Tag Archives: Ginjer Buchanan

Dublin 2019 Photos by Rich Lynch – Friday

Posted on by

A cold truth surfaces…

The Dublin Convention Centre is too small for the size of this convention.  By a lot.  Thursday was chaos in the halls leading into the meeting rooms.  Packed solid with people trying to exit rooms where panels had ended and others who were wanting to get into those same rooms for the next round of panels.  Convention Centre staff became the traffic police in a mostly vain attempt to keep everybody moving.

By Friday the chaos had abated by a bit, but there have still been severe people flow problems.  Overnight each floor of the Convention Centre was taped off into queue lanes, one for each meeting room.  It’ll not quite an airport boarding lounge situation but very similar.  And this created addition confusion until, finally, everybody started to figure it all out.  But this system created lots of delays and there are usually lines of people waiting access for some rooms even after the scheduled panel  starting time.

This has resulted in plenty of people with frayed tempers, from what I’ve observed, but no meltdowns.  At least for now but there are still three days to go. 

One other thing I observed— the traffic police are not to be messed with!  More than one person was firmly directed to clear out of some area where queues would be forming.  Don’t think anybody has dared to jump a line after seeing them in action!

Heicon Memories panel

Panel opened with round of applause for Silverberg when he stated that this is his 66th Worldcon.  He has the record, I think.

Suzanne Tompkins, Ginjer Buchanan, Robert Silverberg, and Mary Burns.

Suzanne Tompkins, Ginjer Buchanan, Robert Silverberg, and Mary Burns.

eFanzines Live!

Bill Burns and Geri Sullivan.  Unsurprisingly, most everybody in the room not only knew about the site, they also were frequent visitors.  And many of us even have Fanzines hosted by the site!

Geri Sullivan and Bill Burns

Keith Kato’s Chili Party

…was held in Oscar Wilde’s House.  There was even a docent tour.

Oscar Wilde

It’s Official: 77th Worldcon Will Be in Dublin

Posted on by

For the first time in history of the World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) the convention will take place in Dublin, Ireland.

Today, Dublin was confirmed as the 2019 location by site selection voters at Worldcon 75 in Helsinki. Worldcon 75 reports 1,227 votes were received.

Dublin 2019 will take place at the Convention Centre Dublin from August 15-19, 2019. The Guests of Honour range from writers to scientists and beyond – Bill and Mary Burns, Diane Duane, Ginjer Buchanan, Ian McDonald, Jocelyn Bell Burnell, and Steve Jackson.

Dublin 2019 chair James Bacon said:

The whole team are delighted to be bringing the Worldcon to Ireland for the first time. It’s a huge achievement and we are very proud to be able to welcome thousands of fans to this beautiful country that is steeped in storytelling. We have fantastic guests and we will building an exciting programme covering all aspects of science fiction, fantasy and horror in all media, including prose, comics, art, film, cosplay, science, TV to name a few in what will be a fabulous celebration here in Dublin.

The Worldcon is held in a different city every year and usually has around 5,000 attendees from around the globe.  Some of the highlights of the five day event include the Hugo Awards, the Masquerade and programming that runs all five days with over a thousand items including panels, talks, workshops, films, autograph sessions and more.

About the guests:

  • Bill and Mary Burns (New York):  Avid readers who have attended Worldcon since 1967.  Bill was the recipient of the Doc Weir Award in 2003 and both were Fan Guests of Honour at Eastercon LX.
  • Diane Duane (Wicklow): Diane’s first novel was published in 1979 and have sold more than fifty other novels during her career.  She has won numerous awards and has also written extensively for tv and film.
  • Ginjer Buchanan (New York): Ginjer has over fifty years in fandom and over 30 years as professional editor.  She has been nominated for the Best Editor- Long Form Hugo six times and won in 2014.
  • Ian McDonald (Belfast): Is a writer who has over written over 20 novels and numerous short stories.  In addition he has also worked in programme development in Ireland. He has won awards for his short fiction as well as novels.
  • Jocelyn Bell Burnell (Lurgan Co Armagh): Jocelyn is a Northern Irish astrophysicist who as a postgraduate student discovered the first radio pulsars.
  • Steve Jackson (Texas): Steve is a game designer by trade who owns Steve Jackson Games.  He has received 12 Origin Awards as well as various other honours for game design.

“World Science Fiction Society,” “WSFS,” “World Science Fiction Convention,” “Worldcon,” “NASFiC,” “Hugo Award,” and the distinctive design of the Hugo Award Rocket are service marks of the World Science Fiction Society, an unincorporated literary society.

[Based on a press release.]

2017 Endeavour Award Finalists

Posted on by

Five books written by writers from the Pacific Northwest are finalists for the 19th annual Endeavour Award. The Award comes with an honorarium of $1,000. The winner will be announced November 17 at OryCon in Portland, Oregon.

  • Arabella of Mars by Portland, OR, writer David D. Levine, Tor Books;
  • Dreams of Distant Shores by North Bend, OR, writer Patricia McKillip, Tachyon;
  • Eocene Station by Victoria, BC, writer Dave Duncan, Five Rivers Publishing;
  • Lovecraft Country by Seattle, WA, writer Matt Ruff, Harper; and
  • Waypoint Kangaroo by Portland, OR, writer Curtis Chen, Thomas Dunne Books/St Martin’s Press

The Endeavour Award honors a distinguished science fiction or fantasy book, either a novel or a single-author collection, created by a writer living in the Pacific Northwest. All entries are read and scored by seven readers randomly selected from a panel of preliminary readers. The five highest scoring books then go to three final judges, who are all professional writers or editors from outside of the Pacific Northwest.

The judges for the 2017 Award are.

  • Ginjer Buchanan

In the early 1970s, Ginjer Buchanan moved from Pittsburgh, PA. to New York City where she made her living as a social worker, while doing freelance editorial work. In 1984, she took a job as an editor at Ace Books. She was promoted several times over the years and in 2007, became Editor-in-Chief, Ace/Roc Books. In April of 2014, she retired. She is now enjoying sleeping late, reading a lot, watching an inordinate amount of television, and polishing the Hugo she won at Loncon, for Best Editor–Long Form.

  • John R. Douglas

John R. Douglas was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He moved to the United States and married fellow fan, Ginjer Buchanan in 1975. In 1978, he stumbled into a job in publishing and spent over twenty years working as an editor for four different major mass market publishers. Although he handled Science Fiction and Fantasy for all of them, he also edited mysteries, thrillers and other genre fiction and many kinds of non-fiction. He has been an editorial freelancer since late 1999 continuing to work with words in many different ways.

  • Andy Duncan

Andy Duncan’s stories have been honored with a Nebula Award, a Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award, and three World Fantasy Awards. His third collection, An Agent of Utopia: New and Selected Stories, is upcoming from Small Beer Press. A native of Batesburg, S.C., and an alumnus of Clarion West 1994, he teaches writing at Frostburg State University in Maryland.

Award Eligibility for 2018: To be eligible for next year’s Endeavour Award the book — either a novel or a single-author collection of stories — must be either science fiction or fantasy. The majority of the book must have been written, and the book accepted for publication, while the author was living in the Pacific Northwest (Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Alaska, British Columbia, or the Yukon.)

The deadline to enter books published during 2017 is February 15, 2018. Full information on entering the Award is available on the Endeavour Web site. Click on Entry Form in the left-hand column for a fill-in PDF of the form.

The Endeavour Award is sponsored by Oregon Science Fiction Conventions, Inc. (OSFCI), a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation.

[Thanks to Jim Fiscus for the story.]