Category:

Conventions

CrossingsCon 2021: We’ve got dates!

by Diane Duane February 4, 2020

A lot of you will know that 2019 was kind of a busy year for me. Unquestionably one of the most fun things to happen during the year was CrossingsCon, the Young Wizards and adjacent-media convention in Canada — specifically, in Montréal, Québec. I had a fabulous time there (which frankly is only to be expected when people go out of their way to throw you a con…), and it left me immediately looking forward to the announcement of the next one.

It’s my great pleasure to tell you that we’ve reached that point in time. CrossingsCon 2021 will be held on August 6-8 of 2021, in Montréal! And the convention will take place in its previous (and extremely hospitable) venue, the DoubleTree by Hilton Montréal. (I have to say I’ve rarely been fonder of a convention hotel: perfectly located and surrounded by places to get good food in all kinds of price ranges.)

I am so looking forward to getting back over there and hanging out with one of the most affable and effective convention committees one could hope to meet… as well as all the other fabulous people, attendees and guests, who’ll be in attendance as well.

Convention registration is now open! All you need to do to get your badge is stop by the CC2021 website’s registration page.

I look forward to seeing as many of you as can make it to Montréal!

February 4, 2020

Appearances Conventions Dublin 2019

DD’s Dublin 2019 / Worldcon Schedule

by Diane Duane August 2, 2019

So here it is, for everybody interested!

Please note that what you see here are only those public events where I’m either part of the program item proper, or expected to be in attendance. I may be present at other programming events (I mean, wow, I really hope so…), but I’m not going to try listing those here because I honestly have no idea what’s going to happen on the day. As some strategist or other would probably have said, “No con attendee’s informal schedule long survives contact with reality…”

And one other issue in passing: I’m delighted to sign things for people outside of autograph sessions or whatever, but please don’t approach me right before a panel or other obligation: save it for afterwards, outside the room. And also: Even after a panel or whatever, please check my schedule to make sure that I don’t have to be on another program item in ten minutes… because if this is the case, I’m going to have to blow you off (in as kindly a way as possible) and concentrate on getting myself to wherever I’m expected next. Thanks in advance for understanding!

THURSDAY 8/15:

12:30 – 13:20: How To Build An Evil Empire, Point Square / Odeon 1

Format: Panel

15 Aug 2019, Thursday 12:30 – 13:20, Odeon 1 (Point Square Dublin)

So you want to build an Evil Empire? Using examples from film and literature, our panel of evil geniuses will help you avoid the pitfalls of previous empires with handy hints and tips, such as: don’t build an exhaust port that can set off a chain reaction leading to the reactor, which will destroy your brand new Death Star.

Diane Duane, Verity Allan (University of Cambridge), Lee Harris (Tor.com Publishing) (M), Steve Jackson, Rebecca Roanhorse

15:00 – 17:50: Writers’ Workshop, CCD / Wicklow Room 5

Please note that this event is not open to non-registered workshop members.

20:00 – 21:50: Opening Ceremonies & 1944 Retro Hugos, CCD / Auditorium

Format: Event

15 Aug 2019, Thursday 20:00 – 21:50, Auditorium (CCD)

Join us on Thursday evening for the official opening of the convention! Hosted by Ellen Klages and Dave Rudden, this evening of surprises will introduce you to our Guests of Honour, present the Big Heart and First Fandom Awards, and pay tribute to science fiction’s illustrious past with the 1944 Retro Hugo Awards. Plus a preview of the many exciting performances that await you over the weekend!

Ellen Klages, Dave Rudden

FRIDAY 8/16:

10:00 – 10:50: Storytelling Workshop: Spencer Hotel / Columba 2

Format: Workshop

16 Aug 2019, Friday 10:00 – 10:50, Columba 2 (Spencer Hotel)

Once upon a time some stories were told; now you can tell them your own way. Join us and Guest of Honor Diane Duane to rewrite some familiar fairy tales with a new twist.

