WindyCon 35

On Thursday 18 September, Teri Goulding wrote...

Very much hoping finally to get to meet my literary hero, I've bought a flight from England to Chicago, sent in my convention registration form and booked a hotel room for the weekend of the WindyCon convention this November. Is anyone else planning to go to WindyCon 35? I'd love to meet up with any other Urth listers who are going. Nigel

On a related note, does anyone know if Wolfe will be attending any other conventions or otherwise travelling to promote An Evil Guest?

I was thinking of going but could not find a room at the convention hotel. How did you manage to find one? Or did you get one at another hotel? .

brunians at brunians.org asked...

I booked my room at the convention hotel over the Internet just last night. Does this mean that I got more or less the last room available, I wonder? Nigel

It probably means that I screwed up and should check again.... .

Just to let you know that WindyCon have accepted a proposal from Michael Andre-Driussi and I to run a session on "Post-Historic Warfare" in which we intend to discuss the depiction of conflict in the Urth Cycle. More exciting than that is that Gene Wolfe himself has very kindly agreed to take part in this event! Sorry that I don't yet know the date and time for this session. In fact, all details are still "to be confirmed", but it would be great if some of you were to come along and join us. I think it's going to be an interesting time. Nigel

Boy I wish that I could be there....played the Chicago Theater the other night, too bad the events didn't overlap All the best S ------Original Message------ From: Nigel Price Sender: urth-bounces at lists.urth.net To: The Urth Mailing List ReplyTo: The Urth Mailing List Sent: Oct 10, 2008 7:10 PM Subject: (urth) WindyCon 35 Just to let you know that WindyCon have accepted a proposal from Michael Andre-Driussi and I to run a session on "Post-Historic Warfare" in which we intend to discuss the depiction of conflict in the Urth Cycle. More exciting than that is that Gene Wolfe himself has very kindly agreed to take part in this event! Sorry that I don't yet know the date and time for this session. In fact, all details are still "to be confirmed", but it would be great if some of you were to come along and join us. I think it's going to be an interesting time. Nigel

Sounds great; I regret I'm roughly a thousand miles away and an impoverished college student. Any chance of a transcript, video, or podcast? I wish Wolfe traveled more - I'd buy a convention ticket solely to see him. -Matt

I've done that twice. I am considering buying a convention ticket, a train ticket and a hotel room this time. It would not be a sensible thing for me to do right now. .

Well then, I share your folly in spirit. I have nothing even approaching disposable income until I graduate and get a job. Which should be easy in this economy... I've only been to Chicago once. Became friends with a girl from Barrington - then I started reading Wolfe, and found out that my friend shared a town with Wolfe. Heck, I remember the great man even mentioned her high school as "within walking distance" of his house in one interview. I'm not really in touch with her anymore and as far as I know she never read Wolfe. Shame. -Matt, overly nostalgic

Sorry you can't make it. I checked your schedule and it looks like you'll be playing the Warfield Theatre in San Francisco on Saturday 15 November. Shame! I know that there's someone else on this list who would have loved to have gone but who is already committed to visiting Chicago a week after WindyCon finishes. Anyone else, though - come along if you can! Nigel

Keep us posted on when this will be. I'm trying to decide whether to come in on Friday night or late Saturday morning. I wish the schedule at WindyCon were better (or at all) nailed down. Does anybody have any inside information on this? James

James Wynn asked re the session on "Post-Historic Warfare" at WindyCon...

Will do. As you gather, it's not in our hands, though we have requested that it's held on the Saturday. If you're booking your travel arrangements, I should come on Friday night, else you run the risk of missing the session. Nigel

Stephen Case wrote...

You can register for just a day or for the whole three-day convention, but you can't register for just a single session. If you register by mail before Friday, October 24, 2008 it costs $45.00 for adults and children aged 12 or older. If you pay at-the-door when you get there, registration for the whole convention is $55.00. According to the website, one-day registration is available at the following rates: Friday only: $25.00 Saturday only: $45.00 Sunday only: $15.00 Not much of a saving if Saturday is the day when you really want to go! I've no idea when a detailed timetable for the convention will become available. The theme of the convention is "Military SF", which didn't sound very appealing to me, but I've been impressed by the variety of topics listed for programme items on the website. Some of them sound very interesting. One of my unanswered questions is whether Wolfe will be taking part in any of the other panels. Obviously, if he is, I want to go to those sessions! Nigel

