From: Robertson, Brendan <Brendan.Robertson@d...>
Date: Tue, 7 Sep 1999 17:10:29 +1000
Subject: [OT] World Sci Fi Con comments (longish)
Last Friday, I went to the World Science Fiction Convention (Aussiecon 3), mainly to attend a lecture done by JMS (Bab5). Hopefully this is of interest to most of you. There was a good range of subjects available in various fields. Guests & lecturers included: JMS, Terry Pratchett (nice guy!), Paul Kidd, several of the writers who co-write with Anne McCaffrey (can't remember their names), Robert Jordan (not real name!). I don't have my programme with me, but there was a good turnout of writers. The first lecture was about good research when writing sci-fi books & how readers will always pick up on any scientific details you get wrong. Good info, but I can't remember who was actually presenting (several scifi authors & editors of various anthology magazines.) The second lecture I attended (mainly due to lack of sleep the night before), was held by Paul Kidd &??? (Editor who packaged Wing Commander books, Battletech books & Shadowrun books; also wrote some early Grayhawk AD&D material). It was on the subject of turning games into books & vice versa. Interesting stuff. We got pointers on how some games don't make a good book & also how many books can be spoilt by the editors who don't want their franchise upset by creative writing (and how certain companies edit books by committee...). The big news we found was that the Grayhawk game world was being redone, but apparently the Horde from the north had wiped out 50% of the civilian population and the writers had a blank map to populate (to avoid paying royalties to the original module writers from 20 years ago). Paul Kidd has 4 books being released before Christmas & a Grayhawk book in September next year (he's a good writer, and veteran gamer, so keep an eye out for them). I wandered around the site after this to check out the displays & traders hall. There was an art gallery display, which included some 1-2' models of various 'Trek ships carved from scrap timber out of the artists' backyard in Sydney (Australia). Very well done, including having the paintwork etched into the surface. The traders hall was about on par with most roleplaying/wargaming conventions, with a strong presence from the second hand & new book traders. After lunch (reasonable prices, due to a regular restaurant in the convention centre), I attended the lecture with JMS on the story arc of Londo Mollari. It didn't stay on track very long, as the presenters got upstaged by the audience, in a good natured discussion. After some comments, JMS asked who had not seen Sleeping in Light. Every non-american in the audience put their hand up (It's being shown here in OZ at 12.10 am on Wednesday night). He then arranged for a screening to take place strait after the lecture, but unfortunately, the auditorium had already been booked for a television launch. The organisers planned a screening for the Saturday, but I was unable to attend for various reasons (these things are expensive to attend!) Various discussions took place including a 12 minute story from JMS about his revenge on J'Kar, Londo & Garibaldi, after they arranged a previous con audience to NOT applaud or laugh at his presentation. Some of you may have heard of it, but I can't remember all the details, suffice to say the audience cracked it. We did get a few details about B5:Crusade, mostly about who JMS was & wasn't able to include in the story arc. Apparently he wanted to include Londo, Delenn & J'Kar, but was unable to for some reason (unknown). Lyta Alexander was not included in the series for obvious reasons (rangers find Lyta, vorlon knowledge cures plague type stuff, very short story arc if this happened). There were a few questions about (I think, from memory) the Telepath war & whether it would be shot as a series. There was no specific comment about this, but he did say it was being dealt with in the novel series being released currently. I then went and watched some Manga presented by the local Manga society (boy these guys get around, they're at nearly every Melbourne con I've been to this year), Ranma 1/2 part 5 & 6 for those who want the details. I dropped in on the TV presentation after that. It was for an x-file style show, which had actually been shot about 3 years before X-files started, the main interest was it is an Australian production. Unfortunately I didn't catch whether it would actually go mainstream at any point. There was then a long dinner break with not much happening. Most convention goers then headed off to the various parties, but I took a trip home before returning for a late session about Vampire mythology & writing. There were some discussions about books I hope this proved interesting to a few people. Sorry for the lack of details, but I can be shocking when it comes to specifics at these sort of events.