We’ve posted pictures of our party at SiliCon 2009 on the SJ2011 LiveJournal. We’d like to thank everyone who came by and said hello, and to welcome all of our new members and those people who upgraded their pre-supporting memberships to attending memberships.
Westercon 64 Guest of Honor, Patricia A. McKillip won the first ever World Fantasy Award for Best Novel with her book, The Forgotten Beasts of Eld. Today that book is reviewed in The Guardian as part of a series looking at award winning fantasy novels. We are pleased to see that the reviewer was impressed.
Our congratulations to Westercon 64 Guests of Honor, Phil and Kaja Foglio, whose Girl Genius, Vol 8 won the first ever Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story in Montreal at the weekend. The only previous work of sequential art to win a Hugo was Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ legendary Watchmen, which won in a one-off category of “Other Forms” in 1988. This year’s Best Graphic Story category was a special creation of the Montreal Worldcon, but a vote of the Business Meeting of the World Science Fiction Society at that convention has confirmed the category as a permanent part of the Hugo Awards until at least 2012. Girl Genius topped the nominating ballots and emerged the winner in the Final Ballot after a hard-fought battle with Joss Whedon’s Serenity: Better Days.
Update: Although Phil & Kaja were unable to attend Anticipation, they posted their acceptance speech on the Girl Genius web site.
We now have a Page on Facebook. If you are a regular Facebook user, please come along and say hello.
We are now taking membership bookings online. See here for details. If you are unsure of your current membership status you can check our membership list.
The site of the 2011 Westercon was selected by a vote of the members of the 2009 Westercon in Tempe AZ. San Jose received a majority of the ballots cast on the first round and was declared the winner of the election to host Westercon 64. The Westercon Bylaws, Section 3.17, require that these results be published in a progress report of the winning bid.
| Candidate | Thu | Fri | Total | |
| San Jose | 9 | 17 | 53 | 79 |
| Write-Ins: | ||||
| Both | 1 | 1 | ||
| Fordlandia | 2 | 2 | ||
| I-5 in 2105 | 1 | 1 | ||
| Maui | 2 | 2 | ||
| Nome of the Above | 1 | 1 | ||
| Reno in 2011 | 1 | 1 | ||
| Spuzzum BC | 1 | 1 | ||
| Tonopah NV | 2 | 2 | ||
| Trona CA | 1 | 1 | ||
| None of the Above | 1 | 1 | ||
| Total with Preference | 10 | 20 | 62 | 92 |
| Needed to Elect (Majority) | 47 | |||
| No Preference | 1 | 1 | ||
| Total Ballots Cast | 10 | 21 | 62 | 93 |
San Jose has won the right to host Westercon 64, having received 79 of the 93 ballots cast in the election held at Westercon 62 in Tempe, Arizona.
Westercon 64’s Guests of Honor will be:
Writer: Patricia A. McKillip
Artists: Phil & Kaja Foglio
Fan: Mike Willmoth
Attending memberships will be $45 with discounts to people who voted in Site Selection or pre-supported the bid.
If you pre-supported (or pre-opposed) the SJ 2011 bid and voted in 2011 Site Selection (or were a Friend of the SJ 2011 bid), you are automatically an attending member.
A new Westercon 64 web site at http://www.westercon64.org/ will be online soon. Online registration for Westercon 64 will be also be available soon.
The Site Selection Ballot for the 2011 Westercon has been released by this year’s Westercon in Arizona. You can download this ballot and use it to vote on the site of the 2011 Westercon.
You need to be a member of FiestaCon (Westercon 62) in order to vote. You also must pay a separate $25 voting fee (payable to Westercon 64), which counts as at least as supporting membership in the 2011 Westercon.
If you are not going to FiestaCon in Tempe this July and still want to vote, you can either mail your ballot or send it with someone who is going to FiestaCon to deliver for you. We can also carry your ballot with us if you would like us to do so. contact us for details if you would like us to carry your ballot for you.
Many members of the bid were at BayCon 2009 in Santa Clara, California. Pictures of our table and party are on the updated Meet Us page. This was the bid’s final promotional appearance before FiestaCon, this year’s Westercon in Tempe, Arizona, where the election to choose the site of Westercon 64 will be held.
We thank everyone who stopped by our table or party at BayCon, and especially to all the new pre-supporting members we signed up. We’re looking forward to meeting more people at Tempe in a few weeks.
Representatives from the SJ in 2011 bid were at Norwescon 32 in SeaTac, Washington over Easter weekend, where we sat at a bid information table and held a party on Saturday night. We’ve posted pictures on the updated Meet Us page. Our next planned convention appearance is at BayCon 2009 in Santa Clara, California.
