Tense Viewpoint – Friday 3pm
Science Fiction And Comedy – Friday 4pm
Book Launch – Friday 7pm
How Did That Get On My Book Cover? – Saturday 2pm
Reading – Saturday 6pm
Religion In Fantasy And Science Fiction – Sunday 10am
How To Write A Fight Scene – Sunday 11am
Author Magic 8-Ball – Sunday 3pm

Keeping me busy, aren’t they? But that’s OK. I like having lots of panels.

While I’ll definitely be at the mass book launch on Friday night, I don’t know yet if we’ll (as in, me and my publisher) will actually manage to have copies of Song of the Sword on hand. It’s not officially released until October 15. But I’m hoping!

Well, I just finished a doozy of a convention, the grandaddy of them all: the 67th annual World Science Fiction Convention in Montreal, a.k.a. Anticipation.

Yes, there were people in costumes (though I only saw one Star Trek costume—an original series one, at that—and not a single Klingon). And, yes, the media tended to focus on those people. Which is fine: they’re the eye-catching ones, and they’re an important part of science fiction fandom. (And as someone who loves performing in musical theatre, I am hardly one to disparage the wearing of costumes.)

But there is so much more at a World Science Fiction convention. In fact, it’s a veritable buffet of goodness for the intellectually curious: where else, for instance, could you listen to Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman in conversation with British science fiction writer Charles Stross?

To extend the buffet metaphor further, WorldCon is an all-you-can-eat-and-then-some buffet. At any given moment, there could be a couple of dozen choices of things to do.

For example, at 2 p.m. on Friday, among the offerings were a presentation by McGill students of science posters they had created; a panel on creating science fiction haiku; “My Parents Made Me Do It” (about growing up in science fiction fandom); “SF in French-Speaking America;” and “In Conversation with Tarl Wayne” (the fan artist guest of honor).

During that same time, the aforementioned Paul Krugman was giving a presentation on how reading science fiction led him into becoming an economist, and there was a panel on the “Greatest Fan Writer,” several author readings, a presentation on “Computing Before Computers,” a panel on “Food: Ancient, Modern, Future, Near and Far,” a writers’ workshop on creating alien languages, a panel on modern graphic design in publishing, and a costuming panel on embellishment techniques.

There were also panels in French, a look at the fiction of Neil Gaiman, this year’s Guest of Honour, a program for teens on how to present yourself in frontof an audience; a panel on “The Future of Gender,” a presentation by Prof. Gail Chmura, a climate-change specialist at McGill University, a panal on environmental issues in science fiction and fantasy, a discussion of who should win the Hugo Award (science fiction’s top fan-voted award) in the Short Form Dramatic Presentation category, a panel on what the people behind the camera do in television and movie production, and a panel introducing book binding, archiving and preservation.

That was just one hour to hour-and-a-half time frame—and I left a few things out.

See, here’s what people who rely on media stereotypes of science fiction fans (you know, can’t get a date, live in their mother’s basement, etc.) don’t realize: the kinds of people who are interested in science fiction are often the kinds of people who interested in everything.

Among the panels I personally attended were one on star maps from antiquity to today; a rather depressing discussion on the outlook for manned space flight in the U.S. post-shuttle; and a panel discussing the exploration of Mars from the persepective of the Canadian Space Agency.

At its heart, though, WorldCon is still focused on books. The premiere award of the weekend is the Hugo Award for Best Novel, which was won by Neil Gaiman for The Graveyard Book.

Among the other awards given out at WorldCon: the Aurora Awards for the best Canadian science fiction and fantasy…and I was honored to receive the Aurora for Best Long-Form Work in English for my novel Marseguro (DAW Books).

Obviously, that alone made the 67th annual World Science Fiction Convention the best in history, as far as I was concerned.

But if you’re interested enough to read this column every week, there’s a good chance you’d enjoy a science fiction convention even without winning an award.

Next time there’s one in your neck of the woods, why not give it a try?

By the time we got to the Hugos, the place was full to the walls, and so we ended up sitting on the floor near an exit. Still, we saw all the major awards. Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book won the Best Novel Hugo. It’s already a Newbery winner, of course. I’ve read it, and it’s a fine book, but I really think the Hugo should have gone to Neal Stephenson’s Anathem. So did Gaiman: he said he’d been so sure Anathem would win he hadn’t even bothered to prepare a speech.

The other highlight of the day was a reading of a play by Hayden Trenholm, winner of the Aurora Award last year for best short-form work in English and my fellow nominee for long-form work this year. Trophies was written for Calgary’s Lunchbox Theatre a few years ago, and is a vampire story with an ironic twist, a lot of humor, and a thoroughly obnoxious “alpha male” stockbroker-type character: that would be me. It was fun to do. (For the second time, actually; I was part of a previous reading at ConVersion in Calgary a few years ago, a reading in which my wife also took part.) Today’s cast also included Hayden, his publisher (Virginia O’Dine of Bundoran Press) and Canadian writer Susan Forrest. A Good Time Was Had By All, and we had a pretty fair turnout, too.

I also sat in the autograph area, but signed very little (I signed more books elsewhere, actually). I sold every copy of Lost in Translation, Marseguro and Terra Insegura I had brought with me, and Chapters, which had no copies of my books when I arrived, managed to scare up a handful of books which also sold out. Obviously I should have brought more, but usually I end up lugging the things home with me!

