World Fantasy Convention 2009

[furtech]

I needed to make a trip up to SJ to take care of some business and Gordon suggested this weekend: he had an extra membership to the World Fantasy Con. WFC is not like your typical sf convention: it's very sercon (serious and constructive). More like a writer's convention than a fan-con: there is a small art show, no masquerade (or anyone in costume for that matter) and the dealer's room is about 80% books. The con is almost all about panels and discussions.

A cool effect of the literate crowd is that the conversations are almost always intriguing: in the bar/lounge last night Gordon spotted (in various small groups) Greg Bear, Peter Straub, Richard Lupoff, Elizabeth A. Lynn among many others. Here's a complete guest list (fan and pro) Regardless of the individuals, you could just sit and hear conversations all over the lounge that were interesting. I'd forgotten about this phenomena: intriguing conversations are not what anime/furry/comic conventions are about. Fourth Street Fantasy Faire is another con like this: fascinating. I've also heard good things about Foolscap, in Washington.

Last night's event was the mass autographing session: a two hour session in the main ballroom where all the authors sit and autograph and chat with people. The authors there that I'm a fan of included Jane Lindskold and Stephen R. Donaldson, in addition to a number of old friends I hadn't seen in years.

The fans and authors (there's a lot of overlap) blended well with the elegance of the Fairmont: most were well-dressed and seemed to enjoy the elegance of the lush furnishings. I am both curious, yet dreading what kind of atmosphere a furry con here will result in.

Apache is off getting a tracking intensive from my sister and R0ndo is enjoying being an only dog again (or...IS he?).

Comments

[okojosan.livejournal.com]

Wow, that convention sounds like heaven to me! I'm so envious you got to go!

(It also sounds deadly; I don't know how I'd escape without lugging home more books.)

[smashwolf.livejournal.com]

If you get to the con suite, tell Kevin and Andy, the hosts, Smash said hi! It's about the only part of that convention that will look like a "fan" convention since they said they were going to try and "theme" the room. Knowing them, they may even dress in theme, too :)

[vulpesrex.livejournal.com]

See, this is very much what I would wish to see MORE of in a Furry Convention, but I have no clear idea about how to bring such about.

We need more Furry LITERATURE, something which _isn't_ about "self-discovery and finally acknowledging in late adolescence that one is actually Gay, and hey, that's OK". We desperately need something more fantastic, more mind-stretching, more CHALLENGING, and less pandering to the cheapest common denominator.

We very much need something again like YARF! and Paw-Prints, and...yes...something Like XANADU/Ever-Changing Palace, and NOT have it confused with American-Produced Manga or Anime.

So - how to Do It? How do we make Anthropomorphics Respectable - or at least, imaginitively challenging and creative - again?

[martes.livejournal.com]

Hopefully you'll find some neat books there. I did get the evolution book-- thanks!

[martes.livejournal.com]

There's a few (very few) people writing and drawing furry dramatic fiction that isn't about gayness or sex. Unfortunately a couple of the best furry authors (Watts Martin and Brock Hoagland) seemed to have stopped producing any new material. Maggie Hogarth is publishing new work that's marginally furry, but because she doesn't go to cons besides local ones it's not well-known outside her circle of internet readers. Sofawolf has produced a few titles that qualify, but for whatever reason I think the gay or sex-based stuff simply sells better, so for economic reasons that's mostly what they do.

Now I finished my novel a while ago, and am still in the very long and arduous process of trying to get it read by a publisher. I could always go the self-publish route, but I actually want to try and make some money (Yeah, God forbid!) so I'm going the mainstream publisher route if possible.

For furry comics, there's a lot of decent stuff online (Lackadaisy Cats, for one) But most webcomics suffer from irregular scheduals and waneing creator interest, and never finish.

[ruggels.livejournal.com]

So - how to Do It? How do we make Anthropomorphics Respectable - or at least, imaginitively challenging and creative - again?

Impossible at this time. Just hunker down and enjoy it privately and realize the mainstream will point and laugh to the nth generation because the media has already judged and found Furry guilty of mockable perverisyt and comic weirdness.

