World Fantasy Convention 2007

Although the convention haspassed last week, I've yet to catch up on my various duties. But instead of discussing delayed tasks, I'll go on about WFC. It was a great convention, filled with something to do every free moment. I had a chance to meet many people again, and many I've only known electronically.

The panels were numerous and varied. I could only attend a few, but I enjoyed each of them. And those that I did attend were quite interesting. There were three surprises at the convention.

First, Wilum Pugmire was there. As he lives in California, I had not expected him to be prowling the halls. I hadn't seen him since HWA in SF, so it was a delight. I'm still trying to find out what he's writing in that journal.

Next, Nick Mamatas, who popped up out of the blue at the Friday night signing. He passed along a vast amount of information, and then we continued to sail past each other for the remainder of the convention. He and two friends of his did get a ride from our hotel to the convention.

And while at the Weird Tales party, I had a chance to speak with Michael Shea and his wife. I hadn't seen Michael since WHC in SF either, and we had quite a bit to catch up on. The Weird Tales party was splendid, but stay away from the Amontilldo.

The list of people I met is too numerous to recount, so I'll just give it a shot. Apologies to anyone I've missed: Gord Rollo, Gary Frank, Nate Kenyon, Paula Guran, John Goodrich, John C. Hay, Bruce Dennison, Chris Cevasco (editor of Paradox magazine), Darrell Schweitzer, Steve and Becky Gilberts (and I'm the owner of another one of Steve's original paintings -- the Strange Cases cover), Alan M. Clark, Jill Bauman, and many others.

I'll let some of the pictures explain. First is the Lovecraft panel. Moving from right to left we have Tim Powers, F. Paul Wilson, Scott Connors, William Jones, and S.T. Joshi. For being a lunch time panel, it had a strong attendance. It does seem Lovecraft is alive and well.


I fear most of the photographs I have are blurry -- something to do with EMF radiation at these conventions. :)

The next photograph is during the Friday night signing (I'm hidden behind the gathering on the left). Starting from the right with the female is Linda Donahue -- one of the contributors to High Seas Cthulhu, and a very peppy person. Next, with his back turned is Howard Andrew Jones, and John O'Neill of Black Gate magazine. Very friendly lads, and they have a great magazine. Actually Chris (Paradox) introduced me to Howard Andrew Jones (Black Gate) earlier, and then they just continued to run into each other after that. And while I saw no Horrors Beyond limited edition hardcovers at the signing, I was stopped by a bookseller the next day with a copy to sign.


The image below is of Alan Dean Foster (another contributor to High Seas Cthulhu) at the other end of the table (again, I'm nowhere to be seen). :)


One event that I did attend, but was canceled was Alan Dean Foster's reading. He'd gone a day without sleep, arriving at the convention several minutes into his reading. I did give him a lift to his hotel (mine as well) to get his manuscript, but by the time we had returned, the reading was over.

As for the convention overall, the door bags were great. They were large nylon bags filled with books, Saratoga Spring water (a bottle), and cookies. The food each night was great, and the energy level of the convention seemed to grow with each day. Like most conventions, there is too much to see and do and little time to do it.