On The Funway

...is about to begin. For those following along from home:

The Finalists.

CoverItLive text coverage.

UStream live feed.

Twitter #HugoAwards and #Hugos (and probably more)

David Tennant is reportedly among the finalists in the hall.

I watched the Retro-Hugo Awards ceremony. The livecast was plagued with technical difficulties -- no sound for most of an hour, then super-muddy, underwater sound. I trust those in the audience heard things more clearly than those following along at home.

It's hard. Watching anything from the Worldcon has helped ease the frustration of not being there for years now. Yet live video coverage of the Hugos (and now, the Retro-Hugos) has been problematic often enough that it's now hard to remember those times it worked. And if it's not going to work after repeated attempts over a period of years, it doesn't actually matter whether or not it's a different problem each time. I don't want Worldcons to stop trying, but that might well be the wise thing to do.

Other quick highlights: yesterday's In praise of science fiction fandom in the Guardian. Including links to Jo Walton's Among Others and Making Light. Sweet.

Loncon 3 is continuing to update their live demographics page. Current total membership count there: 10,336. That includes 7,435 whose memberships and admissions include being present on site. Not all of us are, of course. But most....

Note: I don't know whether the demographics page includes memberships being bought at-the-door. It might, or it might just reflect online purchases at this point.

Numbers aren't everything, especially when it comes to what makes for a good convention. (Though making one's numbers in terms of the budget is vital to a convention's ongoing good health.) But that doesn't stop this information junkie from looking at numbers as well as an abundance of other data about any given convention I'm interested in. And goshwowboyoboy, am I interested in this year's Worldcon.

Loncon 3 has the bestest demographics page ever. It's updated in real time, showing membership and admissions by category and by country. There's also a "Memberships Over Time" chart with monthly totals making it easy to track the growth from the 1,825 members it had after it became a seated Worldcon at Chicon 7.

I've been checking in on the page every so often, right up until the end of July when the total membership was 9,479 (including a throughly-croggling 2,893 supporting members). Now I'm checking it several times a day, watching as it becomes more and more likely that total membership will top 10,000 before the Worldcon opens on Thursday. If not before, that day for sure, but before seems the most likely outcome at this point. Since August 1st, Loncon 3 has sold 134 attending memberships and 255 day admissions and hall passes. (Two of those attending memberships are upgrades from supporting, which just goes to show how much of a data geek I can be.)

In other numbers-driving Loncon 3 news, the convention received a record-breaking 3,587 valid ballots for the Hugo Awards. This is 71% higher than the previous record of 2,100 ballots set at Renovation in 2011. The percentage of eligible voters looks to be up a bit from Renovation; compared to total membership numbers, 34% of Renovation's members voted. At Loncon 3, at the end of July it was 38%. There's arm-waving to go with these numbers; it's nearly 41% of Loncon 3's eligible voters but I can't determine how many of Renovation's total members were eligible to vote. (Day admissions don't have voting rights nor do any memberships sold after Hugo voting closes in terms of Hugo participation.)

There were 1,307 valid ballots for the Retro Hugos.

Loncon 3 plans to stream both the Hugo and Retro Hugo Awards ceremonies live on Ustream. The Hugo cermony will also have text-based coverage via CoverItLive on the Hugo Awards website.

Seeing as my lottery tickets came up zip for zip, I plan to watch both ceremonies online Thursday and Sunday nights while also read the CoverItLive text come Sunday. It's far from the first Worldcon I've enjoyed from a distance and it's unlikely to be my last. But it certainly looks like it will be the largest.

I hope everyone already in London and those traveling there in the days ahead have a splendid time! I look forward to your posts, tweets, pictures, and more.

Info taken from the LoneStarCon 3 website

2013 Hugo Award Winners

LoneStarCon 3 is delighted to announce the 2013 Hugo Award and John W. Campbell Award Winners. 1848 valid ballots were received and counted in the final ballot. A PDF is available with the full statistics for the nominating and final ballots.