Still kicking myself that I didn;t make more of an effort to get up to Seattle... I'll get to one of these things... ???? Mobile — (415) 786-3624 ???? Skype? stuart.hamm myspace.com/stuhamm ? ??? stuarthamm.net --- On Sat, 10/11/08, Nigel Price <nigelaprice at talktalk.net> wrote: From: Nigel Price <nigelaprice at talktalk.net> Subject: (urth) WindyCon 35 To: urth at lists.urth.net Date: Saturday, October 11, 2008, 3:40 AM

Sorry you can't make it. I checked your schedule and it looks like you'll be playing the Warfield Theatre in San Francisco on Saturday 15 November. Shame! I know that there's someone else on this list who would have loved to have gone but who is already committed to visiting Chicago a week after WindyCon finishes. Anyone else, though - come along if you can! Nigel

The WindyCon organisers have now published a detailed programme for the weekend of 14-16 November. The panel with Gene Wolfe, Michael Andre-Driussi and I in which we will be discussing "Post-Historic Warfare" in the Urth cycle is at 12 noon on Saturday. Wolfe is also appearing on the following panel on Friday evening at 4 pm: Child Soldiers — The award-winning Ender's Game, originally published in 1977, changed SF warfare forever. The story of an unwitting child soldier, it takes place in the far future where children make the best soldiers. There are children serving as soldiers today, but is the future really different? How did Ender's world develop and could ours develop that way too? R. Karp, R. Neumeier, J. Ringo, F. Ruiz, G. Wolfe As an aside, and for what it's worth, I'm also on a panel at 10 o'clock on Sunday morning in which we'll be discussing the Miles Vorkosigan stories of Lois McMaster Bujold. Really looking forward to all this! Nigel

Nigel writes:

Damn.

Blast.

Or the past. Children have made excellent soldiers at least since the devlopment of lightweight repeating firearms (say a hundred - hundred fifty years). Sailors too: David Farragut had his first command at age 12. The Amazons were twelve year old girls on ponies with bows and arrows, sabers and spears. The practical alternative to female infanticide.

No Scott Card? God, I'd love to be a fly on the wall at a Card/Wolfe conversation.

Really looking forward to practicing Stoic indifference that whole weekend. I might as well get something out of it.... Say Nigel, just out of curiousity, not totally off the very current subject and since things are a bit boring around here lately, I had a go-round with two locals (one a Welshman) here about Article 9 of the US Constitution (aka the Second Amendment). Mr Jones (not his real name) is unashamedly against people having weapons, which is somewhat bizarre when you consider that he lives in a town where literally everyone except him is armed and has had one murder in the past twenty years. My compatriot was performing the proctoproboscid (proboscoproctexploratory?) exercises that Americans tend to when confronted by someone speaking RP, which was a minor annoyance. I'll chastise him later. Anyway, you're from the Motherland, and so almost certainly well-programmed to fear and loath arms and the armed though you may (as exceptional Englishmen and Welshman and even the occasional Scotsman do occasionally) have deprogrammed yourself to a greater or lesser extent. You're also a Gene Wolfe fan and so at least familiar with the opposing (and correct) viewpoint. What's your take on all that whole matter? .

In reply to Brunians at Brunians.org's previous message in this thread... Sorry that you won't be able to join us in Chicago, Josh. I didn't want to clog things up with my reply to your invitation to discuss the firearms question, so I've replied off list.

Gene Wolfe and Scott Card were both at the Brighton WorldCon ("Conspiracy") I attended back in the 80s. I hadn't read any Wolfe back then and, sadly, didn't get to meet him on that occasion. I did go to a number of panels on which Card was one of the speakers, though. It's perfectly possible that he had Wolfe did meet at that convention, and must have done on various occasions since. Nigel

Are these sessions recorded? Can one obtain a hear? Nutria

I don't think they've happened yet. Checked the WindyCon website - the post-historic warfare panel is at noon on Nov. 15? Post-Historic Warfare — Our panelists take a look at warfare in Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun and tie-ins with Gene's experiences as a soldier in the Korean War and beyond. M. Andre-Driussi, N. Price, G. Wolfe http://www.windycon.org/windy35/Departments/SaturdaySchedule.aspx I too would love to hear / see a recording, if such a thing were possible. -Matt

Nutria asked about the Gene Wolfe sessions at WindyCon:

And Matt replied:

That's right. Wolfe is due to take part in the session on "Child Soldiers" at 4pm on Friday 14 November and then, as noted, in the "Post-Historic Warfare" session at noon on Saturday 15 November. I don't know what arrangements, if any, the convention organisers are making to record or video panels. I'll try and find out. I was planning to take along a mini-disk recorder, though, and make audio recordings of the sessions with a view to putting either transcripts or MP3 recordings up on Ultan's Library. Permissions may be an issue, but I hope that that will be straightforward, at least for the Saturday session. I'll be sure to let you know how it goes! Nigel