I’m back home again from World Fantasy Con and a week in New York City.

There’s a hundred things to talk about, and I haven’t posted for a long time, so I’m going to break this up into a number of subject-specific posts. Should make it easier for commenting.

WFC first. It’s been a few years since I’ve attended World Fantasy, and I’d forgotten how good they can be. This year’s was the biggest WFC ever held (mind you, that still makes it only about a fifth the size of worldcon, which is turn is almost nothing compared to something like the San Diego Comicon), and one of the best. Saratoga seems to be a lovely city, though I didn’t get to see as much of it as I might have liked. There was a huge turnouts of writers, editors, artists, and publishers. I got to hang around with old friends and make new ones. It was great to spend some time with Lisa Tuttle and sit down with Gardner Dozois again and talk about our anthology projects, but I also got the chance to meet some fellow fantasists I had never met before, including Steven Erikson, Scott Lynch, and David Anthony Durham. As usual, the Brotherhood Without Banners threw the best parties at the con. (Jetboy Lives!) I enjoyed the awards banquet as well, even though the prime rib was grey and tasted as if it had been boiled. Gene Wolfe won the award for best novel, Ellen Asher got some much deserved recognition for her decades of editorial service at the Science Fiction Book Club, and toastmaster Guy Gavriel Kay gave a moving tribute to Robert Jordan, speaking eloquently about his importance to the field.

And when I read the prologue of A DANCE WITH DRAGONS, I liked it a lot better than the earlier version I read at a couple cons last summer.

All in all, a terrific con. It almost — but not quite — makes up for me missing Japan.

Next year’s World Fantasy Con will be in Calgary, in Canada. I had so much fun at this year’s WFC that Parris and I are adding that one to our schedule. See you there!

(Must also mention that the train ride from Saratoga to New York City is not to be missed. The rails run right along the Hudson, and the river in its fall foliage was gorgeous).

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