Best Novel: Redshirts: A Novel with Three Codas by John Scalzi (Tor)

Best Novella: "The Emperor's Soul" by Brandon Sanderson (Tachyon Publications)

Best Novelette: "The Girl-Thing Who Went Out for Sushi" by Pat Cadigan (Edge of Infinity, Solaris)

Best Short Story: "Mono no aware" by Ken Liu (The Future is Japanese, VIZ Media LLC)

Best Related Work: Writing Excuses, Season 7 by Brandon Sanderson, Dan Wells, Mary Robinette Kowal, Howard Tayler, and Jordan Sanderson

Best Graphic Story: Saga, Volume 1 written by Brian K. Vaughn, illustrated by Fiona Staples (Image Comics)

Best Dramatic Presentation (Long Form): The Avengers Screenplay & Directed by Joss Whedon (Marvel Studios, Disney, Paramount)

Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form): Game of Thrones: "Blackwater" Written by George R.R. Martin, Directed by Neil Marshall. Created by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss (HBO)

Best Editor - Short Form: Stanley Schmidt

Best Editor - Long Form: Patrick Nielsen Hayden

Best Professional Artist: John Picacio

Best Semiprozine: Clarkesworld edited by Neil Clarke, Jason Heller, Sean Wallace, and Kate Baker

Best Fanzine: SF Signal edited by John DeNardo, JP Frantz, and Patrick Hester

Best Fancast: SF Squeecast, Elizabeth Bear, Paul Cornell, Seanan McGuire, Lynne M. Thomas, Catherynne M. Valente (Presenters), and David McHone-Chase (Technical Producer)

Best Fan Writer: Tansy Rayner Roberts

Best Fan Artist: Galen Dara

The John W. Campbell Award for the best new professional science fiction or fantasy writer of 2011 or 2012, sponsored by Dell Magazines (not a Hugo Award): Mur Lafferty

And, whee!, the full statistics (in pdf form) went online immediately at the end of the ceremony.

The results are unofficial, but I've now had confirmation from multiple reliable sources (and seen the public Facebook pages):

Detroit will host the 2014 NASFiC. Congratulations to the entire bid team! I'll be there.

Spokane will host the 2015 Worldcon. kevin_standlee tweeted "Spokane wins on 3rd ballot with 645 votes over Helsinki's 610, after Orlando eliminated" and "Helsinki led 1st 2 rounds of #Worldcon site selection, but most of Orlando votes shifted to Spokane on final round."

Guests of Honor and other details about both conventions will be announced at the Sunday Site Selection Results Business Meeting.

Update #1: Bid websites: Detroit and Spokane. Convention websites will presumably launch during or after the Business Meeting.

Update #2: Kevin tweeted "Detroit wins 2014 #NASFiC 231-210 over Phoenix." Sunday's Business meeting is at 10am CDT.

Your trip may be short, it may be long, or maybe it's somewhere in between. Whatever it's length, may it bring you safely to the Worldcon's door, and carry you back home, sweet home with nothing about the journey itself worth mentioning in your convention report.

Of course, all of our journeys are short compared to our last 50 years of space travel.

With a tip o'the link hat to Bruce Townley.

Chicon 7 membership rates increase on April 1st. Buy yours today or tomorrow for the best price!

Much coolness to be had there, including (personally) my 30th faniversary. Yes, there will be a party. How could there not?

On Tuesday, Renovation Special Guest Bill Willingham tweeted:

"I can see at #RenoSF there are going to be more panels I want to attend than I can attend. I love this! Panels about actual stuff!"

It sounds like all is off to a good start. debgeisler called last night and let me know the souvenir book looks great. Whew. It's no surprise given how happy we are with Registered Ink, the book's printer, but it's always a relief to have knowledgable eyes on the real thing.

I hope everyone in Reno for the Worldcon has a fabulous time! I look forward to following along from home as time and energy permit, and to hearing all about it whenever that works.

SFContario is giving me the profound pleasure of being FanGoH at their debut convention in Toronto next weekend. I've been hoping to do some sort of fun hospitality event there, and the "what" finally popped into my head this week. Thanks to the enthusiastic buy-in from a bunch of great folks, we're having an All Worldcons, All the Time Bheer Tasting on Saturday night. Tasting begins at 10 pm.

