Saturday was a light-schedule day for me. I had a swim and a reasonably-priced breakfast at the Silver Spoon Diner across the street from my hotel, then went to the convention center to do a reading.
I read two stories, "Parsifal (Prix Fixe)" which ran originally in F&SF, and "A Right Jolly Old . . . " which appeared this past spring in the anthology Conspiracy! Afterward I answered some questions and talked about how the stories came to be (partly because I had thought the time slot was only 30 minutes and so had plenty of time to fill).
Once that was done I took another turn through the exhibit area and then sat in on a very interesting panel about "The Future of Cities."
In the afternoon fellow CSFW member Alexander Jablokov and I went to the World War I museum near Kansas City's Union Station (the station itself is also worth a visit). The museum is built into the hill beneath the amazing World War I memorial, and does a great job of explaining that most pointless of wars.
Riding the trolley back from the museum we spotted a steakhouse called Anton's which looked like a place worth trying. So after a stop at the hotel, Mr. Jablokov and I went back there for dinner, accompanied by fellow SF writers Mark Tiedemann and Rick Wilber. The steaks were huge and delicious.
Apparently by playing hooky I missed this year's fireworks: the expulsion of Black Gate editor Dave Truesdale from the convention after he delivered a long rant about the state of short fiction and the harm done by political correctness, at a panel on the state of short fiction he was moderating. Since I wasn't there I can't comment on the accuracy of his statements or whether he was being disruptive enough to warrant being kicked out of the con.
I will note that on a purely tactical level, expelling someone who complains that there's an insular clique within science fiction which is trying to silence dissenting voices doesn't really disprove what he's saying.
Anyway, congratulations to this year's Hugo Award winners:
N.K. Jemisin (best novel)
Nnedi Okorafor (best novella)
Hao Jingfang (best novelette)
Naomi Kritzer (best short story)
Neil Gaiman and J.H. Williams III (best graphic story)
The Martian, directed by Ridley Scott (best dramatic presentation, long form)
Jessica Jones episode "AKA Smile" (best dramatic presentation, short form)
Ellen Datlow (best editor, short form)
Sheila Gilbert (best editor, long form)
Abigail Larson (best professional artist)
Uncanny Magazine (best "semiprozine")
File 770 (best "fanzine")
Mike Glyer (best fan writer)
Steve Styles (best fan artist)
Andy Weir (Campbell Award for best new writer)
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