Sunday Six: Pictures of World Fantasy Con 2014

It may not look like much, but that little red thumb drive ate my whole summer and much of my fall. My contribution to this year's World Fantasy Con, held November 5-9 at the Hyatt in Crystal City, Virginia, was to format five of the six volumes of Unconventional Fantasy, an anthology celebrating forty years of World Fantasy Conventions contained on that thumb drive. In addition to the catalog of the con's Virgil Finlay art exhibit (which, fortunately, I did NOT have to format) the collection encompassed over two hundred stories and articles by people like Neil Gaiman, Patricia McKillip, Joyce Carol Oates and our writing Guest of Honor Guy Gavriel Kay, plus roughly three hundred paintings and photographs. The complete collection comprised over 900,000 words and 3,200 pages.

The con only produced enough thumb drives to supply one ach to con members. But if the project is nominated for any Major Awards (hint, hint) they plan to make it available to eligible Hugo, Nebula and World Fantasy Award voters. (Buy those memberships now, folks. :-) )

Fortunately, there was alcohol at the end of the formatting tunnel. Lots of it. They don't call it "Bar Con" for nothing. The good times started November 5 with a scotch tasting hosted by WFC 2014 Writer Guest of Honor Guy Gavriel Kay (left) and Toastmaster Mary Robinette Kowal (right). I knew the scotch would be grand. What surprised me was I found an Islay scotch I really liked: Highland Park. It doesn't smell anything like moldy bandages! (User dodges rotten fruit hurled by the scotch fans on the blog.) Well, it's true!

There were also workshops led by some of the most honored names in the business. Jack Dann (right), author of The Memory Cathedral (about DaVinci) and The Rebel (which imagines the life of a James Dean who didn't die on Highway 1), led a November 6 workshop on alternate history featuring (from left to right) Joe Haldeman, L.E. Modesitt, Jr., and Janeen Webb.

Opening ceremonies November 6 featured World War I re-enactors reading "In Flanders Field" in honor of the centenary of "The War to End All Wars" and mini movie describing the wonders of that little red thumb drive. (I'm trying to persuade the con chairs to put it on You Tube. I'm proud of that blasted drive.)  Mary Robinette Kowal (seen at left dressed in a 1911-style gown) performed with her usual style. Afterwards, the con's honorees gathered for photos. Of the ones I took, I like this one best. From left to right: Mary (Toastmaster), 2014 World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement Winners Chelsea Quinn Yarbro and Ellen Datlow, and Writer Guest of Honor Guy Gavriel Kay.

What would a con be without panels? Here Michelle Markey Butler (left), Scott H. Andrews, (center) and Elaine Isaak (who also writes as E.C. Ambrose) discuss "Guns, Gears and Wheels: Medieval Technology in Fantasy". I chose this picture to give you an idea of how well the panels were attended. Look at the crowd in that mirror!

For my sixth shot, I decided to give a shout-out to one of my favorite editors, Joshua Palmatier, seen here second from the right. In addition to being a talented writer under his own name and his pseudonym Benjamin Tate, Joshua has co-edited both The Modern Fae's Guide to Surviving Humanity and Clockwork Universe: Steampunk vs. Aliens. Here he finds himself on a panel entitled "Place Matters: Geography and Fantasy". His fellow panelists are (from left to right): Max Gladstone, Robert V.S. Redick, Marie Brennan, Gregory A. Wilson and Siobhan Carroll.

All told, I had a grand time at the con. I saw good friends. I participated on and attended great panels. I ate well. I drank really well. The only fly in the ointment: guess who lost her thumb drive. Don't it figure. LOL

Jean Marie Ward

Thursday Thirteen: A Month in Thirteen Pictures

I'm a bad blogger. I missed my Saturday blog. But if a picture's really worth a thousand words, here's thirteen pictures I hope will make up for my delay.


Buzzy Multimedia recently asked me to shift from print to video interviews. Not being entirely sure of myself I decided to start with a friend, fantasy and mystery writer Carole Nelson Douglas, who happened to be this year's guest of honor at our local mystery convention, Malice Domestic. The video is posted on the Buzzy blog.



