Chicon 7 Starts Tomorrow!

Chicon 7 (a.k.a. WorldCon) starts tomorrow. I will be attending as a member of the press, but don't worry, I still plan to post Thursday and Friday so you can end your week with the usual alternate history goodies.

If you follow us on Twitter you can check in live when I announce the winners of the Sidewise Awards this Friday night at 9 pm CST. If you are attending Chicon you can find me there Thursday, Friday and Saturday. I will be out of town Sunday and Monday because of wedding so I won't be there for the end and I will also not be posting a Weekly Update on Monday. Sorry, I just won't have the time, but next Monday I will have two news posts to make up for what I missed last week.

This will be the last post I make about Chicon before the convention begins. Below is some important information for you to know if you are going.

Artist Guest of Honor Rowena Morrill Unable to Attend Chicon 7

Artist Guest of Honor Rowena Morrill will be unable to attend the convention. Rowena has recently been hospitalized following health problems, but is now recovering well. She has expressed her regret that she is unable to make a personal appearance at Worldcon.

Rowena's original art, prints and books will still be on display and for sale in the Chicon 7 Art Show and
Dealer's Room, and Rowena's many fans are encouraged to stop by to appreciate her work.

Chicon 7 Announces Mobile App for Android and Apple Devices

Chicon 7 is providing its members with an online application for handheld devices that provides key convention information. The app was developed in partnership with Viafo and is available for Android phones and tablets through Google Play, and will shortly be available for iPhone and iPad through the iTunes App Store.

The Chicon 7 app is an enhanced version of the software that was previously used for Renovation, the 2011 Worldcon. The app includes a full program schedule with item descriptions, times, and locations; a linked program participant list; social media integration; and hotel maps. A key improvement from Renovation is that the app now comes with an integrated version of the program database, enabling it to be used offline. Members can resynchronize the app at any time to provide the latest version of the program.

I have personally downloaded the app onto my phone and it has been very useful in helping me create my schedule. Full information and download details can be found on the Chicon 7 website.

Chicon 7 Confirms High Turnout for Hugo Awards Ballot, Announces More Ceremony Details

A total of 1922 valid final ballots were received, representing a 37.7% turnout. The figure of 1922 is the second highest ballot count in history after Renovation, the 2011 Worldcon. Chicon 7 previously announced an all-time record of 1101 nominating ballots, highlighting the ever-increasing interest and support for the Hugo Awards.

The 2012 Hugo Award winners will be announced on Sunday evening, September 2, at a formal ceremony in the Hyatt Regency Grand Ballroom. At Chicon 7's invitation, the host for the night will be Chicon 7's Toastmaster, Hugo and Campbell Award-winning author and blogger John Scalzi. Members can look forward to Scalzi's inimitable combination of insight, humor and sheer coolness throughout an exciting and entertaining event.

The Hugo Award ceremony will start at 8 p.m. and will be broadcast live around the world via Ustream. In addition, the official Hugo Awards site will provide live text coverage via CoverItLive. The CoverItLive broadcast will be hosted by former Worldcon Co-Chairman Kevin Standlee and Campbell Award Nominee Mur Lafferty.

It is a Worldcon tradition that while the Hugo trophy itself always takes the form of a silver rocket, the base on which it stands is unique to each year. The 2012 Hugo Award base has been designed by Deb Kosiba, who previously designed the trophy bases for the 2005 and 2006 awards. Ms. Kosiba will be revealing and discussing the base design at the Chicon 7 Opening Ceremony on Thursday, August 30, and members are encouraged to attend for a first look at this coveted item.

The Hugo Awards are the premier award in the science fiction genre, honoring science fiction and fantasy literature and media as well as the genre's fans. The awards were first presented at the 1953 World Science Fiction Convention ("Worldcon") in Philadelphia (Philcon II), and Worldcons have continued to present the awards annually for nearly 60 years.

* * *

Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update, a volunteer editor for Alt Hist and a contributor to Just Below the Law. His fiction can be found at Echelon Press, Jake's Monthly and his own writing blog. When not writing he works as an attorney and enjoys life with his beautiful wife Alana.

Preview: Corrupted Classics

In early 2012 HarperCollinsPublishers Publishing Director, Shona Martyn, and Head of Digital, Mark Higginson, gathered together a small but intrepid group of staff from various departments and issued a challenge: to go where no traditional, book-loving trade publisher had gone before — into the land of the digital unknown.

