This year, World Fantasy was at Saratoga Springs, New York. It was a lovely town upstate and I, for one, had forgotten what trees looked like!

Attending the convention was Orbit from both here and across the pond: Tim Holman, Publishing Director (US & UK); Darren Nash, Editorial Director (UK); George Walkley, Business Manager (UK); Alex Lencicki, Marketing and Publicity Director (US); Jennifer Flax, Editorial Assistant (US); and me (Devi Pillai, Editor, US)!

Some of our lovely authors also attended: Marie Brennan, Robert Buettner, Jo Graham, Karin Lowachee, Jennifer Rardin, Lilith Saintcrow, Jeff Somers and Walter Jon Williams. It was also great to see Daniel Abraham and Scott Bakker from Orbit in the UK.

Friday

The Orbit team took an early train fortified with plenty of Dunkin Donuts coffee on Friday morning. Our car, fully packed for World Fantasy, included: Diana Gill of Eos, Anne Sowards and Jessica Wade of Ace and Roc and Rome Quezada of the Science Fiction Book Club.

After a rushed check-in we ran to lunch with Robert Buettner, who was amazed to find the Orbit team descending on him like starving werewolves.

Bob—apologies for inhaling that gorgeous steak sandwich. I realize the drool might have made your lunch less than an appealing experience.

We discussed the new covers–a bit different from the originals–and the repackaging of the first two books in the series in April 2008.

After we forged a sneak attack on the bar, checked out the dealers’ room, and Orbit editorial assistant Jennifer Flax found the painting of her dreams (only valued at $19,000), the Orbit team joined Marie Brennan for a conversation about her new book MIDNIGHT NEVER COME due out next June 2008.

That evening we dined with Jennifer Rardin and ate at Spring Water Bistro. Jennifer was blown away by our overwhelming knowledge of TV–and astonished by Yours Truly’s obsession with Entertainment Weekly. We were equally impressed by her knowledge of both US and BBC America TV shows–a fan of Gordon Ramsey! It was quite an intercontinental exchange.

Saturday

Thankfully, Saturday’s activities began at a more civilized hour. We caught up with Karin Lowachee for breakfast. She’s currently working on a whole new fantasy trilogy for Orbit due out in Summer of 09 entitled THE GASLIGHT DOGS. While we were super excited about our Belgium Waffles–we were even more excited to hear about her ideas for this new world set in a Victorian-era style world crossed with Arctic wilderness.

Then we all met Charles Brown and Liza Groen Trombi from Locus. Charles was thrilled with his scooter and the fact that a certain 800 number delivers them to your door. What else do they deliver, we wanted to know . . .

We ran into Lou Anders of Pyr and had a short and spirited conversation about the third Joe Abercrombie and how it was going to knock reader socks off! We can’t wait to read!

That night was the Orbit Party, which was a roaring success, even if we do say so ourselves. We chock it up to our charming personalities, though the free booze might have had something to do with it. Authors, editors and agents galore.

Tim Holman, our intrepid leader and demolisher of glassware, talks to the crowd about the success of Orbit in the US.

Later that night at the bar we hobbed with the likes of Anne Groell of Bantam Spectra, David Keck author of The Eye of Heaven, Kate McKean, an agent at Howard Morhaim, Miriam Kriss of the Irene Goodman Agency, Steve Mancino at Jabberwocky, Rachel Vincent author of Stray, Jenna Black author of The Devil Inside, and Jodi Rosoff from Tor Publicity. Discussions ranged from blogs to secret poker games being held at top secret suites.

Sunday

Sunday started with an Urban Fantasy panel that Marie Brennan was on along with Sedia Ekaterina, Ernest Lilley, Melanie Fletcher, and Jenna Black; Marie Brennan is holding a longer discussion of the panel here.

Our day culminated with a lovely lunch with the indomitable Lilith Saintcrow, a discussion of the new Jill Kismet series coming out next summer, and then it was off to the train for a long trip back to home, bed, and finally . . . sleep.