I'd barely finished editing Carole's interview when I learned the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) were holding the 2011 Nebula Awards Weekend a few Metro stops away on May 20-22. So I hauled my trusty camera to Dupont Circle and taped five interviews: Chris Claremont (of Marvel Comics fame), Mary Robinette Kowal, Joe Haldeman, John Scalzi and this year's Nebula Award winner for best novel, Connie Willis (above). I may be mistaken, but I think this year's win makes Connie the all-time Nebula champion, which tickles me no end, since I totally love her fiction. Who says women can't write REAL science fiction?



One of the more interesting aspects of the filming was discovering things I never knew about the interview subjects. For example, I knew Joe Haldeman was an accomplished poet. In fact, he published his first poem (in The Washington Post, no less) before he was ten. But I didn't know he was an amazing artist. The photo above gives you just one example of his work. There will be more in the video. I promise.



One thing I missed was Mary Robinette Kowal's presentation at the Awards Banquet...in a Regency dress she stitched entirely by hand. (I couldn't make it because I was helping out with a Civil War celebration in Alexandria.) But she was kind enough to show me the dress and accessories when I interviewed her the following day.



But I didn't have much time work on all those lovely videos. The very next Friday, May 27, I was off to Balticon 45. As always, the Memorial Day weekend con was a whirl of panels, friends and parties. The Broad Universe Rapid Fire Reading was all three. This year's readers were (from left to right) Gail Z. Martin, Vonnie Winslow Crist, Roberta Rogow, yours truly, Phoebe Wray and fellow Samhain writer D. Renee Bagby. The party came courtesy of Vonnie, who brought the most amazing cupcakes from her book launch The Greener Forest, which took place the hour before the RFR. You can see them (but alas, not taste them) in the bottom of the shot.



Balticon also offered great interview opportunities, including romantic fantasy and young adult writer Maria V. Snyder (left). As befits a party con, Maria and I caught up with each other in the bar, where she was relaxing with her friend and fellow writer Judi Fleming (right). My other Balticon interviews included Michael Swanwick and Paolo Bacigalupi.



This year's Balticon boasted an amazing number of book launches including the launch of one of my most anticipated books of 2011, The Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences: Phoenix Rising by Philippa Ballantine and Tee Morris (shown here at right). As befits a book described as a Steampunk Avengers (as in the old TV show), the launch was a Victorian tea, complete with ginger biscuits and a raffle with prizes drawn by a fetching member of the audience in full 19th century dress.



Steampunk was everywhere at Balticon 45, and it really upped the ante on Masquerade costumes, as evidenced by this year's League of Extraordinary Family. Check out the young Captain Nemo's pet Kraken.



But the prize for Best in Show went to writer J.F. Bibeau's The Cat from Red Dwarf. Speaking of steam, I missed seeing his iron. No, not that kind of iron! The kind of steam presser Cat used to for wardrobe emergencies. Really!



A week later I was reveling in a special tour of what I consider the most beautiful building in all of Washington, D.C.--the Library of Congress. And I'm not just saying that because I'm a writer and I love books. Take a look at the Grand Hall. All that white marble, the bronze statues and the paintings peeking through the columns are just a taste of its splendor.



The Library is the nation's great temple of learning, so it's only fitting it has a resident goddess: the Minerva of Peace, a mosaic by Elihu Vedder. Like this depiction of Minerva, the Library celebrates all the arts. In addition to books, it boasts one of the world's great collections of musical instruments, maps and movies.



The library also celebrates all kinds of literature. Although Sappho is the only woman writer celebrated by name in its murals (sorry Jane Austen, Marie de France and George Sand), the branches of literature are all depicted as classical muses, including Romance and (ta da!) Erotica.



But I think my favorite part of the Library is its whimsy. Where else would you find a mosaic of late 19th century football?

That about covers it, for now. But if these photos have only whetted your appetite, please, check out the relevant galleries:

Nebula Awards Weekend 2011

Balticon 45

Library of Congress

'Til next month!