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Back in 2003, at the WorldCon held in Toronto, Canada – known as Torcon 3 – Joe Mahoney met Mark Rayner for the first time. Joe also had an opportunity to meet and interview John Scalzi for a radio documentary that later aired on CBC Radio’s The Current.
The interview (the entirety of which is included in this episode) is a fascinating slice of history. It was John’s first WorldCon and he took an anthropological approach to understanding what was going on all around him. “It’s like a convention of misfit toys,” he says. “It’s its own self-contained things.”
As a fan and a writer of science fiction he has great observations of the whole process.
The interview prompts Mark and Joe to reminisce about the early years of the 2000s and how some authors managed to break through with new media such as blogs and podcasts.
They also reflect on their own first experiences with WorldCon. “For me it was pretty mind blowing,” Mark says, including experiencing his first panel with Robert Silverberg and David Brin, as they discussed the work of Kurt Vonnegut.
Plus – a bonus clip with Larry Niven! Not to be missed by fans of science fiction and fantasy!
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John Scalzi is a science fiction writer and a science fiction fan. And he’s won a Hugo Award for both activities!
His 2013 novel, Redshirts, won the Hugo Award for Best Novel. And earlier, in 2008, he won the Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer.
Scalzi is probably best known for his Old Man’s War books, and you definitely want to read them — the first book in the series is one of NPR’s top 100 science fiction books of all time.
He’s also written non-fiction books and columns and served as a creative consultant for the TV series Stargate Universe. Three of his short stories have been adapted for the Netflix show, Love, Death & Robots.
His most recent book is Starter Villain, and his next is called When the Moon Hits Your Eye, upcoming in March of 2025.
And you can always catch his latest thoughts on his delightful blog, Whatever, that he’s been posting to since 1998.
When he’s not writing, he creates ethereal and interesting electronic music, which you can check out on his YouTube channel.
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