Scott

[fenris-lorsrai.livejournal.com]

I think part of it is that many of the people writing furry fiction that ISN'T about homosexuality are finding they can jump to small presses outside furrydom and are just plain leaving for better paying pastures. Or at least the perception of having a wider market. So the ones that have a shot at getting out of the furry only market incubate here, then "despecialize" to meld into the available markets. The gay stuff just doesn't have a lot of places to go, so doesn't move out. It stays, attracts more, and so on.

Even some of the porn, surprisingly enough, IS draining into the general market. The gay furry stuff isn't selling in the general porn market yet because the gay part is still new and novel enough that it hasn't branched into such specialized niches. But even mainstream presses are picking up increasingly bizarre porn. Oh excuse me, erotica. They don't like calling it porn.

I just read a romance from Leisure Press that had Otherkin in it. AND CALLED THEM THAT. Love interest had the soul of a T-Rex. and the mayan apocalypse was involved. It was hilariously awful. and it's a series.

And there's a proliferation of smaller presses handling increasingly specialized material and selling it to big chains like Borders and Barnes and Noble. But few of them are handling straight scifi or fantasy, they're shooting for the red hot paranormal romance or young adult markets, which are generally "lighter" reads.

"heavier" series aren't really getting picked up anywhere.

So it's a bit of a two part problem. "lighter" works are getting drained out of the fandom and homogenized to make them palatable to a wider audience. "heavier" works languish and the writers get frustrated over light stuff being picked up easily while they're still stewing around with the stuff that's too out there for any non-furry press to pick up.

[furtech.livejournal.com]

You may want to check out Foolscap: it's almost local (Seattle-area) and very much a reader-con. If I ever make it out to one, I'll give you a full report. The problem for me it that the con is at the end of September-- that's usually my dead-period after worldcon or EF. I think that Seattle had a WFC a few years ago...maybe they'll have another (it's really worth going to if you're local).

Something I didn't mention in the report: Part of registration is they give you a goody bag (a nice canvas bag with a zipper!) filled to bursting with books (both paperback and hardcover) that publishers donate. Some are obscure, some are new and popular and cool. Near registration is a big table where people can trade out books from their bags: abandoning books they have no interest in and snagging books that they -do- want.

The dealer's room is like a blast from the past: book dealers (old, rare and new) out-number other dealers about ten-to-one. You'd end up with a bazillion books...

[furtech.livejournal.com]

Saw them last night! The decorations were splendid (Poe-themed) and the drinks were great (wines and Mexican Coke, amongst the regular fare), though the snacks were kind of "eh" (mostly Goldfish and some kind of veggie-fry-thing). On the other hand, many of the events had tons of real food (cheeses, fruit and salmon were at the autographing event).

[furtech.livejournal.com]

Roz and Fenris have summed up the reasons pretty well, IMO. I think the best we can hope for is embracing animal/anthropomorphic literature as it is independently created and not cultivating anything from within. The trouble is that because of furry's reputation, anything generated directly from the fandom immediately limits the market for itself (to just furries). Several prominent comics publishers (for example) have stated flat-out that if it's furry, it goes from submission envelope to trash can.

I can't name a single work of art or fiction that could be called successful in the mainstream that owes it's origins to furry fandom.

[furtech.livejournal.com]

Cool! Glad they got there so fast.

I've purchased several books that you may be interested in:

Jane Lindskold's Thirteen Orphans (http://www.amazon.com/Thirteen-Orphans-Jane-Lindskold/dp/076535621X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1257108844&sr=8-1): you'll like this one-- it's about the animals of the Chinese zodiac, plus a cat.

An incredible anthology of Jame Tiptree, Jr.'s work titled Her Smoke Rose Up Forever (http://www.amazon.com/Her-Smoke-Rose-Up-Forever/dp/1892391201/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1257108943&sr=1-1). I love her work and I think you'd enjoy it, too.

Dog Days by John Levitt (http://www.amazon.com/Dog-Days-Ace-Fantasy-Book/dp/0441015530/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1257109319&sr=1-3) is about an ex-magical enforcer and his ifrit/dog.