Sal Roche, Diane Duane

14:00 – 14:50: Working As A Writer In Ireland: CCD / Wicklow Hall 2B

Format: Panel

16 Aug 2019, Friday 14:00 – 14:50, Wicklow Hall 2B (CCD)

There is a rich and prolific community of writers who are living and writing in Ireland. In a country that is so friendly to creators, what are some of the benefits available to writers and any obstacles to know about? What resources are available and where does the writing community gather, learn, create, and publish their work locally?

Ian McDonald, Diane Duane, Gareth Hanrahan (M), Jo Zebedee

16:00 – 16:50: Expanding The Storyverse With Tie-In Novels: CCD / Wicklow Hall 2B

Format: Panel

16 Aug 2019, Friday 16:00 – 16:50, Wicklow Hall 2B (CCD)

Media tie-in novels have long been a staple of the wider genre, as eager readers consume books within the Star Wars, Buffy, and superhero universes, and more! Why are these media franchise books so popular? What does it take to write one? Are they just regurgitations of video content, or something more? What should authors looking to write a tie-in novel and readers looking to read one know about this sub-genre?

Diane Duane, Martha Wells (M), Pat Cadigan, D.B. Jackson

SATURDAY 8/17:

10:00 – 10:50: Space Opera Is For Robots, Soap Opera Is For People: CCD / Liffey Hall 2

Format: Panel

17 Aug 2019, Saturday 10:00 – 10:50, Liffey Hall-2 (CCD)

Will humans ever live long-term in space, or is it easier to let our ‘mind children’ go to the stars, whether as uploaded minds or independent intelligences? If humans (or AI) leave for space, would we miss them?

Lauren James (Walker Books) (M) , Diane Duane, Karl Schroeder (Tor Books), Laurence Raphael Brothers

14:00 – 14:50: Meet the GoHs, Ginjer Buchanan and Diane Duane: CCD / Liffey A (Fan Bar)

Format: Reception

17 Aug 2019, Saturday 14:00 – 14:50, Liffey-A (Fan Bar) (CCD)

Join us for an informal gathering with Dublin 2019 Guests of Honour Ginjer Buchanan and Diane Duane. Their featured programme sessions are this afternoon, and this social interval in between gives you a chance to chat with them about about their careers and contributions.

Ginjer Buchanan (Penguin Random House), Diane Duane

15:00 – 15:50: GoH Fireside Chat with John Scalzi: CCD / Liffey Hall 2

Format: Interview

17 Aug 2019, Saturday 15:00 – 15:50, Liffey Hall-2 (CCD)

John Scalzi sits down to talk with Diane Duane about the ups and downs of a life given over to SFF and genre TV and film. Other topics: crossing the streams of fandom and prodom, the cohabitation of art and married life, the intersection of writing and quirky food habits, and possibly the dead rising from the grave, human sacrifice, and dogs and cats living together… Actually, maybe the cats more than the dogs. In fact, a whole lot more.

Diane Duane, John Scalzi

16:00 – 17:00: Autographs, GoHs Ian Donaldson and Diane Duane: CCD / Level 4 Foyer

Format: Autographing

17 Aug 2019, Saturday 16:00 – 17:00, Level 4 Foyer (CCD)

Diane Duane, Ian McDonald

18:00 – 18:50: Reading, GoH Diane Duane: CCD / Liffey Hall 2

Format: Reading

17 Aug 2019, Saturday 18:00 – 18:50, Liffey Hall-2 (CCD)

Diane Duane

20:00 – 20:50: Literary Beer, GoH Diane Duane: CCD / Liffey A (Fan Bar)

Format: Literary Beer

17 Aug 2019, Saturday 20:00 – 20:50, Liffey-A (Fan Bar) (CCD)

Diane Duane

SUNDAY 8/18:

11:00 – 12:30: GoHs And The Books That Influenced Them: CCD / Second Stage (Liffey B)

Format: Panel

18 Aug 2019, Sunday 11:00 – 12:30, Second Stage (Liffey-B) (CCD)

Join many of our Guests of Honour for a discussion about the books that have most influenced them.

