Norwescon 33 October 15 Newsletter
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Norwescon 33
Future Plausible Future Perfect
April 1-4, 2010
Doubletree Hotel
Seatac WA
Writer Guest of Honor: Vernor Vinge
Artist Guest of Honor: John Jude Palencar
Special Guest: Cory Doctorow
Next ConCom meeting:
Saturday, November 14 at 1:30pm
(NEW start time!)
Norwescon eNewsletter October 2009
In This Issue
Interview with Vernor Vinge
Local Writer Ken Scholes
Programming: Writers' Workshop
Single Pattern Contest
Fandance Film Festival
Exhibitor Applications Now Available
Hotel Corner
MEMBERSHIPS $50 UNTIL DEC 31
For more information, visit Memberships at norwescon.org.
You can register online or download the pre-registration form.
Why pre-register? Here are a few good reasons.
ConCom Meeting Dates & Times
Saturdays:
September 12
October 10
November 14
December 12
January 9
February 20
March 13
Exec Team Meeting:
11:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
General ConCom Meeting:
NEW START TIME
1:30 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Post Meeting Social:
5:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
For more information visit Staff/Volunteers at norwescon.org
Hotel Info
DoubleTree Hotel Seattle Airport
8740 Intl. Blvd.
SeaTac, Washington
Rate:
Book by March 10 to receive the convention rate of $114.00 per night.
Group/Convention Code:
Norwescon 33
Reservations:
1-800-222-TREE or reserve your room online.
For more information visit Hotel at norwescon.org.
Volunteer!
Norwescon is run entirely by over 250 people who generously give their time each year in order to make the convention the best it can be for its members and participants.
Click here to send an email to the volunteer department today!
We look forward to having you on the team!
Norwescon Information Network
Staying up to date on what's happening with Norwescon has never been easier!
News at norwescon.org (RSS feed)
Forums at norwescon.org
Google Group
Facebook
Live Journal
Twitter
Flickr
Spread the word!
Click here to download a PDF of the Norwescon 33 flyer.
Give it to a friend or post it at your favorite coffee shop, bookstore or gathering place!
Fannish Community Calendar
Visit News at norwescon.org to view the Fannish Community Calendar
Coming up:
Spaced Out: The Final Frontier in Album Covers at EMP|SFM
Seattle, WA (through 1/03)
Steamcon
SeaTac, WA (10/23 - 25)
NW Media Arts Graham Joyce Workshop & Reading
(10/25 - 26) +
Jeff VanderMeer Workshop & Reading
(11/8 & 9)
To submit an event for the calendar, send it to pr@norwescon.org.
Advertising
Advertising space is available in the Norwescon 33 Program Book.
Discounted rates are available for non-profit orgnaizations and clubs.
For more information including rates, visit Publications at norwescon.org.
The Norwescon eNewsletter
The eNewsletter is an online publication that is made available to Norwescon members and friends of the convention. In other words, anyone can sign up to receive the eNewsletter!
If you have any questions about your membership status, please email the Member Services Department.
Join Our List
Interview with Norwescon 33 Writer Guest of Honor Vernor Vinge
Norwescon 33 is proud to host Vernor Vinge as Writer Guest of Honor.
Dr. Vinge is the author of such works as "True Names" (1981), A Fire Upon the Deep (Hugo Award winner, 1992) A Deepness in the Sky (Hugo, Campbell, and Prometheus Awards winner, 2000), and "Fast Times at Fairmont High" (winner Hugo Award for Best Novella, 2002). His latest novel, Rainbows End, won the Hugo and Locus Awards in 2007.
While a professor of mathematical and computer sciences at San Diego State University (he retired in 2000 to pursue writing full-time), Dr. Vinge explored the idea that accelerating technological change would fairly quickly result in a world qualitatively different from today, and in some ways unknowable, in his essay "The Coming Technological Singularity." His work often deals with people exploring the boundary of this phase change.
Dr. Vinge took time this week to talk to Raymond McCauley about important philosophical questions, technology wish lists, and a glimpse of what's on his desk (including a peek at the draft for The Children of the Sky!) for the Norwescon eNewsletter.
(Editor's Note: All links added by the interviewer.)
Norwescon: Lots of folks know you as the originator of the term "technological singularity", and some people know about your early and eerily predictive take on networked culture and security in "True Names". What don't we know about where you were especially prophetic?
Vinge: So far I'm pretty happy with the track record of Rainbows End, though the transition from "this is crazy" to "this is blasé" is happening painfully fast for that novel.
Norwescon: Do you have any spectacular misses that you want to share?
Vinge: :-) There are some extremely embarrassing miscues in my story, "The Accomplice", which is reprinted in The Collected Stories of Vernor Vinge. It's a good example of a common feature of science fiction: the mixture of wildly wrong speculations with occasional bull's-eyes.
Norwescon: When can we expect Rainbows End the movie? Or a graphic novel adaptation of "True Names"? How do you feel about your work being adapted in other mediums?
Vinge: No plans for such are on the horizon :-) Such adaptations can be wondrous things (better than the original), but commercial, legal, artistic issues make them rarr events... (continued at norwescon.org)
Local Writer Spotlight: Ken Scholes
New from Tor this week is Canticle by Ken Scholes, the sequel to Lamentation and book two of five in The Psalms of Isaak series.
