What a long strange trip THAT was.
For the ninth time, we made the perilous journey down I-95 to the sea, leaving behind a green, rural landscape full of cows and cornfields; pilgrims on our way to a alien landscape of palm trees and sand and way, way too many cars.
But an IAFA conference is a rare and special thing, and we endured the beaches and fragrant orange groves stoically (who am I kidding? We stopped often to frolic and cavort!). We arrived early so my wife could chair the first poetry session in place of unavoidably-delayed Judith Kerman.
Brian Aldiss, David Lunde, and Marilyn Jurich converse while Donna Ross Hooley cross-examines a sunburned Stefan Hall before memorably introducing them all.
L-R Aldiss, Lunde, Jurich, Hooley, Hall
Brian prepares to make a run for it in case the poetry doesn't work. Well, at least they were on the right feet.
I couldn't find Donna afterwards until I heard her laughter ringing through the lobby and looked down at the bar. She and Brian had skipped the autograph session since there were as yet no copies of UNCOMMONPLACES
to sign, and had gone for a drink instead.
Our reason for attending the conference was Donna's delivery of a paper on Permanent Special Guest Brian W. Aldiss' "Supertoys Last All Summer Long" and its two sequels. Her paper was entitled "I Beheld the Wretch: Supertoys, Monsters and Machines," and she found she was delivering it in good company: old friend Lane Knox chaired the session, and the other presenters were the estimable Carl Yoke and Sarah Canfield Fuller, whose paper won the graduate student award. It's untrue that Donna paid Fuller to set her up by quoting the "I beheld the wretch" passage from FRANKENSTEIN. Just one of those eerie coincidences that only happen at this conference.
Brian was there to heckle and dispute, and a lively discussion ensued following the papers. (I know it's a blurry picture, but look at those grins.)
It was a lively conference; I got to meet the unique China Miéville finally, after noting his comments on the IAFA list-serv for a year or so. I even got to ask a fellow who was welding on the breezeway to please stop the fire alarm he'd cluelessly set off... 
Did somebody mention Tolkien? Joe Sutliff Sanders (L) chairs an authors' reading in the boardroom, with Ted Chiang, Asimov Award Winner Lena DeTar and China Miéville.
China previewing his new book THE SCAR for us. A Prince of the New Renaissance? Er, what good books exactly have been written by princes? Citizen Miéville perhaps, but a distinguished citizen to be sure. Anonymity is hard to regain, once you've written PERDIDO STREET STATION, but then, you could always grow a beard...
China signs afterwards in the bookroom with poet Marilyn Jurich visible behind him.
Joe Haldeman was there, after a rough year, and added immeasurably to the spirit of the conference. He took a moment from his busy schedule to hug Donna.
We assembled by the pool under the guidance of Charles Brown for a group shot. Watch for it in LOCUS. It was much more organized than these pictures (I was just trying not to drop my camera in the pool). 
Stephen R. Donaldson was there (I'm still reeling from his author's reading), and Suzy Charnas, Kathleen Ann Goonan, Nalo Hopkinson, Jean Lorrah, David Hartwell and Pat McKillip and Candas Dorsey and Gary K. Wolfe, and Daniel Keyes, and Andy Duncan and an amazing list of others. Joan Aiken was the Guest of Honor and Molly Gloss the Special Guest Writer. Even in this savage and bloody year, with Mankind's worst causing death and confusion, some of our best brains turned up for this event (there was even a brain in a jar, I swear!).
Thanks to Film Guest Eric Solstein's archives, some of SF/Fantasy's elder statesmen were telepresent on the big screen. As darkness fell, I slipped away to join select others in convening the Lord Ruthven Assembly. Ever since seeing the title of Raymond McNally's paper, "The World's Greatest Female Vampire," we'd been waiting to see if our guesses were correct. I nominated Tonya Harding and Theda Bara, but McNally revealed that the notorious Elizabeth Bathory was 'only' a cannibal and sadist, not a vampire at all. The field was therefore declared open, and Ray has his own leading candidate. Read his paper if you want to know who his nominee was.
ONE RING TO GRIPE THEM ALL
A highlight was the LORD OF THE RINGS panel, in which a group of experts damned the movie with faint praise. Apparently 'The Scouring of the Shire' will be replaced by a kung-fu car chase to please today's demanding film audiences. This leaves the way clear for a straight-to-video fourth movie: ATTACK OF THE CLONED SARUMANS, with Gollum as Jar-Jar. Okay, maybe it's not quite that bad. 
Daniel Timmons and Chip Sullivan listen patiently to a long speech in Elvish.
Verlyn Flieger, Tom Shippey, and Charles W. Nelson enjoy the audience comments. Bill Senior apparently slipped on a magic ring and vanished from my photo.
Corrupting Dr Joseph: guest author John Kessel enjoying himself in the bookroom.
HELL IS OTHER PEOPLE who want autographs but luckily, this isn't a Sartre play. Arthur Hlavaty, Kevin Maroney, and Peter Straub prepare to escape the bookroom.
We escaped as well, but only to the greenway park next to the Hilton. The scenery is always beautiful in Ft. Lauderdale.
L-R - Robin Reid, Judith Kerman, Joe Haldeman, and Kelly Searsmith treated us to an excellent second poetry session on Friday, just before the famous two-alarm Guest Scholar's luncheon for Roderick McGillis.
Donna and David Lunde after the second reading, with Kelly Searsmith in background.
Donna and former Special Film Guest Lokke Heisse.
We found good company at table, as always. My wife Donna and Jean Embree sit across from Kevin Maroney and Arthur Hlavaty with Timothy Knox and his wife Lane.
Even Brian Aldiss came to sit with us at one luncheon, and you don't get better table company than Brian.
Joe Jones was our guest artist and designed the cool t-shirts and conference posters and the new scalable logo. Donna was more interested in doing scholarly research into his wife's plans to take the kids to Disneyworld post-conference as we stood on the balcony in the final hours of the conference. 
With the lights of the airport visible behind him, Brian Aldiss enjoys the Florida weather as the twenty-third IAFA conference winds down. Even after the banquet, no one jumped off the balcony, and that's important.
It was the best of times, and for a few, the worst of times, but then that's what time machines are for. Next year - 2003! Can the world get any stranger? What strange future of exploding buildings and philosophies are we careening headlong towards? Will we all be driving Segways and watching WWIII on tv glasses? Never mind - I'll see you all next year even if I have to have my freakin' SHOES x-rayed to get there.
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Last updated =May 2002