Marianna “Kisu” Leikomaa (M), Bill Burns, Mary Burns, Diane Duane, Steve Jackson, Ginjer Buchanan (Penguin Random House), Ian McDonald

13:00 – 13:50: Wands At The Ready: Magical Worldbuilding in SFF: CCD / Wicklow Hall 1

Format: Panel

18 Aug 2019, Sunday 13:00 – 13:50, Wicklow Hall-1 (CCD)

When worldbuilding with magic, is it enough to add magic to our existing social structures, or does some magic alter the way the world works. There are soft magic systems with few rules and hard magic systems with lots of rules, does this affect the ways magic shapes the narrative? Arthur C Clarke said: “Magic is just science we don’t understand yet.” At what point does magic become science?

Christopher Husberg (M), Zen Cho, Diane Duane, Justin Call

15:00 – 15:50: Independent Authors and Book Covers: CCD / Liffey Hall 2

Format: Talk

18 Aug 2019, Sunday 15:00 – 15:50, Liffey Hall-2 (CCD)

Standing out in the crowd is always a challenge even for conventionally-published novels in a busy marketplace. It’s even more of a challenge for an independent author attempting to present competitively and professionally in a field where readers decide to purchase your book (or not) based on a scrap of imagery usually no bigger than a postage stamp. Diane Duane discusses the challenges of adapting novel-cover design to leverage current trends, including examples of hardware / software pairings that have proven useful in creating new, fresh-looking covers on the fly.

Diane Duane, Peter Morwood

20:00 – 22:00: Hugo Awards: CCD / Auditorium

MONDAY 8/19:

11:00 – 11:50: Creative Couples: CCD / Wicklow Hall 1

Format: Panel

19 Aug 2019, Monday 11:00 – 11:50, Wicklow Hall-1 (CCD)

C. L. Moore and Henry Kuttner; Kate Wilhelm and Damon Knight; Kelly Link and Gavin Grant. The histories of science fiction and fantasy are studded with examples of couples who are notable as partnerships as well as individuals. But what is it really like to combine art, work, and life? When, why, and how does a project become a collaboration? In this panel, two creative couples will discuss their experiences.

Heide Goody (Pigeon Park Press) (M), Diane Duane, Ellen Kushner , Peter Morwood, Delia Sherman

13:00 – 13:50: Diane Duane: Tales From The Duck Factory: CCD / Wicklow Hall 1

Format: Talk

19 Aug 2019, Monday 13:00 – 13:50, Wicklow Hall-1 (CCD)

Diane Duane on writing for television animation and the differences in both creating scripts and the demands of the medium compared to live action. Diane lets you in on what she got away with and the shenanigans of her cohorts.

Diane Duane, Mr Keith Byrne (Tantalus ) (M)

15:00 – 16:15: Volunteers Meet The GoHs: CCD / Level 5 Foyer (Green Room)

Format: Reception

19 Aug 2019, Monday 15:00 – 16:15, Level 5 Foyer (Green Room) (CCD)

As the convention winds down, our hard-working volunteers will have the opportunity to meet and chat with Dublin 2019’s Guests of Honour and Featured Artists. You can join them too! All you need to do is to visit Volunteers and offer your services. Volunteering is a great way to meet people (not just the Guests of Honour!), and there is a wide variety of ways to help. If you’re reading this online, send mail to volunteers@dublin2019.com for more information.

16:30 – 17:20: Closing Ceremonies: CCD / Auditorium

Format: Event

19 Aug 2019, Monday 16:30 – 17:20, Auditorium (CCD)

All good things must come to an end – and for Dublin 2019, an Irish Worldcon, that ending will come on Monday at 16:30. We will take a look back at the weekend that was, say farewell to our Guests of Honour, and get a sneak preview of what awaits us at the 2020 Worldcon, CoNZealand.

