Celebrity spotting:
At the annual world science fiction convention held August 15-19, 2019, we spied
some favorite authors wandering about looking for the right room, including
Michael Swanwick, Jo Walton, Ada Palmer, Robert Silverberg (twice!), Charles
Stross, James Patrick Kelly, GoH Diane Duane (got her autograph!), Laurence
Raphael Brothers (a Third Flatiron author!), Premee Mohamed (another Third
Flatiron author!), John Scalzi, gamer idol Steve Jackson, and this year's Hugo novel winner, Mary
Robinette Kowal.
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| Third Flatiron crew Juli Rew, Russ Rew, Keely Rew, Andrew Cairns |
A major event is the Hugo Awards, honoring the books the
fans have adored over the past year. And of course there is a big party for the
Hugo Losers. There was a bit of a kerfuffle over the fact that several of the
winners waltzed into the party, while ticketholders (aka losers) waited in long lines. We
love you guys anyway. Sort of…
Books books books:
I brought copies of Third Flatiron's anthologies to distribute during the Con.
There's one little problem with this. A visit to the Dealer's Room or a panel,
and we all come away with a whole new stack of books to read or lug back home. Recently I've been dipping into older, influential works, so I was interested to learn of the folklore horror ghost stories of M. R. James, the Appalachian tales
of Manley Wade Wellman's Silver John, Welsh author Arthur Machen's short story,
"The White People," and Graham Joyce's novel, Limits of Enchantment.
Third Flatiron artist Keely Rew and podcast producer/author
Andrew Cairns also introduced their jointly authored comic, "The Lens #1
(incorporating Libra).
Movies and plays and
music, Oh my: We were treated to a WorldCon Orchestra concert featuring
theme music from Star Wars, Star Trek, World of Warcraft, Game of Thrones, as
well as Irish music such as the lilting "Danny Boy," and a preview
from Gary Lloyd's new opera about James Joyce's daughter's tragic life,
"Dotter Of Her Father's Eyes."
Other treats were the short indie movies, where we saw Snowgum Films's new "Troll Bridge" adaptation of the Terry Pratchett tale, as well as "Goldilocked" (watch out—bears will be bears). There was also the prize-winning "Time Traveller," directed and produced by Steve Kenny and Collie McCarthy, in which an Irish Traveller boy builds his own DeLorean to try to fix his family's past.
-->Other treats were the short indie movies, where we saw Snowgum Films's new "Troll Bridge" adaptation of the Terry Pratchett tale, as well as "Goldilocked" (watch out—bears will be bears). There was also the prize-winning "Time Traveller," directed and produced by Steve Kenny and Collie McCarthy, in which an Irish Traveller boy builds his own DeLorean to try to fix his family's past.
What, you haven't seen it yet? Neither have I: My movie
shortlist now includes: Scottish director Peter Strickland's "In Fabric"
and Isao
Takahata's Studio Ghibli movie, "Pom Poco."
Seeing the sights:
It's always a treat to visit Glasgow (where we made a pilgrimage to Alastair
Gray's mural in the Hillhead Subway station before setting off for WorldCon)
and Dublin.
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| A Dunsany original draft, with art by Sidney Sime, "The Distressing Tale of Thangobrind the Jeweller and the Doom That Befel Him |
A highlight was a visit to Dunsany (pronounced Dun-SAY-nee) Castle
in County Meath (site of the wedding scene in "Braveheart"), hosted
by the current Lady Dunsany and scholar-in-residence Martin Andersson. We
learned that Dunsany, a veteran of the Boer War and WWI, was shot in the face
during the 1916 Easter Rising (he lived, luckily for us all).
When visiting the
booming crane-bedecked city of Dublin, beware of rain-slicked manhole covers and
snarling traffic on your way to some excellent restaurants. Yes, there's a lot
of standing in lines at WorldCon, so this is just a taste of what little of the
huge program we experienced. But it's worth it, even if United Airlines loses
your suitcase full of books on the way home.
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