So far, the hosts include:

Upcoming Worldcons:
-- Renovation
-- Chicon 7

Worldcon Bids:
-- Minneapolis in '73
-- Texas in 2013
-- KC in 2016
-- New Zealand in 2020
-- Minneapolis in 2073

Past Worldcons:
-- Discon I (1963)
-- Discon II (1974)
-- MagiCon (1992)
-- Bucconeer (1998)
-- Nippon 2007

...and the Time Travel Worldcon, of course.*

If you'll be at SFContario, please do stop by. If you won't be there this year, watch the skies and mark your calendar for 2011. You never know; the party just might be the first in a new series, just like the convention is.

I have invitations out to other bids I've been able to track down -- anybody have an address for Zagreb? It looks pretty clear that we'll have additional hosts from additional bids and past Worldcons. I'll name names and add links once I have their final confirmations.

While contributions to the cause are always welcome, we don't need $$$ at this point -- the currently seated Worldcons -- Renovation and Chicon 7 -- are covering that nicely. Folks can also bid on the 35-year-old can of Schlitz autographed by Tucker in 1975 that we'll be auctioning off at the party. It's the winner's option whether or not to open it. :-) Any tasting will be on a volunteer basis only. (In its defense, it was refrigerated for the first 34.5 of those years. OTOH, it's still Schlitz, and it's still 35 years old.)

To be an additional host, I need an okay from a credible source for the specific bid/Worldcon, and a logo or the official name to include on the party poster. 1-2 bottles of bheer from the specific city or country are also welcome (but not required), as are additional collateral and decorations. If a representative will be at SFContario, we'll gladly put them to work with set-up, hosting, and teardown.

We'll be tasting both alcoholic and non-alcoholic bheers. I expect the latter selection to include birch bheer, root bheer, and ginger bheer as well as an NA bheer or two. As for the the range of the alcoholic brews, we'll take pictures.

If you represent and/or have the authority to speak for any Worldcon bids or past Worldcons not listed above, and you want to join in, please respond here or send email to me no later than Sunday evening. *This* Sunday evening. Let's say 9pm U.S. Eastern Standard Time. If you see this message after that and still want to participate, drop me a note. If we haven't printed the party flyers, we'll squeeze you onto the flyer if we can. In any case, we can add you to the list in the SFContario newsletter and at the party itself.

I'm especially hoping L.A. con III and Interaction join in -- I just found party decor from both of these Worldcons in my basement fan room, and I'd love the opportunity to put it to use again! (It's scary: I wasn't even *at* Interaction.)

I extend many, many thanks to Renovation, Chicon 7, and SFContario for helping this particular crazed idea of mine happen. It's far from the first I've had and I trust it won't be the last, either.

See you on the Funway.

* (See pages 81-82; search Time Travel on the page to get there quickly.)

The Purple Parrot 24-hour coffee shop in the Atlantis serves breakfast 24 hours a day, which I'm always happy to see. (I tend to have a convoluted sleep schedule and rarely seek breakfast at anything resembling traditional breakfast times.) Near midnight Thursday, I was more interested in dinner, and was pleased to discover that their late-night offerings weren't limited. The fried chicken was fresh, crispy, moist, and tasty. The service was good, too.

My previous experience with casino hotel buffets in downtown Las Vegas left me with low expectations at Toucan Charlie's Buffet and Grill when we went there for breakfast Friday. I was expecting something along the lines of an Old Country Buffet. Toucan Charlie's is several steps above that. It wasn't the best breakfast buffet I've ever had -- the $35 place in Honolulu still holds that record. Toucan Charlie's is certainly the best breakfast buffet I've had at its $12 price point. There were Mexican, Southern, and Chinese breakfast stations as well as fresh omelets, fresh pancakes, and standard hotel breakfast buffet items. The pastry and dessert counter was memorably tastier than the equivalent offerings at the $35 brunch buffet in Hawaii. Yum. The designer in me appreciated the dishes, the decor, and the fact that the sound system complemented our breakfast conversation rather than competing with it.

Rick Lindsay took me up to Virginia City and around Lake Tahoe. Wow. I'll enjoy wandering the streets, saloons, and mines of Virginia City when the opportunity next presents itself. I knew I was going to like Tahoe. I was surprised by how nearby it actually is, and, yes, it's glorious.

More later....