- Writer GoH: Allen Steele
- Artist GoH: Ron Miller
- Fan GoH: Lisa Ashton
Click here to learn more about Albany, NY.
Anticipation Masquerade DVD is now available on CreateSpace
Are you looking for the Scottish Albacon?
http://www.albacon.org.uk/
Friday's all-day writers' workshop is back! We will have panels addressing a variety of topics such as breaking into writing, the business of writing, blogging, networking, queries, promotion and podcasting. For more information, contact writersworkshop @ albacon . org
The following authors will be there:
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Last year's workshop was mentioned in an article by David G. Hartwell. Reprinted in its entirety by permission, from Issue 255, November 2009, New York Review of Science Fiction
Here it is fall 2009. and things don't look so bad, if you discount the number of people out of work because of the recession, and the fact that many people are poorer than they were ten years ago. Thirty years ago, in a recession, half the sf lines in the United States closed down and the editorial staffs were fired or reassigned. Things have not gotten that bad this time, and I read a sales report today (in mid-October as I write) that said while book sales are mostly down, the exception is fantasy and science fiction. Well, that's a big exception for us. Of course the news is full of the names of companies about to declare bankruptcy, or trying to avoid bankruptcy, and the names of this month's failed banks, but still, there are a lot of good books out this fall and readers appear to be buying them and reading them. Sure hope that continues through the winter and next year, as unemployment increases. One perhaps not so minor point is that fewer women than men have been put out of work, at least in the United States.
I went to Albacon in Albany, New York, this past weekend, a convention notably smaller than last year, and in a less expensive hotel. Still, it was fun, had a good program, and instituted a writing workshop for Paranormal Romance and Urban Fantasy, the present hot subgenres in the mass market. These genres are particularly hot with women readers. The audience and workshop participants were entirely women, except for me and one male editor on one panel. I have been giving some thought to those categories over the past year, since I am, in my guise as a senior editor at Tor Books, buying urban fantasy. Leaving aside the fact that the name "urban fantasy" is now a marketing category quite dissimilar to the fantasy subgenre from which its name was borrowed (it is not much like Charles de Lint's fiction, nor that of his distinguished predecessors such as Fritz Leiber), and that the books are sometimes indistinguishable from the paranormal romance marketing category, I am becoming convinced that in urban fantasy, something new is happening. It seems to me that in romantic fantasy, including most paranormal romance, the sympathetic and sometimes strong woman gets the heroic male and to live happily-ever-after. And in urban fantasy, the strong woman gets to have romance (and sex) but gets to be the hero of her own life. Fantasy in which the woman gets to be the hero of her own life is otherwise still pretty thin on the ground, and I think that perhaps a cultural change is underpinning the bestselling popularity of urban fantasy. I do not represent this as a mature and finished conclusion, but as a partly baked idea open to correction by people who know perhaps more than I do. But I think it is time to pay some attention to what is, aside from heroic fantasy, the best-selling segment of the fantasy market for the last half-decade.
—David G. Hartwell
& the editors
Sept 20, 2010
And Free shuttle from airport, train or bus station.
See Hotel page for more information.
Sept 15, 2010
Jackie Kessler has agreed to be Albacon 2011 Guest of Honor. She is joining Programming for Albacon 2010.
Sept 14, 2010
Joining Programming at Albacon are CJ Henderson, Leslie Thomas, Tony Pacitti, Peter Prellwitz, Stephanie Julian and Paul Park.
Sept 14, 2010
Albacon regrets that we have to cancel the Albakid Program. We will refund the Albakid membership to the parents of the children. We are sorry for any inconvenience that this may cause you.
Sept 14, 2010
Next committee meeting is Wednesday September 22, at 6 PM, at the Albany Public Library, Main Branch on Washington Avenue, conference room 2.
Sept 1, 2010
Albacon has several new guests, and updated bios. Check it out!
More Info
August 9, 2010
Joining Programming at Albacon are Jennifer Schwabach, Steven Sawicki and Pete Prellwitz.
July 21, 2010
Art show forms are now available for download
More Info