[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.

Brendan
'Neath Southern Skies - http://users.mcmedia.com.au/~denian/