WorldCon (LACon IV): Day Four

Slow morning... I rolled into the convention center well after 10AM. Most of the panels had already begun so I decided to surf. I did notice that there were a lot less people wandering about, and the panel rooms were not as filled as they were over the past few days. I suppose a lot of folks were sleeping off the Friday parties, and trying to save a bit for the Hugo Awards tonight.

Going up the escalator this morning I passed Robert Picardo (Voyager and Stargate SG-1). I don’t know if he was here for a signing, appearance, or what, but he seemed much more awake than I.

I first poked my head into MISTAKES WRITERS MAKE with Beth Meacham, Jack McDevitt, Jean-Noel Bassior, Mary A. Turzillo, and Jaime Levine. It was the standard faire of what not to do -- nothing you haven’t heard already, so I bailed and stopped into WHY AM I SO WILD ABOUT SF & FANTASY with James Patrick Kelly, Eric M. Van, John Barnes, John F. Hertz, and Stephen Leigh. Well moderated, but it was mostly personal stories, and not necessarily relevant for what’s attracting new converts today. Some of the things that attracted the panelists to reading SFF were Ray Bradbury, comics, book cover art, and the active space race in the 1960s. John Barnes said that he was turned off by the works of Heinlein and Clark as a youngster, and it was the New Wave movement and, more specifically, Dangerous Visions that turned him into a genre fan. I guess to each his own.

Next was SMALL PRESS PUBLISHING with Cecilia Tan, Nat Gertler, Alan Rodgers, Michael J. Walsh, and Vera Nazarian. I found out that Borders toyed with the idea of putting POD machines in all its stores. The idea was you could order any book, get a latte, and by the time the barrista frothed the milk, your book would be ready. The panelists didn’t mention why the idea was dropped, but I have a feeling that it’s something we’ll see soon regardless. Michael J. Walsh said, “For a small press, mass market paperbacks are the road to the mad house.” Trade paperback prices have been dropping while mass market manufacturing costs rise. It’s better for a small press to go with trade. Nice advice. They also gave a little talk about returns and gave two gross examples. Vanna White’s Vanna Speaks only sold 1% of its print run. That’s right folks -- 99% return rate. Jason Blair’s book only sold 10,000 of its 100,000 book run.

The LOST panel with writers and producers of the show was cancelled, so I went and had lunch.

At 1PM it was HARLAN ELLISON TELLS US. I’ve never attended one of Harlan’s talks, but wow! He definitely is an equal opportunity offender. The man is funny, brilliant, and not for the faint of heart. He told us all about the time he mailed a dead gopher to his publisher in New York. Unbelievable! At least he paper clipped a recommended recipe to the dead animal’s chest.

The 2:30 panel was my favorite of the day. It was entitled RUNNING TV SHOWS with Michael Cassutt (The Twilight Zone, Farscape, and The Dead Zone), Tim Minear (Angel and Firefly), Gillian Horvath (Highlander), and Rockne S. O'Bannon (Farscape). This was all about the job of Showrunner, loosely defined as everyone’s boss, only answering to the studio and the network. It’s best to think of the position like the director of a feature film. Michael noted that it is a difficult job -- the place all the blame gets directed if there’s a problem, or if the show flops. All mentioned that the position is challenging and time consuming, making family life difficult at times. One other tidbit of note regarded the writing team. In the early days of just about any TV show, the Showrunner will try out different writers to see who can speak the “voice” of the show. This is why many shows end up with different writers three or four seasons in.

At 4PM it was TRAILER PARK. I half-expected to be drinking Pabst and watching wrestling, but it was all about movie previews. Out of all that they ran for us, I enjoyed Dean Devlin’s Flyboys. It’s a historical drama set in World War I. The biggest applause was for the Transformers trailer followed by Spiderman 3 in close second. I was surprised at all the boos after the 007 Casino Royale trailer. I’m not planning on seeing it anyway.

That’s all for today. I included a few more pictures and will post my day five update tomorrow night.