Category: Conventions
- Lauren Panepinto - July 29th, 2010
The most visible part of San Diego Comic-Con – and the hardest part to explain to non-geeks – is the costumes. I was trying to explain to a friend who had never been to any con before (talk about sink or swim, your first public geek experience being SDCC) that Comic-Con is like the prom, and everyone who dresses up is totally Prom King and Queen of their own personal universe. People who maybe are too shy, or just not attention-seekers normally can dress up as a kick-ass superhero and feel like a rockstar all day at con. All day people want to take pictures of you, tell you how awesome your costume is, tell you how much they love your character (and the more obscure, the better accolades). I have never dressed up for a con, but I have hit more than a few halloweens in NYC dressed up as Lara Croft, Dark Phoenix, assorted Jedi, and a few vampires, and it is kind of a heady experience. I can only imagine to do it at a con is even better. Read the rest of this entry »
by Lauren Panepinto • Post a Comment • Posted in: Art, Conventions, Orbit US
- Lauren Panepinto - July 28th, 2010
I had high hopes of blogging my first San Diego Comic-Con as it was happening (or at least, at the end of each day) but I woefully underestimated the sheer craziness going on every minute of the day and night. Even prepared with multiple cameras and an iPad, there wasn’t a spare minute to post! So, I’m going to be catching you all up now, categorically.
There is so much thorough SDCC coverage around the web that I’m going to try to keep this stuff edited to unique pics taken by me (or Orbit/Yen team members) and try to keep it edited down to a few topics. But don’t doubt for a second that I have a bajillion pics of bespandexed cosplayers posing like they practiced all year…and you know they did. Read the rest of this entry »
by Lauren Panepinto • Post a Comment • Posted in: Art, Conventions, Orbit US
- Alex Lencicki - July 19th, 2010
Comic-Con San Diego is right around the corner! If you’re attending, be sure to stop by the Orbit US booth (#1116) throughout the convention for signings and giveaways, and mark your day planner with the events below to meet our authors.
And if you’re in the San Diego area but didn’t get a pass to Comic-Con – don’t fear! The reading on Sunday with Brent Weeks, Brandon Sanderson, and Patrick Rothfuss is open to all. Full schedule and all the details after the jump! Read the rest of this entry »
by Alex Lencicki • 2 Comments • Posted in: All posts, Conventions, Orbit US
- Bella Pagan - March 30th, 2010
Last weekend I attended the fabulous World Horror Convention in Brighton, a celebration of horror fiction from the Victorian age to the 
present, and the first time this event has been held outside North America.
Horror is a fascinating area and, as with SF and fantasy fiction, the definition seems interestingly fluid and has the capacity to evolve in new and exciting ways with each new generation of writers. We have the legacy of 19th century gothic horror (Mary Shelley, Edgar Allen Poe and Bram Stoker). This was followed by Lovecraftian horror, and more recently we have seen contemporary horror wordsmiths such as Stephen King, James Herbert and Ramsey Campbell.
One of the highlights of the convention was watching Neil Gaiman interview grand master of modern horror James Herbert (while I sat next to the agent who discovered him). Neil Gaiman appeared unannounced as a surprise guest interviewer, and it was as if Elvis had entered the building as news of his arrival rippled tantalisingly through the convention … James Herbert focused on his epic career and on his underprivileged East End origins which inspired him to write. It’s interesting to think how the supernatural thriller/disaster fiction of the 1970s and 80s, turbulent decades of wealth and deprivation lived under the shadow of the bomb, might differ to what is being produced today.
We now have an explosion of new vampire fiction, as Kelley Armstrong discussed with other Read the rest of this entry »
by Bella Pagan • 2 Comments • Posted in: Awards, Commentary, Conventions, New Titles, Orbit Australia, Orbit UK, Orbit US
- Jack Womack - November 4th, 2009
That would be the suite party at the just-held World Fantasy Convention in San Jose, hosted by the always snazzily dressed Gail Carriger, in honor of her debut novel SOULLESS.
The soiree featured delectable delicacies, luscious libations, oscillating octopi, parasols aplenty, a bevy of neo-Victorian beauties, as well as numerous delightful dandies — and all immortalized in glossy color photos by photographer Britt Hart.
