Campbell Conference - Saturday
I had cancelled my plans to attend the Campbell Conference due to health and fatigue. However, Chris McKitterick kindly mentioned that the bookstore had ordered a bunch of my books in preparation for today's booksigning. Like, okay, dangle some bait. So at eight o'clock this morning, I hauled my backside over to Lawrence.
The awards presentations had taken place on Friday, so that was all out of the way. Cory Doctorow won the Campbell for the novel while James Alan Gardner and Ian MacLeod shared the Sturgen for short fiction. The Saturday roundtable, usually one of the highlights of the event, was one of the largest I recall ever, with over 40 people attending. Discussion seemed low-key, focusing on such subjects as "the new space opera," and "the new weird," which honestly strikes me pretty much the same as the old space opera and the old weird, but I tried not to rain on any parades. I did ask someone to define the terms, but all I got was the clever, "Well, it's newer." It might make a good panel sometime, although by next year the "new" will be "old" again. As is usually the case, the discussion veered away from the planned topics to range far and wide. That's actually the way I like it best. I remained mostly quiet, however, trying not to cough my head off and just listen to everybody else. Just when I think I'm over this shit, it comes back again, not as strong, but still annoying.
At lunchtime about twelve of us broke away and headed for an Irish pub called Dempseys for huge cholesterol burgers. Good tasting chow, but I'll have to scrub my arteries for a week. Maintaining some semblance of my current diet, I stuck to iced tea while the others downed beers and Irish whiskies. I'm so proud of myself. Huh.
After lunch - the booksigning. And a very successful booksigning it was, too, which made me glad I went. The Oread Bookstore on the KU campus always does a good job with these signings, and I walked in to find stacks of all three DRAGONKIN volumes, plus a sizable stack of SWORDS AGAINST THE SHADOWLAND. There were considerably fewer of them on the table at the end, and all the copies of volume one got snatched up. Someone also showed up with a copy of ENCHANTER from 1989, which kind of flabbergasted me, and someone else brought a copy of SHADOWDANCE. Naturally, I signed lots of posters for attendees and one large poster for next year's ConQuest auction. Always happy to do that.
After the signing, attendees returned to the meeting room for a short speech by Cory about some marketing innovations he'll be attempting for his upcoming novel, followed by a panel discussion with Cory, Gardner and MacLeod. I'm afraid I left before that really got underway, though, and headed back to Kansas City. I trust the rest of the afternoon and the party this evening will go well. The event continues tomorrow, but I won't be driving back for it.
Indications are that the Campbell Conference is growing. In addition to the large roundtable group, there were perhaps ten or twelve writers at the signing, many of whom I didn't have time to meet. Jim Gunn appears well, and it's always a delight to see Kij Johnson, Chris McKitterick, Nate Williams and Eric Reynolds.
Best,
Robin