I love living in Seattle.
It is quite simply one of the best book cities in the world. The seven months of gloomy wet weather forces people to curl up inside with a warm blanket, hot chocolate—and of course a good book.
Seattle is the home to great bookstores—Elliot Bay Bookstore, University Bookstore, Third Place Books and one of the largest Barnes & Noble Booksellers. Great sci-fi and fantasy writers like Terry Brooks, Neal Stephenson, Greg Bear and Brian Herbert call Seattle home. The Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame is setup downtown and Amazon contributes to the local economy.
Seattle is also the home of NorwesCon!
I attended NorwesCon this last weekend. It was great fun. Begun in 1978, it is the premier science fiction and fantasy convention in the Pacific Northwest and draws some of the best writers and most talented artists from around the world. It is a smaller convention, dwarfed by Comic Con or Dragon Con, but it makes up for it with personal touches the larger conventions simply cannot supply.
I was able to see long-time friend and Author Guest of Honor RA Salvatore, attend an art demo taught by Artist Guest of Honor Todd Lockwood, and thank author Steven Barnes who four years ago gave me a good foundation for my own writing endeavors!
Pictures and words follow…
From the moment upon entering the DoubleTree Hotel, I was inundated with cool costumes from any number of sci-fi sources. Stormtroopers mingled with sparsely clad fairies. The White Rabbit hung out with Harry Dresden. All got along, all were happy. Like that convention goer above!
After I had walked around and visited the various stalls carrying all geeky things for sale, I caught up with author Steven Barnes. Four or five years ago I attended the Maui Writers Retreat & Conference where I hoped to improve my craft of writing. Steven was my teacher for a week and I'm sorry to say he had to put up with this dunce of a writer. I did learn a great deal, albeit slowly. Since that time I have written two very different novels and a lot of the advice Steven gave me still resonates. He deserved to be told he made a difference.
I also visited with new author Ken Scholes and his lovely wife Jen. They had driven up from Portland, Oregon to attend the convention and talk about his debut book, Lamentation. NorwesCon always has a wide array of writers who are more than willing to talk about their work, and the size of the convention allows for a more intimate setting.
The Todd Lockwood art demo had to be my favorite time spent at NorwesCon this year. Todd, as evidenced in this photo, is a character and his passion for art is written all over him. In a dark room on a projected screen, Todd, who is responsible for the cover art on RA Salvatore's Drizzt novels, took the audience through the steps he took to bring one of his paintings to life. The oddest thing I learned was his use of a mirror to look at his work from a different perspective. It was a great tutorial and very cool.
Along with Todd Lockwood, Author Guest of Honor RA Salvatore spent the weekend at NorwesCon, speaking about his writing, his Drizzt novels and his life in general. He also spent more than two hours on Saturday signing alongside his author son Geno and Todd Lockwood. The line seemed neverending and Bob was gracious and had a good time. They all signed hundreds of books and posters. It was great seeing the fans leaving happy and having enjoyed themselves.
If you have a local convention like NorwesCon, attend it. It's great fun! And if you can get out to Seattle, visit this April convention. You won't regret it!
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