Treacle tart, anyone?
by Jack Womack • Post a Comment • Posted in: Conventions, Orbit UK, Orbit US
- DongWon Song - November 3rd, 2009
Devi, my esteemed colleague and likely better in every respect, is a battle-scarred veteran of many a convention. Going into this past weekend she had strategies and plans for survival (and apparently a whole list of mad inventions for future years). I, on the other hand, was an impressionable innocent wandering blindly into the crossfire. I’ve been at Orbit a little over a year and didn’t make it out to Denver last year. I’d bopped around the NYCC a little bit and BEA but those are more trade-shows and I’d somehow avoided all the intense networking and partying they surrounds them. I’d always been interested in going just as a fan, but between work and money and all the other little excuses had never ventured afield to that most scary of SFF meet-ups. I was, as embarrassed as I was to admit it, a convention virgin. Read the rest of this entry »
by DongWon Song • 3 Comments • Posted in: All posts, Conventions, Orbit US
- Devi Pillai - November 3rd, 2009
Someone asked me recently how many conventions I had been to. And sadly the answer to that is so many that I have no idea. I’ve been to at least one a year for the past few years and probably as many as three a year in some cases. What I love about them is the great sense of energy—talking to authors (which I have much to comment on later) and catching up with people you haven’t seen in months and especially the people you’ve yet to meet. I think this year was more fun than other years for a host of reasons. First, I had not one, but two parties that I was invited to. YEAH ME!!! Beat that! Um. Well, one of them was the Orbit party we hosted, so I guess I can’t, in good conscience count that. And the other was my author Gail Carriger’s launch party for Soulless and I guess I had to be invited – being her editor and all. . . But on to the news from WFC! Read the rest of this entry »
by Devi Pillai • 4 Comments • Posted in: All posts, Conventions, Orbit US
- Jack Womack - June 1st, 2009
This year’s Book Expo America, held this past weekend in New York, was a rousing success for Orbit. Attendees lined up at our booth on both Friday afternoon and Saturday morning to meet Orbit author
Gail Carriger.
Ms. Carriger not only demonstrated the superb fashion sense one should expect the creator of the Parasol Protectorate to have, but cheerfully signed galleys of her forthcoming debut novel SOULLESS (October 2009), as those in line enjoyed hot English tea and tasty biscuits served up meanwhile by Orbit’s trusty hands.
Visit Gail online at Gailcarriger.com, follow her on twitter @gailcarriger, and watch for SOULLESS in October.
by Jack Womack • 5 Comments • Posted in: All posts, Conventions, Orbit US
- Darren Nash - April 13th, 2009
So, how did you spend your Saturday evening? I spent mine at LX 2009, the 60th Eastercon, watching multiple World Fantasy Award-winning author, Tim Powers, present Ken MacLeod with a well-deserved BSFA Award for Best Novel for his latest book, The Night Sessions. A gripping hybrid of SF thriller and police procedural, The Night Sessions is set in the future of The Second Enlightenment, where religion has finally been crushed and removed from political life:
A priest is dead. Picking through the rubble of the demolished Edinburgh tenement, Detective Inspector Adam Ferguson discovers that the explosion wasn’t an accident. When a bishop is assassinated soon afterwards, it becomes clear that a targeted campaign of killings is underway. No one has seen anything like this since the Faith Wars.
After the Middle East wars and the rising sea levels – after Armageddon and the Flood – came the Great Rejection. The first Enlightenment separated church from state. The Second Enlightenment has separated religion from politics. In this enlightened age there’s no religious persecution, but believers are a marginal and mistrusted minority. And now someone is killing them. But who? And – perhaps more importantly – why?
The more his team learns, the more the suspicion grows that they may have stumbled upon a conspiracy way outside their remit. Nobody believes them, but if Ferguson and his people fail, there will be many more killings – and disaster on a literally biblical scale . . .
It’s a terrific book with a mystery to unravel and a future world to explore, told with the characteristic dry wit and insight that makes Ken MacLeod one of British science fiction’s most consistently interesting and acclaimed voices. But don’t take my word for it – you can read an extract of The Night Sessions, here, and if that whets your appetite, you’ll be delighted to learn that it’s out now in paperback from all good booksellers. Or you could always buy it in hardback if you wish – it is an award-winning novel, after all!
Congratulations, Ken, from all at Orbit!
by Darren Nash • Post a Comment • Posted in: Awards, Conventions, Extracts, Interviews, News, Orbit Australia, Orbit UK
- Alex Lencicki - February 12th, 2009
Orbit’s Jeff Somers posted a hilarious video of his experiences as a Comicon newbie. Check it out!
by Alex Lencicki • 4 Comments • Posted in: All posts, Conventions, Orbit US, Videos
The most visible part of San Diego Comic-Con – and the hardest part to explain to non-geeks – is the costumes. I was trying to explain to a friend who had never been to any con before (talk about sink or swim, your first public geek experience being SDCC) that Comic-Con is like the prom, and everyone who dresses up is totally Prom King and Queen of their own personal universe. People who maybe are too shy, or just not attention-seekers normally can dress up as a kick-ass superhero and feel like a rockstar all day at con. All day people want to take pictures of you, tell you how awesome your costume is, tell you how much they love your character (and the more obscure, the better accolades). I have never dressed up for a con, but I have hit more than a few halloweens in NYC dressed up as Lara Croft, Dark Phoenix, assorted Jedi, and a few vampires, and it is kind of a heady experience. I can only imagine to do it at a con is even better. Read the rest of this entry »
