Twenty-sided dice will not be featured
It is the event of the year for the folks who roam the realms of fantasy fiction. From October 30 to November 2 Calgary plays host to the World Fantasy Convention one of the largest professional gatherings of movers and shakers in the genre that brings you everything from stories of halflings and elves to tales woven from the darker threads of our imagination. But you will not see a masquerade here. This isn’t a fan convention where people dress as their favourite wizard or roll 20-sided dice to defeat an eighth-level magic user.
For the past 20 years fantasy fiction as a genre has been growing in prominence and stature. The success of Peter Jackson’s film versions of Lord of the Rings helped build a profile in the public eye for fantasy as a whole. C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Material’s trilogy and J.K Rowling’s Harry Potter series have all been made or are being made into multi million-dollar blockbuster films. The upshot of this means a huge demand for science fiction and fantasy books and more importantly a hunger for more from exciting new authors and artists. This means serious cash for those in the trade.
Calgary is home to the biggest English fantasy and science fiction publisher in Canada Hades Publication Inc. Brian Hades and his wife Anita founded Hades eight years ago. “It started as a labour of love” says Brian. “I was hooked in junior high and this has always been something I have been very passionate about.”
It meant an incredible amount of work but that work is beginning to show returns. Hades holds the imprints for EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing Tesseract Books Dragon Moon Press and its newest imprint Absolute XPress. As the largest publishers in the genre in English Canada Hades hopes to raise the bar for quality and originality of works written and published in Canada on the world stage. “It is a tough business but we are getting notice on an international scale now” says Brian. “We are competitive but then again the publishing industry is not a cutthroat competitive business we all prosper when we share.”
The convention is an expression of this sense of co-operation and commitment to introducing new vibrant and exciting talent to other publishers and the reading public. Collectors of rare books book cover artists fantasy artists publishers and agents build careers out of conventions like this. As such it is not just for the casual fan. Convention attendees must pay a membership fee at the door — pre-sales are now closed — at a wallet slimming $180. A limit of 850 tickets is set beforehand at least 775 of which are already sold.
This year’s guests of honour include David Morrell bestselling and three-time winner of the Bram Stoker Award; Barb Hambly accomplished multi-genre author; and Tom Doherty Ace publisher and founder of Tor books. Artist guest of honour Todd Lockwood helped define the look of Dungeons and Dragons and is a past winner of two World Fantasy Art Show awards. Tad Williams author of Tailchaser’s Song will be the Toastmaster of the convention and Calgary’s own exemplars of klezmer-ska-gypsy-rock The Plaid Tongue Devils will play the pre-convention show at the Hyatt Regency.
For the true fan this is where it all begins but us mere mortals will just have to wait and see what will be coming from the hands and imaginations of the storytellers.
