WORLD FANTASY CONVENTION
MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA

29 October-1 November 1998
Progress Report 2

Updated 26 July 1998


Monterey: You Can Get Here from There!

"Sounds like an interesting convention - but just where is Monterey? And how do I get there?"

Monterey is a small city, situated on California's Pacific coast approximately 75 miles south of San Francisco, and 350 mile north of Los Angeles. United, American and other airlines have regularly scheduled flights to Monterey: these are mainly commuter flights from the San Francisco or Los Angeles area airports, and capacity may be limited- check with your travel agent or the airlines. If you're planning on extended sightseeing along California's central coast, you may want to consider renting a car at the San Francisco or San Jose airport: driving time to Monterey is 1-2 hours, depending on route. Amtrak has bus connections from San Jose and other interior cities, but these are infrequent.

Once you get to Monterey, you'll find most of the major tourist areas - Fishermen's Wharf, Cannery Row, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, the new maritime museum - within easy walking distance of the convention hotels. The downtown area is compact and relatively flat. We'll be providing a Native Guide with restaurant recommendations and other useful area information at the convention.

Climate: since downtown Monterey is right on the water, temperatures are mild. Expect the days to be in the mid-70s (c. 25C), with fog in the mornings and early evenings. As you go inland, temperatures rise and humidity drops: temperature differences of 30F between the coast and the Central Valley are not uncommon. Nights can be quite chilly - bring a sweater or light jacket. California really does have distinct seasons: late October is generally the end of the dry season, and the winter rains typically start in mid-November.

The Monterey peninsula is noted for its golf courses. Diving is popular, but the ocean temperature is usually too cold for swimming. There are a number of interesting day trips from Monterey: Carmel, Big Sur, San Simeon, various beaches and state parks. Lucy Huntzinger of Redwood Travel can help members arrange side trips to these and more distant locations such as Reno, Yosemite or Disneyland. (lucy@redtrav.com; +1-650-365-6292)

You can get more information on the Monterey area from the Monterey Peninsula Chamber of Commerce (380 Alvarado St., Monterey, CA 93940; phone +1-408-649-1770) or from these web sites:

Hotel Update

The hotel blocks are filling up! If you haven't done so already, make your reservations soon. There is another convention booked into the Marriott starting on Sunday night. Make reservations directly with the hotels: ask for the World Fantasy Convention rate.

Out-of-area visitors: the California legislature has not completely banned smoking - yet. But they seem to be working on it! Smoking is generally prohibited in restaurants, bars, museums, shops and public buildings. In most cases, smoking is limited to outdoor areas - fortunately the weather is usually cooperative. Much of the public area of both hotels and the convention center is designated "Smoke Free". If you are a smoker, please request a smoking room when you make your reservations.

Doubletree 408-649-4511, $125 S/D, $135 T/Q; Marriott, $127 S/D/T/Q, 408-649-4234. The Marriot is the party hotel. Both hotels are adjacent to the downtown Monterey Convention Center; the hotels are connected by an indoor passage, and guests in one hotel can charge food and drinks in either hotel's restaurants and bars.

Marriott: 1-408-646-4234. Reservations: 1-800-228-9290 or http://www.marriott.com/reservations

Doubletree: 1-408-649-4511. Reservations: 1-8800-222-8733 or http://www.DoubleTreehotels.com/DoubleT/Home.htm.

Suites: contact Hotel Liaison Bryan Barrett.

Membership Update

Membership in the 1998 World Fantasy Convention is US$125. Membership is limited to 750.

Frequently asked questions

World Fantasy Awards

Nominations for this year's World Fantasy awards are now closed. A list of nominees will be published in PR3. The awards will be announced at the World Fantasy Convention banquet on November 1.

Banquet

Monterey county is one of the prime agricultural regions of California. 100% of the commercial artichoke crop is grown here (if you're driving down SR 1 from the north, those strange-looking plants in the fields on both sides of the road are probably artichokes), and much of the country's lettuce and strawberries. We've asked the Marriott to put together a Sunday brunch that features local specialties. The banquet and awards ceremony will be held on Sunday, November 1. Tickets are $35 per person: they will be available until 2PM on Saturday, October 31.