Mr Eoin Colfer (M)

August 2, 2019

Conventions CrossingsCon 2019

CrossingsCon 2019: it’s this weekend, and I’ll be there!

by Diane Duane June 19, 2019

It’s here at last! The weekend of CrossingsCon 2019. I’m so excited! (Or as excited as you can be while you’re packing.)

The pleasure’s compounded by the fact that this year the convention’s being held in a city I like very much indeed but haven’t spent nearly enough time in — Montreal, Canada. The dates are Friday, June 21 through Sunday, June 23, and the convention hotel’s the Doubletree Hilton; quite a nice place to stay.

Besides the fun of just being there, I look forward to a weekend of cool events and a lot of socializing with Young Wizards fandom — arguably one of the nicest fandoms in the world. (And it’s a near certainty that a certain amount of poutine will be ingested, not to mention the justly-famous smoked meat sandwiches of Schwartz’s Deli. Becausse WOW has it been too long.)

I am really looking forward to seeing everybody. Just a few days more now! … so, Allons-y, mes cousins! See you all over the weekend.

June 19, 2019

Conventions CrossingsCon 2019 Young Wizards

CrossingsCon 2019: I’ll be there!

by Diane Duane April 24, 2018

I am absolutely delighted to announce that I’ve been asked to attend 2019’s CrossingsCon — the third incarnation of the world’s only Young Wizards-based sf/fantasy/media convention — and everything’s come together this year so that I can be there. I’m so excited!

The pleasure’s compounded by the fact that this year the convention will be held in a city I like very much indeed but haven’t spent nearly enough time in — Montreal, Canada. The dates are June 21-23, and the convention hotel is the Doubletree Hilton; quite a nice place to stay.

Over the coming months there’ll be plenty of announcements about the details of what’s going to happen when. You can check for them here or on my Twitter. But for the moment there’s not much to say but Allons-y, mes cousins!— and I’ll see you around the Summer Solstice in 2019.

April 24, 2018

The Dublin Convention Centre and the River Liffey

Conventions Dublin 2019 Europe Ireland

15-19 August, 2019

by Diane Duane August 12, 2017

I’m ridiculously happy to let everybody know that I’ve been chosen to be one of the Guests of Honour at the 2019 World Science Fiction Convention in Dublin, Ireland.

To say that I’m blown away by this—and have been for some months while I sat tight on the news—would be badly understating the case. To be the recipient of an honor that’s been bestowed on some of the people who’ve mattered deeply in my life as an SF fan and a writer is simply mind-boggling. To be asked to fill such a position, not just at a Worldcon based for the very first time in the land of saints and scholars and Nobel laureates for literature, a country known around the world for its love of the written and spoken word, but also on my own home ground… is an Amazing thing. Fantastic, even. …And I’m really enjoying it! So my thanks and gratitude go first to the convention committee, and all the people involved in putting me in this unexpected and extraordinary position.

I’ve participated in a fair number of Worldcons in my time, but even at this end of time it’s obvious to me that (from my point of view anyway) this one’s going to blow them all out of the water. Naturally it’s going to be personally satisfying to take part in the events that routinely come with fulfilling a GoH’s responsibilities. And I seriously look forward to getting to know my fellow Guests of Honour, among whom it’s a privilege to be numbered. But what’s going to make this event most special for me is the opportunity to meet and hang out with the many, many people who’ll come to Dublin for the convention, and who’ll partake along the way of the inimitable, hospitable Irish buzz that I firmly believe will make this Worldcon uniquely memorable for everybody.

People who know me online, or in what we laughably think of as Real Life, will know I’ll have a fair bit more to say about this in the days and weeks to come. In the meantime, though, let me just say Thank you again! And I’m looking forward to seeing as many of you as can possibly make it to Dublin in August of 2019.

Now to start stockpiling my share of those hundreds of thousands of welcomes we keep ready for visitors to Ireland. Let’s see: a hundred thousand per visitor, times… what? Five thousand? Six? More?

