Category Archives: Worldcon

LSC3 Memorial Day Weekend Membership Sale

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LoneStarCon 3 will offer a discount on all Adult Attending membership purchases made over the Memorial Day weekend.

From Friday, May 24, through Monday, May 27, Adult Attending membership rates will be $200, a $20 saving. Anyone joining or upgrading their membership online will automatically receive this special discount. The offer will also be available to fans buying LoneStarCon 3 memberships in person at ConQuest in Kansas City, MO; Balticon in Hunt Valley, MD; and BayCon in Santa Clara, CA.

The con also reports there are now over 170 confirmed program participants, including David Brin, Ben Bova, Phil and Kaja Foglio, Joe Haldeman, Charlaine Harris, Robin Hobb, Steve Jackson, George R.R. Martin, Elizabeth Moon, John Picacio, Tim Powers, Alastair Reynolds, Robert Silverberg, Howard Tayler, Harry Turtledove, and Gene Wolfe.

The Exhibits Hall plans to feature presentations on Robert E. Howard, the genome of science fiction author Jay Lake, and the Texas-Israeli War of 1999 (based on the award-winning book by Jake Saunders and Howard Waldrop).

The full press release follows the jump.

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2013 Hugo Voter Packet Released

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LoneStarCon 3 has opened the 2013 Hugo Voter Packet to members.

Congratulations to the organizers, who secured submissions from every Hugo and John W. Campbell Award nominee (apart from the Dramatic Presentations), including all nominated works in the written fiction categories.

The packet, whose contents have been made available by publishers and creators so members can familiarize themselves with the award finalists before voting, will remain available to Supporting, Attending, Military and Young Adult members until voting closes on Wednesday, July 31, 2013 at 11:59pm CDT.

You can get started reading immediately if you have your LoneStarCon 3 Hugo PIN and Membership # — or if you don’t there is a utility that will promptly e-mail you a copy. Just head over to the login page.

LoneStarCon 3 Hugo Voting Status Update

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Though no announcement was made, at some point since the release of the Hugo nominations LoneStarCon 3 has started accepting mail ballots.

Online voting continues to be promised “by the end of May 2013.”

Availability of the 2013 final Hugo ballot [PDF file] also went unremarked by the official Hugo Awards website, in contrast to a year ago when it trumpeted Chicon 7’s publication of the form.

Meantime, Steven Staton, LSC3’s IT Division Chair, has made great progress with the Hugo Voter Packet. He opened it for the convention staff to beta-test yesterday, May 15. A few minor problems (like a typo in a URL) were noted and corrected. People reported that even the largest graphical files downloaded in reasonable time.

The test site is currently shut down while corrections are made to keep the links to content from being searchable and accessible by the public. If that doesn’t take too long, LSC3 will make its announced mid-May deadline for getting the Packet out to members.

Krugman’s SF Reading List

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Nobel prizewinner Paul Krugman has posted a list of SF recommended for economists at his “Conscience of a Liberal” blog. “Not surprisingly for anyone who was at Anticipation,” says Morris Keesan, “Krugman is a big Charlie Stross fan.”

I absolutely second (and third, and fourth) Charlie Stross. But Accelerando, although great, isn’t my top pick. He’s incredibly prolific, with the ability to write in multiple sub-genres, but if economics is what you want, you might want to look at the Merchant Princes novels, which are arguably parallel-universe fantasies that are also essays in development economics. (New edition of the MP novels coming out, with some plot snafus fixed). If you want sheer giddy fun, try the Laundry novels, Lovecraft-meets-hackers-meets-pop-references, with tips of the hat to everything from James Bond to Modesty Blaise.

[Thanks to Morris Keesan for the story.]

Flying Finnish

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Cheryl Morgan is on her way to Å-con 6 at the Hotel Adlon, Mariehamn, Åland, Finland, which will be happening May 9-12.

Cheryl is taking advantage of her routing through Helsinski to scout the city’s proposed Worldcon facilities, a timely opportunity with 2015 Worldcon Site Selection voting just opened:

[While] I am here I intend to make use of my time looking for things that prospective Worldcon attendees might be interested in. After all, there may be some of you who haven’t yet made up your minds to vote for Helsinki in 2015. If there are any specific questions that people have, please ask them in comments below. I’ll be visiting the convention site on Monday when we have got back from Åcon so I’ll have time to look around, shoot some video, and ask questions.

This reminded me of Jane’s Fighting Smofs and the visits Scott & Jane Dennis made to potential Worldcon sites years ago.

In case you’re wondering, Mariehamn is 325 km away from Helsinki by road on Finland’s west coast. Here’s what this charming minicon has to say about itself –

Å-con-what?
- all of the programming in English
- a small, fannish, literary, cross-cultural relaxacon
- membership cap at about 100 members
- a gathering of fans mainly from Finland and Sweden
- the most fun you can have in a DMZ (at least until Wårldcon)
- Åcon is pronounced awe-con, (it really is that åsome!)

2015 Worldcon Site Selection Voting Opens

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LoneStarCon 3 is now accepting votes for the sites of the 2015 Worldcon and the 2014 North American Science Fiction Convention (“NASFiC”).

