Views from Medina Road

Arrived Calgary today, after an uneventful three-hour flight from LA on Air Canada, catching a glimpse of the Rocky Mountains out the left side of the plane before descending to the prairie flatness of the destination city. Rather like Denver, that way. I was embarrassed to discover, during hotel check-in, that the lady I'd sat next to on the flight (and not recognized) was none other than Barbara Hambly... one of the convention's guests of honor. My bad.

Weather is clear, the air a crisp 4 degrees (C), cooler than that by evening. The hotel is big and spacious and generic, with a nice health club on the 18th floor. Room keys are required in the elevators to access floors above the 3rd. Pre-registration check-in was a snap, and came with the usual bag o' books.

The principal event of the day was an invitation-only party held by a Queensland [Australia] Writers Showcase -- i.e. a government sponsored commission promoting Australian sf&f writers. The hosts were Kate Eltham, Director of Clarion South among other things, and Tina Radburn, a Queensland government official who has lived in LA for 12 years. They provided copies of a dozen or so books by Aussie writers -- by Kylie Chan, Kim Wilkins, Marianne de Pierres, Grace Dugan, and others -- and we chatted about how popular writers in the US, UK, and Australia are so divergent, with so little crossover between countries. (In an almost spooky, parallel-universe, fashion.) There was an open bar but the nibbles ran out quickly. I also chatted with Derryl Murphy, Leslie Howle, Justin Ackroyd, Deborah Biancotti, John Picacio and Shaun Tan, Jacob and Rina Weisman, Elspeth Kovar, and others.

Programming is minimal at World Fantasy Cons, with no more than two panel sessions at any one time (plus readings and interviews), but there are a number of interesting items scheduled in the coming three days. I'll try to report on as many of them as I can get to.

Again, per previous post, I apologize for neglecting this blog, for the five or six of you who check on it regularly. I do expect to ramp up in the next few days, reporting from the World Fantasy Con in Calgary. I'm leaving LA first thing in the morning, and will be there through Sunday afternoon. (Since I'll need to check out of my room before the awards banquet on Sunday, I hope I can find a way to post the results before I head to the airport...)

I've updated, just now, my thumbnail gallery of books I've read recently -- 14 additions, over the past couple months. All good books, in one way or another -- well, no, maybe not every single one -- I really do mean to post at least brief reactions to books I read, and I will try to get back into that habit.

Next post: Calgary.

I realize I'm way behind on posting here, but let me recite a litany of excuses: catching up from my vacation cruise; busy-ness at work; problems with installing a new cable modem; a fender-bender parking lot collision, requiring insurance company and repair shop interaction.

However, I'm on the *verge* of updating the awards index, and I've managed to read quite a few books recently, which I should post thumbnails of at right and, more to the point, post at least brief reactions to here in this blog.

Will do so soon. Next trip: World Fantasy in Calgary, at least minimally (Thursday to Sunday).