I look forward to refining my numbers. 🙂

The Dublin 2019 web page: www.dublin2019.com

Dublin 2019 at Facebook: www.facebook.com/dublin2019

At Twitter: @dublin2019 and #Dublin2019

August 12, 2017

Conventions Europe Ireland

We’re Guests of Honour at Octocon 2016!

by Diane Duane April 29, 2016

It’s way beyond a pleasure to announce that Peter and I will be joint Guests of Honour this October at Octocon 2016, the national Irish science fiction convention. It’s the first Irish con we ever went to. It’ll be so great to be back. And we won’t even have to go through airport security to get there!

…Not much more to add at this point except to say how honored we both are to be asked to serve. Which we’ll do gladly… with an eye to the proper percentage of good-natured rebellion, as befitting the theme and this particular year in Ireland. 🙂

If you can make it: see you there! (And watch this space for further developments at our end.)

Save

April 29, 2016

Conventions Young Wizards

CrossingsCon: I’ll be there! …Remotely.

by Diane Duane April 22, 2016

It’s all spelled out here at the CrossingsCon web page.

Sometimes local work interferes hard enough that it becomes clear there’s just not going to be an escape, no matter how much I’d like to take advantage of the opportunity. June of this year, unfortunately for me, is one of those times. So I can’t attend CrossingsCon physically.

Through the wonders of technology, though, I can be in Newark for a GoH speech and a panel or so and some other events (which the con committee is working on right now). There’ll be more detail on those as we get closer to the dates in question. (Check the sidebar on the right for more details.)

This is going to be a ton of fun… even at 3500 miles’ distance. 🙂

Save

April 22, 2016

Conventions Fantasy and SF TV and film TV in general

We’ll be at Hal-Con 2015 in Halifax, Nova Scotia!

by Diane Duane September 26, 2015

They say that Hal-Con is “the biggest, geekiest SF convention in Atlantic Canada, a sci-fi, fantasy and gaming convention run completely by much-too-dedicated volunteers…”, which makes it a perfect place for us to go.

We’ll be two of many guests (headliners including John DeLancie and John Rhys-Davies, among many other notable actors, artists, writers, comics folks and cosplayers). It’s our first time in Halifax and we’re really looking forward to it.

Besides a fair number of panels and signings, Peter and I will be doing — at least once, maybe twice — the two-hour “Screenwriting 101” microworkshop: a beginners’ guide focusing on how to write a script and what to do with it once you’ve got it. Workshopping is always a high spot for us at an event like this, and we hope it’ll be the same for the attendees.

The convention runs from October 30 to November 1 and will be held at the World Trade & Convention Centre + The Scotia Bank Centre in Halifax.

See you there!

September 26, 2015

books Conventions Film and TV Media Star Trek and other licensed properties Writing

On receiving the IAMTW “Faust” Award

by Diane Duane July 26, 2014

The formal acceptance of the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers’ Grand Master / Lifetime Achievement Award at SDCC 2014:

I want first of all to thank the IAMTW for honoring me with this award. I don’t think of myself as particularly grand, and mastery is a goal I’m usually convinced is a long way off; but it’s nice to be disagreed with so publicly.

I really hate it that I can’t be with you to accept this. But work at the European end of things is keeping me at home, and I’m pretty sure that that incredibly prolific and committed storyteller Frederick Faust, who wrote as Max Brand and under so many other names, would back me up in saying that the work comes first.

In any case: in accepting this let me chiefly thank the readers, fellow writers, and editors who make it so very worthwhile. You’re the ones whose constant support and friendship over many years have proven that the challenge of working in other people’s worlds is far outweighed by the privilege and pleasure of it — and that playing in those extramural universes, as long as you give your all to the storytelling, is just as honorable and fulfilling a way to spend your life as playing in your own. To my fellow pros and the fellow fans in all the worlds where I work, canonically or otherwise, all I can say is: thanks again, and (until I kick the present project out the door) I’ll see you online! (@dduane)

I’ve really been intensely unhappy that I wasn’t going to be able to be in San Diego to speak the above words myself. There’s much to be said for knowing you’ve won an award before the fact — especially that you don’t have to sit there in a roomful of people twitching about what might or might not be about to happen. I’ve done that a couple/few times, and I can’t really recommend it. Scrubbing in on brain surgery has freaked me out far less.

