so there was plenty of comfort there, and we could have easily talked for an hour on almost any subject.

In fact, we chattered so seamlessly that I never found an opportune moment to quote one of my favorite story endings of all time. If I’d done so, it would have stopped the flow of conversation, so I didn’t bother, and so I’ll share it here with you instead.

It comes from Jessica Amanda Salmonson’s “Time-Slit Through a Rice Paper Window,” which continues to amaze me, and which I published way back in 1984 in the Summer 1984 issue of Last Wave.

Here’s how her story concludes:

A few days later (we are time traveling again) Kohachi is home with his mother. There is much ado about the marriage preparations and the invitations which must be sent out. A servant is replacing the torn windows in the rice paper screens and doors, so everything will be spiffy for the celebration. We won’t be able to see through the time-slit much longer. What will happen to Kohachi after we are gone? Perhaps he has a good life with his bride, winning a few more duels in his life. Perhaps there is a war and he goes off to that and dies, or else is a success and becomes a wealthy warlord. Possibly the son of someone he killed comes and duels with him and wins. It is difficult to know what occurs in the life of the people in a story after the story ends. If we have any hearts at all, we must suffer thinking about it. That’s why stories sometimes say “happily ever after” or else kill all the characters off, so that we won’t have to worry about it. As for Kohachi, we have no idea what happens to him after this. We can always hope for the best.

I know I’m biased, but twenty-seven years after I first read them, those words still give me the tingles.

I had a wonderful weekend at Capclave. I did a reading and took part in two well-received panels, moderating one of them. I was originally going to participate in a third panel until a certain British knight decided to pop by.

To the surprise of us all, Sir Terry Pratchett made a last-minute visit to the con, as the final appearance in his U.S. tour for Snuff. In fact, his appearance was so final I believe he and his assistant Rob Wilkins headed off to the airport (and the UK) immediately after their noon Q&A.

As far as I’m concerned, it was the highlight of the con. I’d give up any number of opportunities to pontificate in exchange for a chance to hear Pratchett. And as those of you who know me already know, without me having to say it—I was in the front row with my Flip balanced on one knee.

Here, for those who couldn’t make it to Capclave—and for those who could, but would like to relive the lovely hour—is video from the event.

I’ve been busy lately. How do I know I’ve been busy lately? Because here it is, two months after the Reno Worldcon, and I’m just getting around to uploading my photos to Flickr. I shared a few of them previously in a post after I got back from the con, but most of them remained on my laptop.

Not that there were many. I only took a couple of dozen, as opposed to the hundreds I shot at the Japanese Worldcon. That seems to have been the case for a number of conventions lately. I think I’ve taken to living my life cons with Twitter instead of my camera. But looking back over the past year, I don’t think I like that. I’m going to make sure I start snapping again at my next few cons. Tweets disappear, but photos last.

As proof, check out this self-portrait of me with a holy trinity hovering above me of the much younger visages of Harlan Ellison, Bob Eggleton and … a plumper me.

A couple of months ago, I announced a competition to blow the top of my head off by creating a short clip based on my Stoker-nominated zombie play “A Plague on Both Your Houses,” with three winners to be unveiled at World Fantasy Con at the end of this month. The clip of no less than three minutes in length can be in any format—live action, animation, marionettes, claymation, kinetic typography, sock puppets—and it’s not too late to submit yours.

So if you’ve been thinking of picking up a Flip cam and giving it a try, check out all the info here. You’ll note that I said entries had to be submitted by this Saturday the 15th, but as I’m the only judge, and it won’t be necessary to coordinate extensive debate, I’ve decided to extend that another 10 days to October 25th, the Tuesday before World Fantasy. So if you’ve been thinking of entering, there’s still time! What else do you have to do the next two weekends?

And just to give you an idea of your competition, check out this ambitious entry from Drake Tucker and his frightening friends.

What are you waiting for?

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