Norwescon, April 2 - 5
🎶 I'll be baaack in Seattle again 🎵
When Karawynn and I visited Seattle for Worldcon last summer, we reconnected with family, friends, and the sff writing community. It was a startling and poignant reminder of what we’d left behind when we moved away. I didn’t quite take for granted the closeness, camaraderie, and accumulation of my friends and community when I lived there, but I certainly didn’t appreciate it as much as I should have.
So, I’m coming back… at least for a long weekend. April 2nd – 5th – for Norwescon!
Unfortunately, Karawynn won’t be joining me this time. Traveling is difficult for her, full of (autism-related) sensory and fatigue issues… and our last two trips were incredibly stressful! For example, the trip home last summer took nineteen hours when you factor in boat 🛥️, car 🚙, shuttle🚍, bus 🚌, foot🚶, and airplane ✈️. So, she’s going to stay home with Tashi, the talking dog.
Who’s with me?
I chose to plan my trip to coincide with Norwescon because a lot of my writer and artist and sff industry friends will be at the convention. I’m looking forward to seeing all of them; if you’ll be there drop me an email to let me know, and we can meet up for a drink or coffee.
Last year, I went collaboration crazy and agreed to co-writing four (four!) different novels, each with a different collaborator. Three of them are very active, with one on hiatus until we have more bandwidth. And two of my collaborators will be attending the convention:
Shannon Page – Shannon and I met through Jay Lake in the mid 2000s, quickly became very close, and stayed that way after Jay’s tragic death. 😭 We’ve stayed great friends despite now living far away from each other. Shannon is a prolific writer with a bunch of books out, including several that I edited and published. One of these – Our Lady of the Islands – gained wide acclaim. We’re collaborating on a cozy mystery with an amazing (and secret) premise.
Jonathan Bond – My friendship with Jonathan goes way back to the late 80s, when we played Dungeons and Dragons, bonded over Johnny Mnemonic, and wrote short fiction in collaboration – including the novella Deadwise. Jonathan edited Pulphouse – A Fiction Magazine for a few years, and we eventually collaborated on a Shadowrun novel – The Terminus Experiment. Now, we’re writing a new Shadowrun novel together, which I’m super stoked about!
I leave you with a pic of myself and my daughters and son-in-law – hot, sunny day last summer, with Lake Union and the Seattle skyline (including a very tiny space needle) in the background.
Until next our storylines cross, thanks for reading.
— Jak