Peter S. Beagle's Tamsin (http://www.amazon.com/Tamsin-Peter-S-Beagle/dp/0142401544/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1257109402&sr=1-1)

Monster Hunter International, (http://www.amazon.com/Monster-Hunter-International-Larry-Correia/dp/1439132852/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1257109740&sr=1-1) which may be all right (but I love monster hunter stories).

Patricia Briggs' On the Prowl (http://www.amazon.com/Prowl-Patricia-Briggs/dp/0425216594/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1257109543&sr=1-1) and the second novel that came after, Hunting Ground (http://www.amazon.com/Hunting-Ground-Alpha-Omega-Book/dp/044101738X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1257109609&sr=1-1) (I need to track down the first book, "Cry Wolf").

[vulpesrex.livejournal.com]

Quote:

"I can't name a single work of art or fiction that could be called successful in the mainstream that owes it's origins to furry fandom."

Ah - so there is at least Hope, then.

Some of our best minds - Watts Martin, Conrad Wong, MCA Hogarth, Cris Grant, Steve Gallacci, Ken Pick, Craig Hilton, Chuck Melville - have slipped out of the picture...the overwhelming bulk of what is there at present is of very dubious quality, and has little current value.

It does not have to STAY that way.

[dogteam.livejournal.com]

I'm working on "Thirteen Orphans" right now...had to put it down, must get back to it.
I've kept in touch on and off with Jane since FC 2007, a nice lady...her husband Jim is an archaeologist, and he's been kind enough to help me out with some questions. Good people.

A Tiptree anthology?? Must have...

Is Tamsin worth buying?

Must catch up with Patricia Briggs' books. Read the first series and "Cry Wolf", but I think I sent it back to iisaw?

[furtech.livejournal.com]

True-- and I'd love for this to happen. In the hope-department, at least furry is getting more of a "it's harmless, looks-like-fun" kind of public image. On the negative side, just when you think furry fandom has left the dark side behind, some nerdwit gets on a national talk show and glories in the furry-is-sex perception. Or another pedophile-furry gets arrested.

Those who have dropped out of the picture have done so in large part because they find so little encouragement in the fandom. Others have just stopped focusing on the fandom as their main audience: Craig Hilton still does his anthropomorphic doctor comic strip in Australia to some acclaim and Roz already mentioned Lackadaisy Cats-- a perfect example of someone who started out furry (her medieval anthro stuff), left the fandom and then started LC from whole cloth and with no ties to or association with furry fandom.

[furtech.livejournal.com]

Tiptree is an unexplainable anomaly for me: no animals, werewolves or happy endings generally-- yet her style of writing draws me in like few authors are able to do. The introduction/bio at the beginning is very good and, at the end, so sad.

Not sure about Tamsin: I've always liked Beagle's writing style (plus he has unicorns and werewolves), but I haven't read his new stuff. Tamsin I got because it has cat(s) and I figure even if I don't like it, Roz might.

On The Prowl is the first appearance of Briggs' werewolves...though I'm not sure if this novella is also included in Cry Wolf or if it's a separate story.

Jane is a great person-- if you ever want to meet her at a small con, I highly recommend Bubonicon (in Albuquerque, NM near the end of August). Small, friendly con and easy to chat up local authors (there are a lot of them in that area). I'm sure she's fascinated with your canine menagerie!

[bovil.livejournal.com]

We did have more food, but it depended on when you got there; things went out in waves.

[furtech.livejournal.com]

I figured that was the case-- it looked like you and Andy didn't have a lot of help and I was only up there that once. I wish I'd caught one of the waves: based on your bar (nice wines and a *great* soft drink collection), the real food was probably spectacular.

Great job on the decorations: not over-done, but definitely in-theme. The cake-balloon was a spectacular touch!

[bovil.livejournal.com]

If it was just Saturday, we actually had to cut back on food in the evening to make space for the balloon cake. We moved what we could to the tiki room starting around 4pm (cake delivery was for 5 and they showed up a little early), but it wasn't as impressive as having the big table filled with platters like we could at other times.