Theme and Programming

"Golden Ages": the long-ago days when everything was somehow bigger and better. When great empires controlled exotic lands, and magicians ruled the elements. When the world was largely unknown, and there were new lands to explore - or conquer. When they wrote the classics, and treasures could be found in cheap pulp magazines.

"Golden Ages": not-so-long-ago, when the quest for a malleable yellow metal brought thousands from all over the world to what had been until recently a quiet Mexican backwater town, changing it and the landscape for ever. When the contacts between cultures bring conflict and change.

"Golden Ages": 12. When one straddles the divide between childhood and adulthood, not quite one nor the other, looking towards the future with great expectations.

Convention programming will start on Friday morning. If there is sufficient interest, we will have some informal pre-convention activities, such as a walking tour of Monterey. The authors' reception and the traditional mass signing will be held Friday evening. Programming for this year's World Fantasy Convention will explore the many facets of this theme. We are currently collecting additional program suggestions, and will have a preliminary schedule in PR3.

Some of the topics we're considering: Children's Fantasy, Historical Fiction as Fantasy, Legacies of the Pulps, Non-Western Influences and Contributions, particularly Latin American and Pacific Rim. We will also be providing space for readings. If you're interested in participating or have suggestions, contact Sarah Goodman, goodston@well.com.

Guests

Gahan Wilson

Artist, author, editor - it's difficult to describe Gahan Wilson succinctly. He's written children's books (Harry, the Fat Bear Spy), mysteries (Eddie Deco's Last Caper), Lovecraftian fiction ("H.P.L", anthologized in Lovecraft's Legacy), but is probably best known for his cartoons.

"Cartoons" is perhaps too confining a description of his art. Gahan Wilson depicts a world that's almost the same as ours, but not quite. In Wilson's world, mad scientists have trouble keeping up with General Electric's research budget. Museums post feeding times in front of many-limbed, skull-bedecked statues. Tentacled aliens lie in wait for hapless door-to-door salesmen. There are stories behind all of them - perhaps wisely left to the imagination of the reader.

Gahan may hold the record for the most diverse collection of publications in which his work has appeared: Playboy, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, The National Lampoon, The New York Times Book Review, Punch, Audubon Magazine, and Passport to World Band Radio.

Gahan Wilson has been involved with the World Fantasy Convention since the beginning. He was toastmaster for the first six World Fantasy Conventions, edited the First World Fantasy Collection Anthology, and received a lifetime achievement award at the Baltimore convention in 1995. This is the first time, though, that he has been Guest of Honor at a World Fantasy Convention.

Partial bibliography

Frank M. Robinson

Frank M. Robinson has been writing and editing since 1950, when his story "The Maze" appeared in Astounding Science Fiction. Primarily a writer of short fiction in his early career, his fiction output almost dropped entirely during his years as an editor (1959-1973). After his stint at Playboy, Frank began a new career writing technothrillers.

There's another side to Frank, though. For many years, he has been collecting pulps - the cheap magazines with lurid covers and titles such as Thrill Book, Jungle Stories and Weird Tales. Frank's recent book, Pulp Culture: the Art of Fiction Magazines (written with Lawrence Davidson) is a pictorial history of these magazines.

Partial bibliography

Cecelia Holland

Cecelia Holland's works are in category of their own. "Historical Novels" doesn't do them justice: they are glimpses into societies as different from ours as many a made-up world, populated with real people with real passions, motives and flaws. Holland's novels have spanned millennia, from prehistoric Britain (Pillar of the Sky) to future space colonies (Floating Worlds).

Ironically, it was not until her 16th novel - The Bear Flag - that this Californian tackled American history. It especially appropriate that Cecelia Holland is the World Fantasy Conventions special guest this year, the sesquicentennial of the discovery of gold in California.

