Author GoH at Phoenix Comicon; 2010 Appearance Plans in General
Posted on September 4, 2009 Posted by John Scalzi 23 Comments
As noted by this tweet from the organizers, I will be author guest of honor at the 2010 Phoenix Comicon, in (wait for it… ) Phoenix, Arizona, over Memorial Day weekend (May 27 -30 for those of you not in the US). It should be a lot of fun. Their Twitter feed has the details on the rest of the guests, and the Web site apparently will be updated with the whole list on Friday morning.
This is also a fine time for me to note that aside from the Phoenix Comicon, I have no real plans to attend any other science fiction convention in 2010 as a working guest (i.e., doing panels and such). The reasons for this:
- Travel, writing and other scheduling conflicts causing me to turn down invitations;
- No new novels scheduled for publication in 2010;
- A bit of burnout from having attended a dozen conventions in the last couple of years.
I am looking into scheduling a couple of non-con appearances, and we’re also hoping very much to get to AussieCon4 next year, because, hey, Australia. If we get there, it’s a pretty sure bet I’ll do panels, etc. But otherwise, barring an extraordinary change of circumstances that requires me to throw out my plans for next year and start over, this is pretty much it. So if you’d like to see me do my thing, Phoenix is the place you want to be in 2010.
Yes, indeed, Australia is a fantastic place. Come visit us!
Great! You’ll be in Australia, but in Melbourne? Dang.
“No new novels scheduled for publication in 2010….”
*sigh* So we should be thinking 2011 or later for “High Castle”?
Macanax:
“High Castle” currently belongs in the “it’s done when it’s done” category.
Hobbyns:
Well, that’s the thing. If we’re going to go all that way, we’re not just going to stay five days in one city. So we need to make sure we can take time to go other places too.
You’ll be sure to get at least one fan! (not that would be me!) I’ll travel the 14 hours (by car) to Melbourne… YAY DO IT!!!!
What the hell was I writing… “(not that would be me)” Disregard last insane post.
Redo!
you’ll be sure to get at least one fan (that would be me!!) I’ll travel the 14 hours to Melbourne… Also you really *should* do the coastal Drive Melbourne to Sydney (or reverse) then you can do a book signing in my home town on the way OK? Thanks! I’ll be sure to arrange that for you!!! :)
How about Bradfordcon? You could hold a convention right in town. Boost the local economy and you wouldn’t have to travel very far.
There’s the minor problem of no lodging in Bradford, don’t you think?
Details, details. There was no lodging at Woodstock, either.
As a resident of Phoenix I’m looking forward to seeing you then. You do realize though it’ll be around 102 degrees at that time.
Coming to Phoenix? Yay!
In late May? Hope you like heat.
On the upside, I understand you have a fondness for In-N-Out Burgers, and we do have those here.
Five days devoted to sightseeing in Australia (which obviously won’t be your actual time budget, given that, well, there’s a con going on, too) is a totally inadequate time to see even a tenth of what’s there.
I spent ten days there last year, visiting my old homestead in Miranda, the Cronulla area, Sydney, the Blue Mountains, Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef, and felt I just scratched the surface. It’s a cotton-pickin’ continent, chock full of strange animals and intriguing history.
Unfortunately, given the economy and our current household budget, doesn’t look like I’ll be able to make this con, though I’d dearly love to able to combine that with some more looks at what Australia has to offer.
Eric:
It seems unlikely I’ll be doing any programming outside on a street corner, so I think I can handle the heat just fine. Also, you know. Grew up in Southern California and worked for five years in Fresno. I know from heat.
Scalzi-stock? When and where?
Sounds like you’re set – according to the stats, May in Phoenix is about like July in Fresno. And honestly most folks never really have to deal with it – you run from an air-conditioned building, to an air-conditioned vehicle and back to an air-conditioned building.
That said, I still remember the day it hit 122F and they had to shut down the airport because the takeoff/landing tables only went to 120F (since corrected).
Four or five weeks in Australia should be enough time for you to scratch the surface of as many as half a dozen areas — or so I found around the time of the first Oz WorldCon. (No, I couldn’t afford it then, but I’ll never regret having done it anyhow.)
That was a rather long time ago, of course, and I’m told that the country has changed considerable — no longer can you expect that, if you discover after the plane that brought you to Alice Springs has departed for Darwin that your baggage hadn’t been unloaded, the (sole) person working at the airport will get on the radio and have the plane return to deliver your gear. (Yes, that actually happened, though,to be honest, there were about a dozen of us in that predicament.)
And I suppose that, if you were to set part of some future book in Australia, you could claim all your trip expenses as an Income Tax Business Deduction, instead of just the portion covering the Convention itself. Mind you, spending a month in a country doesn’t enable one to come even close to understanding it. (Actually, a whole lifetime isn’t enough for some of us, though we might be able to fake it reasonably convincingly.)
This news just made my day! PCC is a great con; the organizers love what they do, and it really shows, year after year. Hopefully moving from Mesa (one of the suburbs of Phx for those who don’t know) to their new venue in Phoenix itself works out well; I know it will give them some much-needed additional space. I just have one question:
Does this mean there will be a Scalzi/Wheaton Rock Band-a-thon?
I hope you don’t mean you’ve only got 5 days in Oz? Sheesh. It’ll take that long to get out of the car park at the airport.
Seriously though if you really only have 5 days Sydney and Adelaide are the closest big cities at about 1 and 1/2 hours flight each from Melb. Everywhere else you’re starting to look at longer flights which will take up most of the day with transfers n’all. Otherwise if you fly into Melbourne and out of Sydney you can have interesting drive from Melbourne to Sydney (inland or coastal).
We do have it all though. Beaches, mountains, rain forests, deserts and sheep. Somewhere in the country it will be summer and elsewhere it will be winter (Melbourne).
Whatever you decide I think you’ll have a ball. We’ll make sure of it.
Besides Phoenix has a dry heat, not like here in New Orleans althought NOLA in May is very nice. NOLA in August, thats rough!!!
I was kind of wondering how you managed so much travel and convention appearances. I’m still unpacking from Confusion in January. (j/k) I guess you’re human after all.
milieu:
I have a vision of a few hundred Scalzi fans, arriving in Bradford in twos and threes, seating themselves on the front lawn facing the front porch. When the great man comes out to get the newspaper, the crowd looks up expectantly but remains silent.
Of course, that may not be John’s vision. (Or not *vision*, exactly.)
Coolness, John. They treat guests REALLY well. Wil has been out here a couple of times and had a blast. Looking forward to seeing you in AZ.
The Wil Wheaton Rock Band event is definitely in the works and lots of good stuff with Scalzi. We’ve definitely got more room for programming and panels plus we can schedule stuff at the hotel where we won’t have to vacate the place at midnight!
Lee Whiteside
SciFi Director, Phoenix ComiCon.