{"id":386,"date":"2007-09-03T05:34:00","date_gmt":"2007-09-03T05:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnpicacio.com\/onthefront\/2007\/09\/03\/lou-johns-excellent-adventure\/"},"modified":"2014-12-14T18:49:08","modified_gmt":"2014-12-14T18:49:08","slug":"lou-johns-excellent-adventure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/johnpicacio.com\/onthefront\/2007\/09\/03\/lou-johns-excellent-adventure\/","title":{"rendered":"Lou & John’s Excellent Adventure"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>Also known as our madcap, surgical strike trip to Worldcon 2007<\/a> in Yokohama, Japan\u2026I\u2019m back home now and dead-tired, but before I crash, here are a few sights and thoughts from the journey. The whole experience was worth every bit of time and money, and I\u2019m so glad I went. Met my buddy Lou Anders (AKA 2007 Hugo finalist Lou Anders<\/a> of Pyr<\/a>) over in Houston and we flew out together.\n

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$\"\"$ <\/a>We were on the ground for 72 hours in Japan, and we did a heckuva lot in a very short time. Shoutouts to all of my new friends in Nippon, including Takahiro Hirata (left), Hayato Kato, Hiroyuki Ohashi, and the wonderful Yasko, who were so kind to me throughout the weekend. Taka even presented me with a beautiful gift (left), which was completely unexpected and amazing. Thanks not only to them, but all of the kind folks who showed up to my panels and signing events. Nice to know my work is connecting with its audience, even on the other side of the Pacific. Look forward to visiting with you again, at Worldcon in Denver next year.<\/p>\n

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$\"\"$ <\/a>The hotel and con facilities in Yokohama were first-rate \u2014 the convenient, futuristic bridges connecting the con complex; the super-elegant bathrooms in the Pan Pacific Hotel; this stellar view from our hotel balcony; all of it. This year is Ultraman\u2019s 40th anniversary, and this brother was hard to miss, no matter where you looked. I had a friend in 3rd grade who turned me on to Ultraman, and I have fond memories of all of my playground pals back then striking this pose all day long.<\/p>\n

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$\"\"$ <\/a>Bought this fabulous little book celebrating the art of Naoyuki Katoh. I didn\u2019t know his work before this trip, but I sure do now. His stuff\u2019s phenomenal. Awards-wise, I was honored to be a finalist for two Hugos and two Chesleys at this year\u2019s Worldcon. Had more bling on my badge than I\u2019ve ever had anywhere before. Didn\u2019t bring home any large hardware this time around, but with a Locus Award<\/a> win earlier this year, and artist nominations for the forthcoming British Fantasy Award<\/a>, International Horror Guild Award<\/a>, and World Fantasy Award<\/a>, it\u2019s hard not to be grateful. Thanks to all who voted for me in this year\u2019s Chesleys<\/a> and Hugos<\/a>, and I appreciate your kind consideration. I\u2019m honored to be working in this field and I\u2019ll just keep plugging away and trying to get better. Big shoutout and sincere congrats to all Chesley winners and especially to Donato Giancola<\/a>, who won this year\u2019s Best Professional Artist Hugo for the second consecutive year. Well-earned!!<\/p>\n

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In the end, these trips are all about the people, and Paul Cornell<\/a> and his lovely wife Caroline Symcox are two of my favorites. (L to R: Caroline, Paul, Lou Anders, me, and Jessica Langer, at the Hugo Pre-Awards Reception). Spent quality time with Bob Eggleton<\/a> and Marianne Plumridge<\/a>. Zillabob had a terrific Art Show display. He\u2019s been doing a painting-a-day display on his blog<\/a> for much of \u201907 and he\u2019s been on fire lately. (L to R: Bob Eggleton, Marianne Plumridge, me, and Lou)<\/p>\n

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$\"\"$ <\/a>Great to visit with Betsy Mitchell, editor-in-chief of Del Rey<\/a>, whom I\u2019ve had the pleasure of working with on the forthcoming ELRIC: THE STEALER OF SOULS<\/a> (coming Feb \u201908). Betsy debuted a few of my interior illustrations from the book, during her Del Rey slide presentation. (L to R: Betsy, Naomi Novik<\/a> (congrats on the Campbell win), Scott Edelman<\/a>, Charles Ardai<\/a> (spiffy threads, fellas!), and Scott\u2019s wife, Irene. Frank Wu<\/a> won the Hugo for Best Fan Artist (go, Wu), and although not physically present, his zany aura was still felt at the festivities, courtesy of Kelly Buehler.<\/p>\n

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$\"\"$ <\/a>Lou and I had the pleasure of spending the mighty bulk of Hugo Night with the aforementioned Paul and Caroline as well as Steven Moffat and wife Sue Vertue (pictured here). Steven won the Hugo for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form for his Dr. Who<\/a> episode, \u201cThe Girl in the Fireplace\u201d and his big Ultraman Hugo trophy sat in the middle of our rambling conversation circles all night long. As per Worldcon tradition, Hugo nominees received a gift from the upcoming year\u2019s Worldcon, which this year came in the form of a Japanese fan, embellished with artwork by Rick Sternbach<\/a>. Jessica Langer models the one I received here, and does it much better than I ever could.<\/p>\n

Beyond that, more great times with brilliant folks, including the mighty Karen Jones, Ted Chiang, Jannie Shea, Jennie Faries, Michael Whelan and family, Ellen Datlow, Greg Ketter, Lisa Freitag, Mike Willmoth, Jean Goddin, Kelly Link, Gavin Grant, Kurt Baty, Kevin Standlee, Gay Haldeman, Eileen Gunn, John Berry, Barry and Judy Newton, Sandra Childress, James Briggs, Marc Zicree, Maura McHugh, Geoffrey Landis, Mary Turzillo, Jay Lake, David Silver, Julie Rigby, Pat McMurray (congrats on the nuptials, Julie & Pat), Ben Yalow, Robert Charles Wilson, Tom Galloway, Karen Haber, Robert Silverberg, and many more. Lori Ono \u2014 thanks for saving the day on Friday. Congrats to Rene Walling and the whole Montreal bid team for claiming the \u201909 Worldcon. Countdown begins for Denvention<\/a> in \u201908. Right now \u2014 I\u2019m glad to be home with Traci. Off to bed. Whew. When I wake up, I\u2019ll be 38\u2026<\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Also known as our madcap, surgical strike trip to Worldcon 2007 in Yokohama, Japan\u2026I\u2019m back home now and dead-tired, but before I crash, here are a few sights and thoughts from the journey. The whole experience was worth every bit of time and money, and I\u2019m so glad I went. Met my buddy Lou Anders […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":968,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-conventions"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/johnpicacio.com\/onthefront\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/09\/WORLDCON073.jpg?fit=704%2C519","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5te7x-6e","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/johnpicacio.com\/onthefront\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/johnpicacio.com\/onthefront\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/johnpicacio.com\/onthefront\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/johnpicacio.com\/onthefront\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/johnpicacio.com\/onthefront\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/johnpicacio.com\/onthefront\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/johnpicacio.com\/onthefront\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/johnpicacio.com\/onthefront\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/johnpicacio.com\/onthefront\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/johnpicacio.com\/onthefront\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}