World Fantasy Convention in DC The 29th Annual World Fantasy Convention will be held in Washington D.C. over the Halloween weekend. Appropriately, the theme of this year's convention is "Dark Fantasy: Honorable Traditions which explores the interplay of diverse traditions in dark and other fantasy."
Some of the panels scheduled are:
Scaring the Little Monsters -- Dark fantasy for the young; what makes it scary, but not too scary.
Darkened Characters -- Are the characters in horror fantasy different than characters in other modes of fantasy? Must certain characteristics have been honed or suppressed in the protagonists or antagonists for the stories to have worked?
Werewolves: The New Vampires? -- Vampires are still thick on (or in) the ground, but werewolves seem to be the up and coming hero/villains. Why is this? and the very relevant
Passionate Crossovers -- Combinations of romance with the fantasy, horror, and sf genres are becoming commonplace. Is this something new or have they always been around? What are the pleasures and pitfalls of these crossovers?
The September 2003 Chronicle (formerly Science Fiction Chronicle) features an extensive interview with Laurel K. Hamilton. In the interview, Hamilton talks about American vs. European fans, if Merry ever takes a night off, and why the author herself is getting fewer sexual advances these days.
An excerpt -- Chronicle: Your books contain a lot of very frank sexual content; does this lead to people making unwanted assumptions about you or cause you other difficulties in your life? And if so, do you think it's because you're female and only guys are supposed to write this sort of stuff ... ? LKH: ... I've been told in publishing directly, straight-out, that the reason that the sexual content is so disturbing is because I'm a woman. And I have had people, even on this tour, say that they were disturbed by the violence and the sex because I'm a woman. We have not come as far as we think we have. ...
The interview doesn't appear to be online anywhere, but back issues should be available through their (woefully out of date) website.
