a Sherlock Holmes or Hopalong Cassidy and tell his adventures for the rest of your career—and even in mysteries or Westerns, you created your own detective or cowboy, you didn’t swipe someone else’s.
We’re not mysteries or Westerns. We’re science fiction, which gives its writers all time and space to play with. Our galaxy has about one hundred billion stars. We’ve got at least a couple of billion Class G stars, just like our sun, and we’re starting to find out that damned near every star we examine has planets. The possibilities, scientific and fictional, are endless. So why do so many people want only to tell second-hand stories about Kirk and Spock and Picard and Skywalker in a handful of third-hand, shopworn, thoroughly-explored and not-very-logical universes?
When they see something that interests them or impresses them, why don’t they do what Simak did when he read about Asimov’s robots, what van Vogt did with he read about Wylie’s and Stapledon’s supermen, what Gerrold did when he encountered Heinlein’s time paradoxes? Why are the book and magazine slushpiles filled almost to overflowing with thinly-disguised Enterprises and Darth Vaders and the like?
And then it occurred to me. There is one major difference between most of the writers I named, and all of the hopeful ones I’ve been encountering for the past decade or so…and that is that most of the writers I named did not grow up watching television. Television didn’t exist during their formative years, so they grew up reading. They did not watch the same unchanging characters in the same trite, interchangeable plots week in and week out. They did not spend hours every night exposed to uncreative, unthreatening mental pablum that convinces each new generation of couch potato that it is Art. And, uninfluenced by the tube, they kept science fiction lively, creative and innovative.
Conclusion: even our here in the boonies where written science fiction lives, television has a lot to answer for.
Attending Worldcon
Jim Baen’s Universe has come of age. We put a story on the Hugo ballot in our first year, we just put one on the Nebula ballot for our second year. We’ve had a lot of stories get picked up for Best of the Year anthologies. More and more top writers are sending us their best material.
The next step is to win an award one of these years. The Hugo is the most prestigious—and along with voting for the best stories we run, don’t forget that Eric Flint is also eligible for Best Short Fiction Editor.
To nominate and to vote, you must be a member of Worldcon—and if you’re going to pay your dues, you might as well attend science fiction’s biggest celebration of the year. One of the things I’ve gleaned from Baen’s Bar and from a number of private e-mails is that a lot of you have not yet bitten the bullet and attended a Worldcon, so I thought it might not be a bad idea to let you know what’s in store for you, and perhaps encourage you to join and attend.
PARTIES
You’ve probably heard endless tales about all the parties at Worldcon, and indeed, most nights there will be over 50 of them—big ones, little ones, public ones, private ones. There are all kinds of parties—the single events, the pro events, the bid parties, the hospitality suites. You’ll get most of your info from various bulletin boards, and also from the twice-daily (and often thrice-daily) convention newsletter, which will be made available in most public places. Hollywood to the contrary, not all parties feature drugs, nudity, drunken behavior and wild sex, and Worldcon parties are among those that feature none of them. These are just friends visiting with old and new friends who share some of the same interests.
Every group that’s bidding for a future Worldcon will have at least one party, most two, a few every night. These are “open” parties and will be posted/advertised all over the hotels and in the newsletters.
A number of regional conventions will also have open parties to interest you in attending their upcoming cons. Almost any new convention with ambitions of becoming a major feature on the convention calendar will also have an open party to announce its existence.
The winners for the next two years usually have open parties. In fact, next year’s winner traditionally hosts the Hugo Losers Party. Frequently the previous year’s host has an open “thank-you” party.
Then there will be open and semi-open Hospitality Suites, including the Con Suite, which will be run by the host committee and open to all.
There will be a SFWA (Science Fiction Writers of America) Suite. You’ll need a SFWA member to get you in the first time. If you want to return, you can probably pick up a sticker for your badge that will get you in.
There will be an ASFA (American Science Fiction Artists) Suite, usually less crowded and easier to gain entrance to.
There will be pro parties. They’re not exactly open, and not exactly closed. Basically, you’ll need a pro or a well-known fan to get you in, but once inside they won’t have to stay with you or vouch for you:
Tor always has a party.
Baen always has a party.
Eos, DAW, Bantam, and Ace occasionally have parties.
Asimov’s and Analog will have a party, but it usually consists of renting out the SFWA suite and supplying food and drink for the writers for one evening.
Many of the semi-pro and specialty publishers will have open parties. Just check the daily newsletters for time and location (or look at the elevator walls, which are usually plastered with notices of the night’s parties.)
Almost every special interest group will have a party, some private, most open.
A number of fan clubs, computer networks, and the like will have parties. First Fandom, a last-man organization consisting of anyone who can prove he was active in science fiction prior to 1938, often has a party.
Any foreign group with enough attendees from home will throw a party, usually though not always an open one. The Japanese always have one. So do the Australians. Others have them from time to time, including the British, the Slovakians, the Germans, and the Dutch.
There’ll be 15 or 20 rooms where fans have brought their favorite movies or tv shows, legitimate or bootlegs, and will show them to anyone who wants to watch. This won’t be advertised, but just walk up and down the hotel corridors, and when you find an open door, take a peek in—it’s usually a small party or a group watching videos.
And of course, I’m barely scratching the surface. Despite the 15-to-20-track programming and the Hugos and the masquerade and the dealers room and the art show and everything else, 70% of a Worldcon takes place from 10:00 at night until 4:00 or 5:00 in the morning, once you learn your way around.
STANDING EXHIBITS
There will be a number of standing exhibits, open from 10:00 AM until 6:00 PM or thereabouts. Two are huge, most aren’t; the two big ones are easy to find, while most of the others take some looking for.
The Dealers’ Room, a/k/a the Hucksters’ Room. It used to sell only books and magazines, but these days it sells games, CDs, toys, clothes, jewelry, videos, medieval weapons, anything associated with sf. Probably a third of the dealers still sell books and magazines, which is a lot, since there will be about 300 tables and a number of booths.
Autograph sessions—they’ll be announced well in advance—are usually held in or near the hucksters’ room. But those are just the “official” Worldcon autograph sessions. Most of the popular writers will also be signing
