On The Funway

The car stayed completely packed until I at last pulled up in front of the Delta tonight, then suddenly it was empty. That's what happens when 10-12 fans are waiting in the lobby to help you unload. A bellhop or two saw the mob and jumped in to help. I think there were only two bellcarts, but there might have been three. Plus various additional bits.

The border crossing was easy-peasy. I got the "Why do you have so much stuff in your car?" question rather than the traditional alcohol or firearms/weapons questions. A minute or two of conversation and I was on my way.

The cops were out en force on the Northway (87). Doing 72 wasn't a problem. Another fan going 80 or a bit faster got nailed.

I'm in the Delta. The first Reno party starts in 17.5 hours, in conference room 532. Whee!

I picked up the NESFA Press chapbook of Jo Walton's poetry from the printer this afternoon. Ooh, shiny. (For uncoated stock values of shiny, that is.) More details and a picture of the cover are in the announcement on the Boskone LJ.

It's a good thing I left most of the Reno party supplies at the NESFA Clubhouse following Arisia. The back of my car is now mostly full of boxes from printers, and I'm going to have an interesting time fitting in the resale art and my exhibit piece for the Geek Corner...oh, yes, and my luggage. Must remember my luggage.

Here comes Boskone!

1) The Anticipation housing bureau went live & public today -- room reservations are now being accepted and several early reports indicate they're fairly easy to make online. There's also a toll-free number people can call to make reservations over the phone and an address for doing it by mail.

English links:

Chart of hotels & prices, with link to online reservations
Map showing hotel locations in relation to the convention center

As with all of the Anticipation webpages, you can easily toggle back and forth between the English and French versions of each page. Or you can go straight to the French hotel rates page.

2) Reno in 2011 submitted our bid filing last night. Whoohoo! It's just one of many steps in bidding for a Worldcon, but it's a telling one and we're glad to know the filing is safely in the hands of Glenn Glazer, Anticipation's Site Selection administrator a comfortable 8 days before the filing deadline of February 7th.

We're the first of the three bids Glenn is expecting to receive filings from -- Seattle and Raleigh will no doubt be filing their paperwork for the 2011 Worldcon and 2010 NASFiC within the coming week. I'm not so sure about npulsifer and his Barrow Point, Alaska 2011 bid, though. It's been awhile since I've heard anything about it, and it hasn't made it onto the bidders list that hazelchaz maintains, even as the hoax it set out to be. The Chernobyl bid page seems to have vanished, but Worldcon Lichtenstein is still there. None of the bids will know for sure everyone else who will be on the ballot until February 7th has passed.

Back in 1994, Ross Pavlac wrote an excellent overview of things to think about when voting for a Worldcon bid. The 2-part article first ran in Voyager, the ConAdian newszine, so the 1997 site selection vote is the one mentioned most. It's now 15 years later, but much of what Ross wrote is as true today as it was then. Recommended.

...it's Reno in 2011!

If you're at either of those conventions, head on down (or up) to the Reno parties. If you're here on LJ, follow the link to the Reno in 2011 community for updates from the Reno bidders there.

Westword, a free weekly paper in the area, has a comic providing "a side-by-side comparison of Denver's two historic August conventions" in their July 31-August 6th issue. It mentions Kent Bloom and Kathy Mar by name, pits Denvention 3's Critter Crunch against the Dem's Green Challenge, shows Michael Chabon accepting the Hugo for "The Yiddish Policemen's Union," and is generally light-hearted and at least modestly funny. It takes a few liberties to make its jokes, but I'm okay with that. My favorite is:

Denvention 3
# of delegates: 5,624
# of journalists: 3

2008 Democratic National Convention
# of delegates: 4,234
# of journalists: 16,000

The comic is on page 2, and takes up 3 of the 4 columns on the page.

Edited to add: It's also online. Many thanks to n6tqs for the link! Kenny Be is the artist and "Worst Possible Scenario" is the name of the ongoing strip.

I picked up a couple of extra copies and will have at least one at the Reno parties.

Coming Soon to a Convention Near You Rennie, the official Reno in 2011 carpetbag created by Brad Foster made his/her/its debut on Memorial Day weekend as TR Renner and Mark Herrup launched the first of many (many!) Reno in 2011 bid parties.

Are you heading to ConRunner, Midwestcon, or ApolloCon this weekend? Reno in 2011 agents will be in England, Ohio, and Texas, listening, talking, and partying with fans. They'll gladly take your money, too. :-)

Look for our UK Agent, Steve Cooper, at ConRunner in Wolverhampton. It's the first non-US convention we'll be at, but it's far from the last! The vote is in Montréal, after all....

On Saturday night, Jim Mann, Laurie Mann, and Ben Yalow are hosting a Reno party at Midwestcon in Cincinnati. Look for flyers announcing the room number, or just ask -- last year, three different people I didn't know each told me where the Montréal and Australia parties were. Nice!

ApolloCon Fan GoH Anne KG Murphy is representing Reno in Houston-- we'll likely post a special report about our activities there sometime on Saturday. Maybe even with a picture or three....

If you're like me and spending the weekend at home, wishing you were at any or all of the above, please take a minute and swing by the Reno in 2011 website for a quick convention fix. We've updated it with links to pictures and mini-reports from Balticon, BayCon, ConQuesT, Marcon, WisCon, and Fourth Street Fantasy Convention. There are a few other new things, too -- where we'll be next, an updated supporter list, agents' names, and such. As always, we'll gladly take your money on the website, too.

Seriously -- many, many thanks for the active, positive support we've received this past month, the first month of the bid. The Reno in 2011 Worldcon bid already has over 160 Supporters, Friends, and Really Close Friends. Your contributions make the parties and other fun surprises possible. I'm looking forward to helping us all have a mountainous good time in Denver.

See you on the Funway!