While I’m off finding out about Egyptian SF, here’s something to keep you amused.

A month or two ago I received a DVD in the mail. It was a selection of recordings from the 2004 World Fantasy Con. “Why now?”, you must be asking. Well I suspect that it has something to do with the fact that Mike Willmoth and his pals are bidding for a NASFiC using the very same hotel that hosted that WFC.

I have to say that the Tempe Mission Palms is one of my favorite convention hotels, despite the fact that one of my abiding memories of it is trying to interview L.E. Modesitt by the rooftop pool while aircraft roared overhead on their way to and from Phoenix airport. The occasional noise when the flightpath is overhead is more than made up for by a good bar, a fabulous courtyard, and the proximity of a large number of cheap, good quality restaurants.

That convention also has particular memories for me because it was the first time I ever tried live-blogging an award ceremony. This was long before we started using Twitter. You had to refresh my blog regularly to see if a new category had been announced. But I immediately saw the power of the concept. I innocently emailed Liz Hand to tell her that she had won best Collection for Bibliomancy, and thereby ruined Ellen Datlow’s day — Ellen being the official acceptor for Liz — because she didn’t get to make that magic “you won” phone call. Sorry again, Ellen.

Five years later the World Fantasy Board devoted part of their annual meeting to trying to work out how they could prevent me from live-blogging their awards ceremony. How the world moves on, at times.

“But what of the DVD?”, you ask. Well, it is a mixed bag. Some of it reminds me forcibly of why I rarely go to programming at WFC, even when the official topic is “Women in Fantasy & Science Fiction”, but there are a few things that are really good. Jennifer Roberson makes a fine Mistress of the Toast. Paula Guran’s interview of Ellen Datlow is hilarious. And best of all, there is Betty Ballantine.

Betty was 85 at the time, but by far one of the sharpest people on program. She and her husband, Ian, were involved in bringing the paperback book to the USA, and the ructions this caused were probably very similar to the “ebooks have killed publishing” nonsense that we are getting today. Back in those days a paperback sold for 25c, of which the author got 1c, but they could sell 20,000 copies of each book.

Copyright was an issue back then too. Ace produced a pirate paperback edition of a much-loved UK import written by a chap named Tolkien. Ian and Betty got involved in helping get a legitimate edition published. The Professor waged a letter-writing campaign to his American fans urging them to boycott the Ace version, and that seemed to work. The pirate edition is now a collector’s item.

The DVD is apparently available for sale ($25 in the US, $30 in Canada, $35 beyond). I don’t think you can buy it online, but comment if you are interested and I’ll send you the details.