An Update From Connie

The novel is now really turned in, though there's still tons of work (and cutting) to be done on it, so I won't really feel like celebrating until that's done and the book's formally accepted and everything. I worked on the Obama campaign and I'm still deliriously happy about the election a week later and having a little trouble with withdrawal, though I am busily watching Sarah Palin's Victory Tour? which is helping some.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Connie Willis

New Online Interviews

Mur Lafferty Interview From BaltiCon 42.
On Mur Lafferty's I Should be Writing 2.0 blog, she has posted a two part video interview with Connie from BaltiCon 42. Part 1 Part 2

BaltiCon Podcast Connie Willis Interview
On the Balticon Podcast site, they have recently posted their podcast interview with Connie Willis, BaltiCon 42's Author Guest of Honor.

Greeley High Plains Library District SciFi Gala Report

The Greeley Tribune has this report on the High Plains Library District Foundation scifi themed fundraiser which happened on Sept 27th. No pictures of Connie in the newspaper, but there may end up some photos from the event at Black Tie Colorado. They do currently have a Silent Auction going as a fund-raiser.

Loveland Loves to Read: Bellwether

The Loveland, Colorado library has selected Connie Willis' Bellwether as their Loveland Loves to Read book and this week has Connie giving two talks on Wednesday, Oct 1st at the Rialto theatre.

Here's the original announcement about the event from back in August. For current details, visit the Friends of the Loveland Library page or read this informational PDF about it.

Rocky Mountain News Interview & Story

For the A Dozen On Denver series of stories in the Rocky Mountain News, Connie Willis has contributed a new short story and has also done an interview.

For the interview, go here.

For the short story, "A New Hat", go here.

Denvention 3 - Hugo Award #10

At the Hugo Awards Ceremony last night at Denvention 3, Connie Willis was awarded her tenth Hugo Award for the novella "All Seated on The Ground".

Connie and George R. R. Martin (who accepted the hugo for Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policeman's Union).

A close-up of the actual award.

More on this year's full slate of winners at The Hugo Awards site.

Connie at San Diego Comic Con International

I've got a round up of news and information from Connie's appearances at San Diego Comic Con International last weekend. Her group panel with other authors was packed and her solo spotlight panel was nearly full. At her spotlight panel, she indicated that All Clear would be finished in the next month.

Thursday was the Eye on the Past panel with a number of authors. From left to right in the picture are Maryelizabeth Hart (moderator from Mysterious Galaxy), Peter David, Naomi Novik, Connie Willis, Max Allan Collins (with a wall of books), Jess Winfield, and Jacqueline Carey. Each author talked about how their books are set in a specific time and what is involved with researching the time period. It appeared that a good number of the attendees in the panel room were there primarily for Naomi Novik.

After the panel was a signing with all of the authors. As somewhat expected, most of the people in the autograph line had something for Naomi Novik, so those of us with books for the other authors got to skip ahead and take care of their books.

On Friday, Connie did her spotlight panel where she talked about All Clear and answered questions from the audience. This livejournal post by kalquessa (after the Stargate panel review) summarizes Connie's panel well. Later in the day, she did a signing at the Bantam Spectra booth. Suvudu.com (Bantam/Spectra's new online site) has a video of Connie signing Passage. After the signing, Suvudu taped an interview of Connie with her editor, Anne Groell, that should turn up on the site sometime in the near future.

Saturday night, Connie watched her daughter, Cordelia, perform in the Comic Con masquerade. Her group, doing a scifi take on Hairspray, won Judges choice.

Connie's next official event was a signing at the Bantam Spectra booth on Sunday, in which they handed out copies of Bellwhether.

Connie's ComicCon Schedule (Updated!)

