Views from Medina Road

No, I am not at this year's Worldcon in Montreal, I am sorry to report; I'm missing Worldcon for only the second time in 20 years (the other time being two years ago in Japan); the economy has affected Locus Online's discretionary budget for convention trips, leaving only the upcoming World Fantasy Con as a potential con attendance for this year. (Needless to say, there is no corporate (Locus) travel account for business trips, at least not for electronic editors-in-chief; advertising revenue from the site is down some 50% from last year; and day-job income has been cut via furlough days, never mind annual merit raises.) I'd looked forward to Montreal, a city I've never visited, but it has not worked out. Maybe someday.

I've used some extra time this past week to catch up on posts to the website, and to work those continual background projects I keep alluding to and which I promise will see the light of Google searches real soon now.

I understand that a wake for Charles N. Brown was held earlier today, Saturday, at the convention, and presumably a report and photos from that will appear in Locus Magazine. Various awards results have been announced at the convention, I've seen from other websites, and I've posted breaking news links on the homepage since the Locus editors now responsible for the site's News blog are preoccupied at the con.

I see that the motion to eliminate the Semiprozine category failed -- though I also saw a post somewhere (I've lost the link) that said a motion passed to re-examine the definition of the category (to specify that no one makes a primary income from the publication) in such away that might well make Locus Magazine ineligible anyway. As a recipient of a Hugo in a category that was eliminated for whatever reason, I sympathize. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.