Staff were separated into teams, given a small budget and asked to produce an original digital publication or product to release into the market. Each team was asked to create, research, cost and produce their product. The winning team would be the one that generated the most revenue for the business. After months of surreptitious meetings, brainstorms, setbacks and small victories — the Corrupted Classics team is the first of these Project Flash Pub groups to release a product into the market.

Corrupted Classics is a collection of very short stories that will make you shudder in fear and wriggle with gruesome glee. See history’s best-loved book characters face a fate more cataclysmic than academic obscurity. These are the classics as you have never seen them before: alive and well in the realm of the undead. Head of Digital Mark Higginson said: ‘As digital reading platforms continue to gain traction with consumers, so too does the opportunity for experimentation and connecting readers with the written word. Corrupted Classics is a wonderful example of how digital publishing is able to quickly respond to market demands and reinvent traditional narratives for the modern reader.’

The Corrupted Classics Facebook page has had over 1200 likes, and is attracting zombie-loving e-book fiends by the minute. Corrupted Classics is ready to take the e-book market by storm, even if it has to raise the dead to do it. View the trailer here.

Three other Project Flash Pub projects are still in development. Shona Martyn said: ‘In the world of digital, we need our publishers, editors and other creative team members to think about creating book products in a totally original way. Rather than attending seminars, reading articles about the future of digital or simply transforming existing books into e-books, we thought it would be fun to get staff to become the authors and the creators themselves so they could truly explore the medium — and test the results by actually putting them on sale. I am thrilled by the outcome. This has been empowering, a learning experience, has strengthened inter-departmental bonding and, hey, now we are selling the first product!’

Tim Miller, the Marketing Executive at HarperCollins Australia, was kind enough to send Weekly Update a copy of Corrupted Classics which will be read and reviewed by Kieran Colfer, the first member of the new AH Weekly Update Review Team. Those interested in joining the team should check out this post. In the meantime, stay tuned for Kieran's review.

* * *

Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update, a volunteer editor for Alt Hist and a contributor to Just Below the Law. His fiction can be found at Echelon Press, Jake's Monthly and his own writing blog. When not writing he works as an attorney and enjoys life with his beautiful wife Alana.

Chicon 7 Unites the Past and Future of Electronic Gaming

Chicon 7 (Worldcon) is bringing together a unique pairing of historic and contemporary electronic games with free access for all convention members.

Historic games will be provided through Star Worlds Arcade of DeKalb, Illinois. Star Worlds is widely recognized as one of the last arcades with coin-operated games in the US, and takes particular pride in maintaining and refurbishing historic arcade games from the 1980s. Star Worlds will be bringing no fewer than 15 of these machines to the Chicon 7 concourse for exclusive use by Chicon 7 members throughout the convention. Games on offer are expected to include such classics as Space Invaders, Missile Command and Robotron.

Showing the huge developments in arcade games of the last 30 years, the concourse will also host six BattleTech Cockpit Simulator Pods. These cockpits, created by Virtual World Entertainment, are fully enclosed military style simulators that feature seven displays (one primary and six secondary) and a full set of 90 controls (footpedals, throttle, joystick and numerous buttons). When seated in the pod, the player pilots one of a selection of BattleMechs onto one of 25 landscapes to compete for battlefield superiority with those seated in surrounding cockpits. The BattleTech pods were invented in Chicago, so Chicon 7 is doubly pleased to offer its members the chance to try them out.

For more information, go to Arcade Classics and BattleTech pages on the Chicon 7 website.

Chicon 7 and Dragon*Con Announce Shared Programming Initiative

You have heard me talk about Dragon*Con in the past, especially when I interviewed the Director of the Alternate History Fan Track Dr. Q. Well this year Chicon 7 and Dragon*Con are teaming up as part of their Labor Day weekend activities.

For the first time, Worldcon and Dragon*Con will run joint programming through a two-way video link. Chicon 7 and Dragon*Con attendees will be able to sample the flavor of each other's events through a series of program items featuring participants at each location. In addition, Dragon*Con will show a live broadcast of the Hugo Awards Ceremony from Chicon 7, while Chicon 7 will present a video (previously recorded) of the unique Dragon*Con parade on the streets of downtown Atlanta, which features over 3,000 costumes.

Details of the joint programming can be found on the Chicon 7 website. Four shared program items have been scheduled for each day from Friday, August 31, to Sunday, September 2. Final details of program participants at each location will be added to the Chicon 7 website in the next week.