But stress issues aside, there’s also considerable pleasure in merely having this kind of work acknowledged. A lot of professional writers are ambivalent about doing novel work that’s based on films or comics or somebody else’s storytelling in some other medium — often a more visual one, or one positioned higher up on the media totem pole. (Since there’s been an unspoken perception among creatives for a long time now that film beats TV, TV beats music, music beats any print medium, and so on down the line, with new forms of visual media squabbling amongst one another as they try to wriggle themselves into the longer-established peer structure.) There are writers who avoid such work because they feel it’s beneath them, or because other people will assume that they’re only doing it for the money – not that the money’s routinely all that great, if the truth be told. Or else they’re afraid that people won’t take the work (or them) seriously if they do it.

How the newspapers of the time saw the Star Trek revival

I would not be one of those writers. My experience is that if you as the writer treat the work seriously, it will be taken seriously… at least by anyone who takes the time to judge it on its own merits rather than their own preconceptions. (And if someone won’t do that, why would you care what they thought?) As a result I’ve spent a significant portion of my life working hard in other people’s universes, and the only reason I do that is because I feel strongly about what’s come out of them in the past, for good or ill or sometimes both. Routinely, this is not work I get into unless there’s something I really love about the source material.

Star Trek would be the best example of this, of course. I loved it from the moment it turned up on the screen, and I loved it after it fell off the screen into what (up until then) for any other series would’ve been a fairly quick oblivion. But Star Trek had a couple of things going for it that other TV shows hadn’t had until then. It had content that could be syndicated afterwards (for which we have the inimitable Lucille Ball to thank: Desilu, the production company that she ran with her husband Desi Arnaz, invented the concept of syndication.) But more than that, it had a committed, passionate and quick-witted fandom that refused to let it die. They saw — as I saw — something in Star Trek that in terms of its storytelling and its vision was too good to lose. It was that too-often-indefinable thing that makes you want to keep on hearing (or seeing) the stories. This is in its way the purest and most basic of fannish impulses… the gut-deep response to a world you come to love so much that you want to become a part of it, no matter what that looks like, just so long as it keeps going.

In my case it would never have occurred to me in any dream, regardless of its wildness, that the Trek fan fiction I wrote in my late teens was laying the groundwork for other fiction that would eventually plunge me into the media-based fiction world. Or that I’d wind up working right back in the Star Trek universe that I’d loved for so long, and eventually — though much later — in canonical Trek as well. Both sets of circumstances sent me off down kind of a crazy zigzag career path, dizzying sometimes as a switchback road race in the Alps… but the views have been fantastic. On one side, I’ve written for Jean-Luc Picard and Batman and Siegfried the Volsung and Scooby-Doo. On the other, I’ve written novels based on comic characters, novels based on computer games, novels based on RPGs, and most of all, novels based on TV shows — some just being born, some long active, some long defunct. But in all cases they’ve been properties that I’ve been fond of. So maybe if there’s a message here, it’s that for maximum effect — and certainly, maximum satisfaction at your end — you should write about things you love.

That doesn’t mean that while you do it you should lose sight of the economic realities. One very gifted tie-in writer of my acquaintance used to refer to some of his work by sobriquets such as “Conan the Hot Tub”, “Conan The New Roof…” You do your best to make sure you do your work in places that you not only love, but that are going to pay you a decent wage and treat you honorably. Because the work itself is honorable. There is nothing wrong with writing straightforwardly to entertain, and you have (and should never be afraid to claim) the right to take your payment afterwards with a clear conscience and walk away with your head held high.