Connie will be doing two panels at the Comic Con International Convention in San Diego and several autograph sessions. Here are the details as they stand now:

Thursday, July 24 5:00-6:00
Looking at Our World: Eye on the Past - Authors discuss how they use and abuse history to inform their fictional stories. Panelists include Connie Willis (Passage), Jacqueline Carey (Kushiel's Legacy), Max Allan Collins (Deadly Beloved), Peter David (Tigerheart), Naomi Novik (Victory of Eagles), and Jess Winfield (My Name Is Will: A Novel of Sex, Drugs, and Shakespeare). Moderated by Maryelizabeth Hart of Mysterious Galaxy. Room 8

Friday, July 25 12:30-1:30 Spotlight on Connie Willis - Time travel, hula hoops, flying saucers, church choirs, and other proofs of Chaos Theory in action! Multiple Nebula and Hugo Award–winning science fiction author and Comic-Con special guest Connie Willis (Doomsday Book, To Say Nothing of the Dog) reveals the outer reaches and inner secrets of writing science fiction. Room 10

Note that both of those rooms seat only around 280-300 people, which could easily fill up with fans. It may seem like a lot, but when there are around 125,000 attendees, the rooms can fill up quickly. The group panel with several notable authors will definitely fill up.

Autographs in the Sails Pavillion
Looking at Our World: Eye on the Past
Connie Willis, Jacqueline Carey, Max Allan Collins, Peter David, Naomi Novik, Jess Winfield Thursday AA6 6:00 pm–7:00 pm

Connie will also be doing a couple of signings at the Bantam/Spectra Booths that are part of the Random House set of booths (Booths 1128-1136) in the exhibit hall.

Friday, July 25th - 5pm to 6 pm - Connie Willis Bantam Spectra Booth Signing
Sunday, July 27th - 11 am to 12 pm - Connie Willis Bantam Spectra Booth Signing

For full details on Bantam/Spectra at ComicCon, check out their Comic Con Schedule on their Myspace page.

All Clear Update - Not Quite Done

Reports from Balticon and elsewhere about the status of All Clear had indicated that All Clear was finished and turned in. That is not the case. In an email correspondence with Connie, she indicated "It's not. It's very, very close, but as you know there's a very great difference between that and finished." So, no it has not yet been turned in to her publisher and reports of it having been completed were premature.

More BaltiCon Report Blogging

Lucy Anne, who was Connie's Guest Liaison, had some nice things to say about Connie in part 1 of her Balticon 42 reports.

Rayvn has pictures of poppets at BaltiCon 42 with the guests, including Connie. For more of Lisa Snelling Clark's poppets, visit Poppet Planet.

Kitty Kat has a picture of Connie on her BaltiCon 42 Report. She handles the Neverwear clothes for Neil Gaman.

Debbie's Blatherings has an extensive report on the con, mentioning how she embarassed herself in front of Connie.

BaltiCon 42 Blog Reports

I've found several people who have blogged about BaltiCon 42 this weekend that have mentioned Connie in their blogs.

First of all, Greeley, Colorado, was hit with tornadoes late last week and according to a report on the opening ceremonies, Connie mentioned that her house and family were OK.

The other important news is that Connie has finished All Clear after six years working on it and after a few more tweaks it will be sent off to the publisher. I'm hoping to get some more details directly from Connie soon.

Here's a roundup of the blog reports:

A Curious Statistical Anomaly has several daily reports under the BaltiCon tag. This includes the report on opening ceremonies and the report on Connie's Q&A where she mentioned the status of All Clear.

Wombat Rampant reports on Balticon as well in several posts.

Punkadyne Labs (i.e. Grig "Punkie Larson") posted a couple of blog entries on BaltiCon, including one about doing a panel called "Who Really Wrote the Works of Connie Willis?"

Finally, there should eventually be an interview/podcast with Connie up on the BaltiCon Podcast website.

Lee Whiteside

Connie Willis News tidbits

Doomsday Book is 2008's One Book, One Batavia selection.
Batavia, Illinois, has chosen Doomsday Book as the One Book, One Batavia 2008 selection. As part of this selection, Connie Willis will be making two appearances in Batavia on March 20th. One at noon at the Batavia Public Library for the Books Between Bites lunch session and that night at the Batavia High School at 7 pm. Full details on on the One Book, One Batavia page.

Starship Sofa Podcast
The works of Connie Willis are featured on the new edition of the Starshp Sofa podcast, #80
This week the StarShipSofa smacks into on of the brightest stars in SF and that is Connie Willis. Join Tony C Smith on his own personal voyage of discovery into all things Connie Willis.