Elsewhen Press Signs New Fantasy Author For Debut Novel Weaving Together Modern-Day and Dark Ages

Elsewhen Press announced that Dave Weaver, graphic designer and author, has signed a publishing deal for an undisclosed sum for his debut fantasy novel.  Jacey’s Kingdom is an enthralling tale that revolves around a startlingly desperate reality: Jacey Jackson, a talented student destined for Cambridge, collapses with a brain tumour while sitting her final history exam at school.  In her mind she struggles through a quasi-historical sixth century dreamscape whilst the surgeons fight to save her life.

Jacey is helped by a stranger called George, who finds himself trapped in her nightmare after a terrible car accident.  There are quests, battles, and a love story ahead of them, before we find out if Jacey will awake from her coma or perish on the operating table.  And who, or what, is George?  In this book, Dave Weaver questions our perception of reality and the redemptive power of dreams; are our experiences of fear, conflict, friendship and love any less real or meaningful when they take place in the mind rather than the ‘real’ physical world?

Dave Weaver has been writing for ten years. He joined the Verulam Writers' Circle and has since had a number of short stories published in anthologies, magazines and online in the UK and USA. Much of his writing hovers on the shifting borders between fantasy and reality.  He holds a particular fascination for the uncertain times of Britain’s Dark Ages, no doubt inspired by the ruins of the Roman town of Verulamium near where he lives with his family and a cat called Trillian.  Jacey’s Kingdom is his first published novel.

Al Murray, Managing Publisher of Elsewhen Press said “Dave cleverly weaves a tale that takes the almost unimaginable drama of an eighteen year-old girl whose life is in the balance, relying on modern surgery to bring her back from the brink, and conceives the world that she has constructed in her mind to deal with the trauma happening to her body.  Developing the friendship between Jacey and George in a natural and witty style, despite their unlikely situation and the difference in their ages, Dave has produced a story that is both exciting and thought-provoking, which is why it is a perfect fit for Elsewhen Press.  We are sure that this book will be a must-read story for adults and young adults alike.”

Elsewhen Press adopts a digital-first policy, initially publishing new titles in ebook format and subsequently in print editions.  Jacey’s Kingdom by Dave Weaver will be published in a digital edition this winter and in print next year.

All Timelines Lead to Rome by Dale Cozort available in paperback and e-book 9/30 from Stairway Press

I am pleased to announce a new unique alternate history by friend of the blog Dale Cozrot: All Timelines Lead to Rome. Originally Dale wrote the novel for NaNoWriMo, an annual challenge to write 50,000 words in the month of November.  He wrote over 73,000 words, but it was still not enough to finish the novel. Now he has completed his work and is preparing to publish it on Sept 30th.  Here is the description of the novel from the press release:

Newly created portals lead to an alternate reality where humans enslaved rather than wiping out an island race of hobbit-like near-humans. Alternate history Rome built their culture around these slaves, preserving the empire but causing stagnation. The Roman Empire has survived nearly unchanged since its peak. As a result, Europeans never discovered America and American Indians still control the alternate reality's New World.

Intertwined mysteries: A camera chip concealed on the body of a dead woman depicts a Roman scroll that could not exist in this reality. The subsequent murder investigation and the discovery of the chip leads to Detective Darla Smith to the Bureau of Timeline Integrity and analyst Scott White. Is the murder linked to smuggled Roman artifacts from the alternate timeline? When they discover the chip also contains photos of a creature who's not quite human, powerful forces step in to detour Scott and Darla. Undeterred, they continue their investigation, leading them further into dangerous territory and more tangled mysteries. What lurks in Darla's past and dogs the investigation? What is that peculiar creature in the photo, and how did it have such an impact on Rome? Why do Roman slave raiders suddenly appear in alternate history North America? And what does software giant Burgen Industries have to do with any of this?

A trail of clues leads Darla and Scott through cyberspace, decaying rustbelt towns, and an Indian-controlled alternate North America toward the final shocking answer as to why all timelines lead to Rome.

This is Dale's second novel, and a strong contender for reader attention. The New York Times Best Selling author S.M. Stirling said, "All Timelines is an intriguing and action-packed alternate history with an unusual point of departure. I like it!"

Dale was kind enough to send me a review copy, so stay tuned for a review in the near future. In the meantime you can read this excerpt from the novel.

* * *

Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update, a volunteer editor for Alt Hist and a contributor to Just Below the Law. His fiction can be found at Echelon Press, Jake's Monthly and his own writing blog. When not writing he works as an attorney and enjoys life with his beautiful wife Alana.