Those were today’s highlights. All that’s left now is my joint reading with Alison Sinclair…at 10 a.m. tomorrow morning. Not exactly prime time for drawing an audience, but I hope that maybe someone will show up.

One day to go…

I’d give you the complete list of winners as I usually do, except as one of the nominees, I didn’t take notes or photos tonight. I’ll post them when I have a chance. But in my acceptance speech I made a point of thanking Robert J. Sawyer, who was a nominee in the same category tonight, because it was in his Banff Centre class in writing science fiction that Marseguro began, and I also did my best to acknowledge all the other nominees in my category, Douglas Smith, Ursula Pflug and Hayden Trenholm, urging people to read them all, because, I said, “Canadian science fiction deserves it.” Of course, in the process I forgot to thank my wife and daughter, and I fumbled introducing Sheila and Betsy from DAW, but it’s amazing how hard it is to think when you win an award.

Speaking of my daughter, I think she was more anxious than I was as my category (which, by the way, was announced by none other than well-known cigar-smoking puppet Ed the Sock) approached, and she apparently, though I didn’t see it, reacted with even more glee.

Afterward, of course, once I had Tweeted and Facebooked and phoned Mom, I headed over to the Delta Hotel for the SF Canada/Robert J. Sawyer Books party. I was also briefly in the SFWA Suite, where Analog and Asimov‘s were hosting a party, until it was closed down by the hotel. Oops. (Apparently a few people hung on in near-silence and seclusion.) It’s amazing what carrying a pointy, shiny award around an SF convention does to encourage people to talk to you. Two parties was my limit, though. (Pointy, you ask? The Aurora Award is famous for its sharp points, which are a) useful for forcing your way through crowds, b) an exellent means of self-defense should you be mugged on your way to your hotel, and c) known to shred clothing if you pack it injudiciously in your luggage. Fortunately, since we drove, I should be able to take it back in one piece).

Oh, I did do a few other things today. I went to a rather depressing panel on “After the Shuttle,” which spent much of its time pointing out that NASA’s plans for replacing the shuttle are inadequate, and therefore NASA astronauts won’t be going anywhere other than low-Earth-orbit riding Russian Soyuzes any time soon, manned the SFWA table for an hour and then signed books (not very many, but some) at the SFWA table for another hour, and went to the DAW Books upcoming books presentation.

It’ll be hard to have a better day than today at the this year’s WorldCon. But I’ll give it the old college try tomorrow!

And my deepest thanks to everyone who voted for Marseguro! You’ve made my year.

When: Thu 17:00
Location: P-516E
Title: Teen Reporter: The Basics
Session ID: 865
All Participants: Daniel Grotta, Edward Willett, Flick Christian, Jeff Warner, John G. McDaid
Moderator: Daniel Grotta
Description: Be a Teen Reporter! How to get behind the scenes and interview people. Find out what makes a good feature story.
Duration: 1:00 hrs:min
Language: English
Track: Teen Programming

When: Fri 18:00
Location: P-710A
Title: Aurora Awards Ceremony
Session ID: 2
All Participants: Julie E. Czerneda, Eric Gauthier, Diane Walton, Douglas Smith, Edward Willett, Judith Hayman, Liana Kerzner, Peggi WL, Peter Atwood, Stephanie Ann Johanson, Robert J. Sawyer, Susan Forest, Claude Lalumière, Jean-Louis Trudel, Joël Champetier, Michèle Laframboise, Sophie Beaulé, Ursula Pflug
Description: The Aurora Awards
Duration: 2:00 hrs:min
Language: Bilingual
Track: Event

When: Sat 22:00
Location: P-521A
Title: Kaffeeklatsch with Edward Willett
Session ID: 1616
All Participants: Edward Willett
Description: A chance to ask those burning questions.
Duration: 1:00 hrs:min
Language: English
Track: Kaffeeklatsch

When: Sun 12:30
Location: Other
Title: Edward Willett Signing
Session ID: 1534
All Participants: Edward Willett
Description: Edward Willett Signing
Duration: 0:30 hrs:min
Language: English
Track: Autographs

When: Sun 17:00
Location: P-511BE
Title: “Trophies” by Hayden Trenholm
Session ID: 132
All Participants: Edward Willett, Hayden Trenholm
Moderator: Hayden Trenholm
Description: A live one-act dark-fantasy comedy by Aurora Awardwinner Hayden Trenholm. When Walter learns that his twin brotherand archrival, William, has snagged a beautiful young bride, he quickly finds one of his own. But the brothers aren’t the only ones who like to compete, and sometimes the stakes are higher than life and death.
Duration: 1:00 hrs:min
Language: English
Track: The Light Programme

When: Mon 10:00
Location: P-512AE
Title: Author Reading
Session ID: 202
All Participants: Alison Sinclair, Edward Willett, Heidi Lampietti
Description: Alison Sinclair, Edward Willett; Heidi Lampietti.
Duration: 1:00 hrs:min
Language: English
Track: Reading

Guess I did fill out the form saying I wanted to particpate after all. I’d been trying to remember…