Date: Fri, 2 Aug 2002 11:48:11 -0700
From: Michael Andre-Driussi 
Subject: (urth) WorldCon and the Gene Wolfe convention circuit future

Hello there everybody.

Just got an update on WorldCon today.  They are about 1000 members below
where they were expecting to be at this point (the event starts August 29).
It will likely be a smaller WorldCon than seen in recent times.  (Is this
due to post 9/11 travel decline or the graying of sf fandom, or both, I
wonder?)

I'm going there mainly because Gene Wolfe is going to be there.  Of course,
there is no absolute guarantee he will be able to make it, but he has
membership and all that.  (And Vernor Vinge is Guest of Honor, which I find
interesting.)

Now then, I don't want to scare people, but only tell the facts as I know
them. Gene Wolfe is 70-something years old and he didn't go to any
conventions last year.  Then they (Gene and his wife) decided to go to
conventions this year (Horror Con, World Con, and World Fantasy Con), and
they plan to go to conventions every year until they cannot, so when they
next stop going to cons, they really will stop for good.

So if you would like to meet Gene Wolfe at a convention, I urge you to do
it =this= year.  WorldCon is in San Jose, WFC is in Minneapolis (iirc) in a
couple of months.

Personally I'd like to see some of the people around here in the flesh at
WorldCon, but that's just selfish.  Altruistically I want Gene Wolfe's fans
to meet him, and the window of opportunity is drawing to a close.

=mantis=



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