2015 Worldcon:

  • Helsinki, Finland. The bidders propose to hold the con August 6-10, 2015 at the Helsinki Exhibition and Conference Centre and the Holiday Inn Helsinki Exhibition & Convention Centre. Learn more at www.helsinkiin2015.org.
  • Orlando, Florida. The bidders would hold the con from September 2-6, 2015, at Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort and Convention Center. Learn more at www.orlandoin2015.org.
  • Spokane, Washington. The bidders want to hold the con from August 19-23, 2015, using the Spokane Convention Center, the Doubletree Spokane, the Red Lion at the Park, and Red Lion River Inn. Learn more at www.spokanein2015.org.

2014 NASFiC

The NASFiC is held in any year when the Worldcon is hosted outside North America, as it will be next year in London. The NASFiC bids are:

  • Detroit, Michigan. The convention would be held from July 17- 20, 2014, at the Detroit Marriott at the Renaissance Center. Learn more at detroitin2014.org.   .
  • Phoenix, Arizona. The convention would be held July 30-August 3, 2014, at the Tempe Mission Palms Hotel and Conference Center. Learn more at phoenixin2014.org.

For voting details see http://www.lonestarcon3.org/wsfs/wsfs-site.shtml.

The full press release follows the jump.

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Hugo Voting Still Not Open

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LoneStarCon 3 announced this year’s Hugo Awards nominees on March 30 but has yet to open the voting. Is 30 days and counting a long delay or not? How does this performance compare with other recent Worldcons?

The answer: It does not compare very well.

Last year, Chicon 7 announced it was ready to take votes 2 days after the nominees came out – meaning paper ballots. Online voting opened 11 days after, according to publicity.

Renovation (2011) said paper and online voting was open in a press release issued 5 days after the nominee announcement.

Aussiecon 4 (2010) reported voting open 30 days after the nominee announcement.

Anticipation (2009) wasn’t taking votes until the 60th day after.

Denvention 3 (2008) is a little harder to pinpoint because the information came in a progress report the month after the nominees were announced. The interim could have been as short as 9 days and as long as 39, and the true figure presumably lies somewhere in between.

Conclusion: The past two Worldcons got voting opened pretty quickly, and at 30 days LoneStarCon 3 is falling behind the curve.

Worldcon

(Year)

Nominees

Announced

Voting

Available

 

Packet

Available

Chicon 7 (2012)

4/7/2012

4/9/2012

  

5/18/2012

Renovation (2011)

4/24/2011

4/29/2011

  

5/20/2011

Aussiecon 4 (2010)

4/4/2010

5/4/2010?

  

5/4/2010

Anticipation (2009)

3/19/2009

5/19/2009

  

4/22/2009*

Denvention 3 (2008)

3/21/2008

4/2008

 

4/10/2008*

(*) In these years the packet was created by John Scalzi.

Sources for the dates are listed after the jump.

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Girl Genius Thrilled Not To Be On Hugo Ballot

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A recent installment of Girl Genius delivers fresh evidence that Phil and Kaja Foglio like marching to the beat of a different drummer. The pair are ecstatic their comic is not a 2013 Hugo nominee –

“How exactly is this GREAT? We were only supposed to sit out ONE year!”

“Don’t you see? It means we’ve shown them, shown them all! …The Best Graphic Story category is REALLY NEW, and WE won the FIRST THREE! So SOME people said there was no point to the award, since WE’D just keep winning it – which was actually pretty nice of them—“

The Foglios withdrew Girl Genius for 2012 only, but are quite content to promote the health of the new category by leaving the glory to others for another year.

On the other hand, would they be drawing attention to the news in this way unless they were worried the trend might become permanent?

LSC3 Trims Multi-Table Rates for Dealers

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The cowpokes at LoneStarCon 3 hope to round up as many dealers as possible with a cheaper rate for a second table.

Tables in the dealer’s room are now $175 for one (unchanged), and $200 per table (previously $250) for two or more tables (maximum five allowed per dealer). These are 8 ft x 30″ tables.

Prices for 10 ft x 10 ft booths have been reduced from $750 to $500 for the run of the convention.

Dealers can also buy memberships at a special rate – see terms in the full press release after the jump. 

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Nick Pollotta (1954-2013)

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Nick Pollotta

Nick Pollotta

Nick Pollotta died April 13 after a long bout with cancer. The author of 54 published novels, Pollotta was best known for his humorous sf – Illegal Aliens (with Phil Foglio) and Bureau 13. Much of his pro work did not appear under his own name, but under the house names “James Axler” and “Don Pendelton.”

He lived in Chicago with his wife, Melissa.

Years ago, when he resided in North Jersey and in Philadelphia, Pollotta was a force in the Philadelphia in ’86 Worldcon bid. He helped publicize it with a series of comedy tape recordings about Phil A. Delphia, fannish Secret Agent 86, played at conventions around the country.

Indeed, he had recently created a series of YouTube videos from the old sketches, adding images to the scratchy soundtracks.

Pollotta was a guest of honor at Capclave in 2004 and Capricon 26 in 2006.

[Thanks to Michael Brian Bentley for the story.]