"The sequel to Scholes's stellar debut, 2008's Lamentation, ingeniously fuses epic fantasy and postapocalyptic science fiction. Magicked assassins kill numerous leaders from across the Named Lands and send the region into economic and political turmoil. Amid the chaos, Jin Li Tam gives birth to General Rudolfo's son, sickly Jakob. As Rudolfo sets out in search of a cure, young Marsh Queen Winters ascends the throne of her people only to realize her past has been an elaborate lie; former Androfrancine Pope Petronus risks his life to bring some semblance of peace to the realm; and Nebios ben Hebda uncovers bombshell revelations regarding the Order's 'metal men' and the history of the Old World. Abounding in prophecy, myth and mystery, this grand-scale saga is a towering storytelling tour de force." - Publishers Weekly Starred Reveiew
Originally from Washington state, Ken now makes his home in St. Helens, Oregon with his wife, Jen West Scholes, and his newborn twin daughters, Elizabeth and Rachel. When asked if we would be seeing Ken again at Norwescon, he said, "I wouldn't miss it! Spending most of my life in the Puget Sound area, Norwescon is truly my hometown con. It's one of the first cons I attended when I was trying to break in as a writer and I intend to keep it on my calendar. It's become a homecoming that I look forward to each year."
Author Events
Ken has kicked off a west coast signing tour this week with many dates in the Northwest. Stop in and say hello and, of course, look for him at Norwescon in April!
10/15 Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma WA
10/22 St. Helens Bookshop, St. Helens OR
10/26 University Bookstore, Seattle WA
10/27 Powell's Books - Cedar Hills Crossing, Beaverton OR
11/12 Waucoma Bookstore, Hood River OR
For more information about Ken Scholes visit his website.
Programming Update
Norwescon features over 500 hours of panel programming presented by more than 200 panelists, covering such diverse subjects as science fiction, fantasy, science, costuming, art, writing, genre media, as well as a myriad of other topics of interest to fans.
Writers' Workshop
The Fairwood Writers and Norwescon 33 invite you to participate in the annual genre fiction writing workshop at Norwescon to be held on April 1-4, 2010.
The deadline for electronic submissions of short stories and novel excerpts in the science fiction, fantasy, and horror genres is December 20, 2009.
Click here for complete rules and guidelines.
Single Pattern Contest
This year's Single Pattern Contest features Simplicity pattern #2972 - a shoulder bag! Whether you sew or not, like to costume, dress in garb or just enjoy attending the convention, everyone needs a good shoulder bag. Use it for your purchases in the dealer's room, to hold your collection of swag or to carry all the things you need while attending panels!
Click here for complete rules and guidelines.
Eleventh Annual Fandance Film Festival
Forget about the tuxedo, the parachute, and the collagen injections - this is a film festival you can have fun at!
Announcing the Eleventh Annual Fandance Film festival, hosted at Norwescon 33! Eleven years of madness, eleven years of filmmaking, eleven years of seeing all the latest and the greatest and the funniest and the weirdest and the most bleeding, squealing, giant smashing roboting edge entertainment still available without extensive tipping (mind you, we're not saying "no"...). The Festival is a celebration of low- and no-budget cinema, brought to wondrous lurching life by amateur filmmakers from all around the Pacific Northwest.
The integral part of this is, of course, the movies. We need 'em! The shorter, the better (ten minutes maximum length - no minimum length) and any genre is fine (but if you're smart, you'll realize that this is a sci-fi/fantasy type convention) but the judges reserve the right to be way grossed out by what they see. Click here for submission rules and guidelines.
Now accepting Exhibitor Applications!
Art Show
The Norwescon art show staff is thrilled to present John Jude Palencar as Norwescon 33's Artist Guest of Honor. His award winning work will be the highlighted feature of this year's art show. Along with our many great artists that we have had in the past, we are excitedly looking for new faces to bring to the show. Click here for more information including policies, a registration form and more.
Above - Cover to Eldest by Christopher Paolini, artwork by John Jude Palencar
Dealer's Room
Each year Norwescon provides access to some of the finest fandom related merchants who carry a vast array of collectibles, books, games, and other merchandise of interest to our membership. Applications are due on December 1, 2009. Click here for more information including an applicatio contract and hours of operation.
Lobby Tables
Fan tables provide Norwescon members the opportunity to meet other fans and introduce them to your science, science fiction, costuming or fannish group, convention, convention bid, or writing organization. Norwescon offers Fan and Club Table to these types of organizations and groups. Tables are located in the hotel convention lobby and at other designated areas throughout the hotel. Click here for more information including rules and guidelines.
Hotel Corner
Don't forget to book your room for the convention! Norwescon's room block at the Doubletree is already more than 60% full. The guest room rate for NWC 33 is $114. You can find out more information & and book your reservation through the hotel page on our website, by clicking here.
Also, for those interested in large suites, they can be booked through Norwescon starting on November 1 on a first come, first serve basis by sending an e-mail with your request to hotels@norwescon.org. This is the same procedure used in past years. Check out the hotel page on the website for more details!
From eNewsletters past...
September 09:
- Meet the Norwescon 33 Guests of Honor
- Meet the Executive Team
- Outreach: Charities include Clarion West and Northwest Harvest
- Norwescon 33 is a proud sponsor of the SFM 2010 Science Fiction + Fantasy Film Festival
- Volunteers needed!
Click here to visit the Norwescon eNewsletter Archive.