…Always assuming you’ve done the work as well as you can, and work to do it even better the next time. The writer who incorrectly assumes that because you don’t own all the rights to it, this is work you can take fewer pains with or “phone in”, won’t be doing this kind of work for long… because the readership will smell it on them, and word will get around. If you’re going to take what we refer to around here as the King’s Shilling, then you must stay bought for the duration of your contract, and give it your full attention and effort. Your unwritten contract with your readers, who’ve spent what Robert Heinlein used to call “their beer money” on your words, demands as much. Fortunately, the more you write, the better you get, as a rule… and the Work For Hire does you the favor of honing skills that will later be turned to your own work, all the sharper for the extra use.

Anyway. Lately I haven’t been doing that much work in other people’s worlds: original writing both at the film and prose ends has been keeping me busy. But my tie-in work has been a great joy to me — the source of much fun and many friendships and (last but most certainly not least) even a factor in the events that led me to the man who married me, and who’s sometimes since done tie-in work at my side. (That Star Trek novel that we wrote on our honeymoon? There’s a statement of commitment if you needed one. It’s not like we didn’t have other things to do.) 🙂

So to have that work so acknowledged is a tremendous pleasure, one I accept with thanks.

And it’s not as if there isn’t just one more Trek novel lying around in the back of my head, waiting for other work to get handled so that I can find out who I need to talk to at Pocket Books these days…

July 26, 2014

Conventions Media Star Trek and other licensed properties Writing

Something unusual happens to me at SDCC 2014

by Diane Duane July 24, 2014

…even though I won’t be there. (Work is keeping me home, unfortunately, as well as a medical issue or two. )

This is the locus of interest at SDCC 2014… 🙂

July 24, 2014

Conventions Europe Food Hobbyhorses and General Ranting Travel

If You Knew Fiuggi (or: Deepcon XIII, March 2012)

by Diane Duane June 10, 2011

It’s a pleasure to confirm that we’ll be attending Deepcon XIII in beautiful Fiuggi, Italy, next year. (I see that the news is already out here.)

Dates haven’t yet been finalized, but the convention organizers advise us that the convention will be happening in the second half of March 2012.

And we would not miss it for anything. The unmatchable hospitality of the organizers, the other guests, and the attendees, makes it a gotta-be-there event: intimate and comfortable. And, OMG, the FOOD! Fabulous. It’s such a pleasure to start with to have the chance to sit down twice a day and eat with your fellow con-goers — food at conventions usually being such a hit-and-miss thing. But when the bill of fare includes such superb regional (Lazian) food … well! (Also: any place with a breakfast buffet that includes chocolate cake is okay by me.)

And the hill-town ambience of Fiuggi can’t be beat. (Neither can the hotel’s downstairs spa: Fiuggi is a spa town of considerable vintage.) …Anyway: we had an absolute blast as guests in 2010, and can’t wait to get back there!

June 10, 2011

Conventions Home life

Discworld convention: unhappily, a change of plans

by Diane Duane August 22, 2008

I really hate to have to post this, but due to last-minute developments secondary to a current work commitment, Peter and I will not be able to attend the Discworld Convention in Birmingham this weekend.

We got a sense around midweek that a time-sensitive project I’m working on — one which I’d been attempting to ensure would not need attention this week and weekend — was indeed going to require that very thing. Despite numerous attempts to defuse this problem, over the course of today it became plain that there was no way I would be able to get the necessary work done in time while also on the road / away from home. The phrase “circumstances beyond my control” exactly describes the situation… not that this makes me any happier.

Peter and I have always loved doing the writers’ workshop at DWCon, and it breaks us up that we won’t be able to do it this year. (Additionally, I was really looking forward to my first visit in more than twenty years to the hotel where Peter and I fell in love.) We both want to apologize to the people we were looking forward to working with.

As for the many friends we were seriously looking forward to seeing… guys, we’ll really miss hanging out with you. Have a great weekend, hug Terry for us, and we’ll see you all in a couple of years (or in some cases, next year at the North American Discworld Convention).

Tags: Diane+Duane, Peter+Morwood, Discworld+Convention, Birmingham, cancellation

August 22, 2008

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