Date: Tue, 19 Mar 2002 09:31:26 -0500
From: "Michael Walsh" <MJW at mail.press.jhu.edu>
To: <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Lunacon reaction
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>

>	If Lunacon wasn't so close to my parents, I'd probably stop going =
to it.
>This doesn't mean that anything spectacularly wrong happens at Lunacon, =
but
>that so much doesn't go sensibly.  For instance, they had Buffy panels in
>rooms that fit maybe 40 people while ballrooms stood empty.  Their major
>guests Peter Hamilton and Alan Dean Foster did a reading and GOH =
speech
>and
>that was it.  They didn't even do the obvious and have a panel with
>Hamilton on the modern space opera or Alan Dean Foster on the difference
>between novels and novelizations.

Both Foster & Hamilton were wandering about the Con (not surprising since =
they had nothing else to do . . .) and both were quite approachable.  =
Hamilton in particular put up - with great pleasantness - coming into the =
dealer's room and being dragged off to a table to sign a pile of books.

As for the lack of usage of the GoHs, the same thing happened when I was =
Fan GoH: two panels.

>
>Actually, I thought the panels on a whole were rather lackluster and the
>programming staff didn't seem to provide the panelists with any more idea
>of what the program was about than the title.  I skipped the masquerade =
but
>was told it was fairly short.  The art show was grand and I did find the
>panel on the publishing industry to be fairly interesting and the =
alternate
>religions panel did have some nice debate, but overall, considering they
>are the con closest to the center of the publishing industry, they should
>do a lot better.

The con struck me as being awfully Balticonish.

I went off to my hotel room on Saturday evening at 11.30.

Bored.

Maybe it was me.

mjw