2014 World Fantasy Convention: Wednesday Scotch Tasting
I’m usually posting retro reviews of Galaxy, but for the moment, I’m on assignment covering the World Fantasy Convention in Washington. Okay, technically the hotel is located in Virginia, but we are only minutes away from the White House, Pentagon, and U.S. Capitol building, among other sites.
My wife, Bess, accompanied me on this trip, which is my fourth WFC. For her, this is a brand new experience. I’ll add her brief comments after mine to provide a full range of coverage, both from the perspective of someone highly involved in the speculative community and someone who supports someone highly involved in the speculative community.
We elected to drive from Indianapolis, which provided amazing views of the changing foliage within the forested hills and mountains of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Maryland. It was truly outstanding.
Shortly after arriving and picking up our bags of books, Bess and I attended a scotch tasting hosted by Guy Gavriel Kay and Mary Robinette Kowal. Prior to the tasting, we shared an elevator ride with Ms. Kowal and briefly introduced ourselves, so I now consider us close friends. Our hosts spoke from their wealth of scotch knowledge, combining anecdotes and information as we moved through tasting six single-malt scotches. I think I agree with Ms. Kowal that the 17-year Glenfarclas was the best selection of the evening.
I’m looking forward to the days to come.
Bess : As a mom of three young kids, I preferred to dream about the beautiful landscape and fall colors of our journey.
I’m really not a scotch drinker, but I enjoyed the witty banter and knowledge of the hosts. It was funny to listen to a group of writers craft descriptive tasting notes. The running theme was Hungarian lentils.
See Matthew’s Thursday report on the 2014 World Fantasy Convention here.
“We elected to drive from Indianapolis, which provided amazing views of the changing foliage within the forested hills and mountains of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Maryland. It was truly outstanding.”
Hey! Where’s the love for Ohio? We’ve had some pretty amazing foliage as well!
Seriously, looking forward to hearing more about WFC this year!
Funny — that hotel is only a block from my office!
James, Ohio had some good foliage, as does my home state of Indiana. But how can we compete with the great hills and mountains?
Welleran – it’s a really nice hotel. Great area, too.
I wish I could have gotten there for the early festivities. The nice part about being semi-local is, I knew I would definitely get to go to WFC. The annoying part is, I’m bouncing back and forth between the Hyatt and my house until tomorrow afternoon. Maybe we’ll cross paths once I really get settled in tomorrow.
It’s sort of historically legit to call it a con in the capital. That bit of Virginia used to be inside the District until the Civil War. I’m not sure why DC never got it back after the war ended. You know how the District looks like a rhombus with a chunk cut off by the Potomac? If you were to conjure L’Enfant from the beyond and ask him if you were in DC, he would say yes… and then he’d go on a mad zombie traffic-circle-building spree.
Sarah,
If you happen to see someone with my name badge walking around, it’s probably me. I’ll watch for you as well.
I didn’t know this used to be part of the District of Columbia. But I’ve learned much today. For example, I learned that people who live here call themselves Washingtonians. Curiously enough, people who live in the state of Washington also call themselves Washingtonians and think those in D.C. should perhaps use something else. This came up on a tour bus ride today, and the driver (who lives in D.C.) said, “What should we call ourselves instead? D.C.onians?”
[…] Matthew’s prior report on the World Fantasy Convention, Wednesday Scotch Tasting, here, and his Friday report […]