Partial bibliography

Richard Laymon

Prolific. Versatile. Richard Laymon has been publishing - horror, suspense, children's and young adult fiction, romance, non-fiction - since 1970, when his story "Desert Pickup" appeared in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. Richard's first novel, The Cellar, appeared in 1980. His novel Flesh was named Best Horror Novel of 1985 by Science Fiction Chronicle. Flesh and 1989 novel Funland were both nominated for Stoker awards, as was his short story collection, A Good, Secret Place.

Paradoxically for a Chicago-born and Los Angeles-based writer, Richard Laymon has a large following in the UK but is not as well known in the United States. His main publisher is the UK-based Headline: with luck, some of his books may be in the Dealers' Room.

Partial bibliography

Richard A. Lupoff, Toastmaster

Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive! Children of the night, what music they make! The wisdom of Solomon, the strength of Hercules... Holmes, it was the footprint of a giant hound! We belong dead. In brightest day, in darkest night, no evil shall escape my sight. Magic words of piff-poof-piffles, make me just as small as Sniffles. CX-4 to control tower, CX-4 to control tower.

If you can identify all of those tag-lines you're surely a member of my generation. They come from the movies, radio shows and comic books that I grew up on, and they shaped my taste in literature and the arts for life. I've always had a love for the fantastic, and if anyone is to blame it would have to be a family that was not afraid to expose an innocent child to far-fetched and exciting ideas.

Or blame Lamont Cranston, if you'd rather...or Clark Kent...Count Dracula...Billy Batson...and all the rest.

When it came time to write fiction of my own, having detoured for decades through the realms of journalism, military service, systems analysis and script writing, I came home to the sister fields of fantasy and science fiction, and their kissin' cousin, the detective story.

It's been thirty-three years since my first book was published, and I feel as if I'm just starting to get an inkling of how to go about this thing.

Let's see. You start with a stack of fresh foolscap. Sharpen and split your goose-quill with your pen-knife, make sure that there's plenty of ink in the inkwell and plenty of sand in the shaker, and set to work.

Richard A. Lupoff / 1998

Dealers' Room Updates

One of the attractions of the World Fantasy Convention is the Dealers' Room. This year's convention continues that tradition with a large Dealers' Room, focusing on books and original works of art. Confirmed dealers as of press time:

Dealers' Room information: Bob Brown (bobbrown@wolfenet.com, +1-206-634-1481)

Art Show Update

This year's World Fantasy Convention Art Show maintains the high standards of previous years. The Art Show is juried: if you have not exhibited at a World Fantasy Convention or at another major convention in the past five years, please be prepared to supply samples of your portfolio. For rates and further information, please contact Art Show director Lillian Butler (chelsea@io.com, +1-512-445-4869)

Contacts

Souvenir Book

The 1998 World Fantasy Convention souvenir book will be distributed to convention attendees as part of their registration packet. A limited number of copies will also be available after the convention for archives, etc..

Advertising rates
Ad SizeDimensionsRate
Full Page7.25" X 10"$500
1/2 page (horizontal)7.25" X 4.75"$300
1/2 page (vertical)3.75" X 10"$300
1/4 page3.75" X 4.75"$200
Business card3.75" X 2.5"$50
Inside Covers7.25 X 10"$750
Back Cover7.25 X 10"$1500

Reserve space by August 20, using the following form.

Make checks payable to WFC98 - payment mustccompany your request to guarantee space. Camera-ready copy is due by September 10.

WFC98 Souvenir Book

Please reserve space for the following advertisement:
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Send completed form with payment to WFC98, 555 Bryant St. #552, Palo
Alto, CA   94301
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Published by World Fantasy Convention 98, a Committee of San Francisco Science Fiction Conventions, Inc., a California Non-Profit Corporation recognized as tax-emept under IRS 501 (c)(3). Copyright 1998 by SFSFC, Inc., with all applicable rights reverting upon publication.

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