First the Mind-Melding….(thus, the appropriate Spock cover by yours truly pictured left). SFSignal has posted the following Mind Meld question: What do you feel is the primary purpose of a book cover: To accurately reflect the story or to visually ‘sell’ the book? How do you balance these two ideas when creating a cover? Responses by Bob Eggleton, Bruce Jensen, Irene Gallo, Boris Vallejo, Dave Seeley, Todd Lockwood, Dan Dos Santos, Glen Orbik, and me. Check it out.
Now for the Strolling….Stu Segal is organizing what he hopes will be a yearly tradition at Worldcon: “Stroll with the Stars.” It’s Stu’s initiative to bring “a healthy attitude” to Worldcon. It’s a 9am, one-mile walk through the Worldcon city of Denver, and in a moment of temporary insanity, I accepted Stu’s invitation to join the list of lunatics…..err…luminaries, which includes Frank Wu, David Brin, Jay Lake, Ellen Datlow, Lou Anders, Paul Cornell, Scott Edelman, Mary Robinette Kowal and Stephen H. Segal. I’m not sure how healthy I’ll be spending every night of Worldcon in the hotel bar, but at least one of the mornings, I’ll be able to walk off the calories in style. So bring your sneaks, and your alarm clock, and join us! 🙂
As a New Yorker I am snickering a bit at the idea of one mile being considered any kind of strenuous exercise. Hee. Should be a nice morning constitutional, though!
Yeah, a one-mile walk is nothing. That’s not the part that’s lunacy. It’s any of us acting like we’re being healthy at 9am when we spend hours in the hotel bar the night before. 🙂 Frankly, I’ll be curious to see how many people decide to do this with us. Maybe eventually it’ll become a yearly Worldcon tradition and eventually move into a one-mile run — in costumes! I’m seeing Stormtroopers in full gear, a few Andorians, the occasional Lovecraftian monster, all sprinting through the streets of an unsuspecting city….
rofl
RESPONSE FROM STU SEGAL
OK, so while everyone is snickering and rolling on the floor laughing, let me explain why we’re all doing a 1 mile non-aerobic saunter each morning:
This grew out of a lively discussion at Frank Wu’s LiveJournal Blog, wherein we were discussing the fitness (or unfitness) level of fans at Cons, and were looking for some activity we could introduce to entice some of the less-than-active fans. There were ideas like having panels in the gym while people walked on treadmills or worked out with weights.
Eventually we hit on a morning stroll, which is something everybody could do. Then we decided on a very modest length, so as to not scare off the very people we want to entice. Then, to really sweeten the pie, a number of concerned authors, artists and editors agreed to lead the strolls and do what amounts to a strolling kaffeeklatsche.
So stop snickering and come out with the rest of us – the best way we can help our sedentary friends and colleagues is to set a positive example.
9AM in front of the Big Blue Bear.
. . Stu Segal