[NY Day 7ish] World Fantasy Convention part 2

WFC Day 3

Brought to you by a travel grant from the Western Australian Department of Culture and the Arts.

There’s no hiding from it: the dealer room this year is quiet. Too quiet. The talk around the room is that it’s among the quietest ever. It’s not that people aren’t buying, more that people just aren’t coming into the room to browse. I’m told that this con has full attendance, so around 1,000, but I’v seen busier rooms at cons of 200.

The crazy part of the low sales is that, comparatively, we’re doing okay. We’ve sold out of a couple of titles that started with 6 or so copies, and people are finding us and know our name and some of our writers. I feel for those dealers who have equally good stuff on offer who aren’t shifting much at all.

Looking for the silver lining, the quiet room has meant I’ve had some great conversations uninterrupted by customers: an awesome 10 minutes with Walter Jon Williams talking Chinese food; some great chats with the always articulate Garth Nix; the hilarious Christine Daigle; gin recommendations with John Berlyne (must try neat with rosemary and orange peel); and many others.

With my professional hat on, I’ve done some great networking with publishers, met Oliver Johnson, a big wig with Hodder (I carefully hid my fanboy hat that this is the guy who did the Islay/Jura trip with Iain Banks while he was writing Raw Spirit). I’ve met a bunch of reviewers and artists, as well as writers and editors.

There are many positives to take away from this convention, and a big final day of selling books would be icing on the cake.

This post isn’t really meant to be a partial convention report, it’s just happened that way. There’s also been experiencing the local cuisine. At breakfast yesterday I encountered the conept of biscuits and gravy. If you know what this is, I apologise in advance if my following description doesn’t quite capture this food. If you have no idea what this is, and are from countries such as Australia or the UK where the words “biscuit” and “gravy” already has an identity, well…

… “biscuits and gravy” really contains neither biscuits nor gravy. Imagine a scone, but a little more crumbly, but nonetheless an item that for all intents and purposes looks like a plain scone. That is, in the vernacular, a “biscuit”. Looks like a scone, tastes like a scone, just crumbles a little easier than a scone. Now imagine a white lumpy goop. Looking closer, the lumps are greyish. The texture is goopy, paste like, like a really thick pancake batter, but who knows what gives it that viscosity. I’m told that milk is involved in making this goop, and that the grey lumps are chopped up “sausage” (that weird sausage they have over here that’s actually a small meat pattie). This is the “gravy”.

And it’s not too bad. It’s probably not going to win any awards for nutrition, or be recommended by any dietiticians, but for a solid breakfast contribution it does the job. I’d probably prefer the gravy to be more like gravy so it soaks into the scones, but that’s just me.