Strolling With The Stars

Helping Jordan Stalk Lou Anders
Photo: Shaun Farrell

Saturday promised to be an epic day for Worldcon. Another writing group member, Harrison Paul,  cruised over from California to join us, bringing our 'Dave Farland's Writer's Death Camp' group to five. Several good panels were lined up for that day and the Hugo award ceremony that night promised to be epic.

So Saturday morning, my buddy Jordan decides he wants to go do the Stroll With The Stars to chat with Lou Anders. I thought it sounded like a lot of fun because Lou is so awesome.

We get to the Walgreens parking lot and hang around with all the Worldcon attendees and about ten minutes later Lou arrives. Jordan and I manage to be the first to chat with him. A little bit later, I got to talk to artist Bill Willingham and Jordan kept talking with Lou.

Bill Willingham's early career saw a lot of work with TSR on AD&D material (which I totally played). Growing up, I spent so much time admiring his work in White Plume Mountain and The Isle of Dread, without ever knowing who he was, that I'm pretty sure I was suppose to name a kid after him. (Sorry Bill!) Most recently he's been working with DC Comics.

Anyway, the stroll begins and I'm enjoying the walk, when I hear Jordan talking to someone behind me. In a couple seconds, I spin around realizing Jordan is talking to Shaun Farrell, the host of one of my favorite podcasts, Adventures In Sci-Fi Publishing!

Author Kay Kenyon and Author/Podcaster Shaun Farrell
Photo: Shaun Farrell

Adventures in Sci-Fi Publishing is one of the best, if not the best, podcast available for the writing craft and industry. Their author interviews are awesome and with the publishing industry changing as much as it has in recent years, it's a great source for news.

We'd hoped to see Shaun Farrell at Worldcon, but didn't have a clue how to meet him. Fortunately, Shaun is just as nice as he sounds on the show. Jordan and I spent the entire stroll monopolizing his time by chatting about his podcast and writing. And to prove he's so awesome, he invited us to be on the show and hang out with him after the Hugos!

The Stroll With The Stars on Saturday was amazing and I wish I'd had more time to go the other days. But if I had, I wouldn't have been able to get in line to sign up for the amazing kaffeeklatches on the other days. If anything, there are so many amazing opportunities at Worldcon that you're forced to pick and choose your favorites. There's simple too much to do. But you can be sure that, with all there is to do, even if you do hit a dud panel, simply walking and talking with the stars can bring you ultra success.

Kaffeeklatsch... God Bless You!

Susan Chang at Tor's Room Party

The first thing Worldcon introduced me to is the Kaffeeklatsch. I know, I know... sounds kinda like a rude explicative, right? But kaffeeklatsch is brought to us from those wacky Germans, who also gave us Schadenfreude, and actually means coffee gossip.

Unlike the Literary Beer where you could share a brew (or any beverage) with the author, editor, artist, or agent of your choice, kaffeclatsch just lets you share a chat--sans any libations. Well... okay... the four editors I sat with were provided beverages by the Worldcon hosts.

While there were so many people we wanted to talk with, the three editors my writing group and I were most interested in meeting were: 

• Susan Chang - Tor Books YA Senior Editor
• Lou Anders - Pyr Editorial Director
• Lee Harris - Angry Robot Editor 

We also had a Literary Beer session (I think he actually had a Coke) with:
David Hartwell - Tor Books Senior Editor 

Three of our group at Worldcon (myself included) are in various stages of completion on YA (Young Adult) novels, so Susan Chang was someone we really wanted to meet. Since she's the only YA editor with Tor, I'm sure she's regularly bombarded with requests and questions. But taking it all in stride, she was very cordial and offered excellent advice for everyone at the table. She let us all give her our pitches and commented on the elements that most interested her. And, hey, she let a Tor fan boy and hopeful Tor author take a photo with her, so you know she's cool!

Lou Anders' energy was undeniable. I'm pretty sure his enthusiasm for the publishing industry could power Rhode Island if not the entire Eastern Seaboard. After hearing him in the Pyr Books presentation, I was dying to meet him and seeing little Pyr logos on the spines of my books. Super nice and very approachable, he also deserves a big, "Congrats!" for winning this years Hugo award for Best Editor, Long Form. Pyr's YA books have awesome covers too!

Lee Harris is a man I would love to work with. A genuinely nice guy who cares about his author's interests, Lee's work at Angry Robot is enough to make any writer sit up and take notice. Although he said they are currently not looking for YA titles, he did say to, "watch this space," giving me hope that one day he'll have one of my submissions on his desk. And when it really comes down to it, my YA may skirt the line a little like Dan Wells.

It would have been great to meet the legendary Tom Doherty and chat more with some of the other editors that came to Worldcon, but time was short and I'm a bit of a chicken. Besides, I'm pretty happy with having talked with the top three power houses I'd ultimately love to work with.