More pictures of me (Frank Wu) and assorted important and upcoming sci-fi and fantasy writers, editors and artists, whom I have had the pleasure of consorting with.
In April, 2003, I took a long road trip from home (San Francisco bay area) up through Eugene, Oregon, to stop at the Wordos writers group, then a night at Jay Lake's house in Portland followed by a night at Lindsey Johnson's place in Seattle, followed by Norwescon. This was a totally fun trip, with ample opportunities to meet and re-meet friends old and new who happen to be really well-known and talented writers and artists. Luminaries of the sci-fi world, in fact. And I used this opportunity to take possibly some of the worst, most unflattering fotos I've ever taken. Maybe I was sitting in a bad spot, maybe I had bad timing, maybe the autofocus didn't work. But, I've got pictures of Michael Whelan, possibly the best-looking guy in all science fiction-dom, scratching (or possibly picking) his nose. I've got fotos of people with hair in their faces, in awkward mid-word, out-of-focus, you name it.
You won't be seeing any of those here.
What you will be seeing are the few fotos I managed to get which were actually flattering to my subjects, which they all deserve since they are all lovely, wonderful people. All of them.
WORDOS WRITERS GROUP, EUGENE, OR, APRIL 15, 2003
Wordos is a writers group, with critiques a major component. The night I showed was special, though. Only one story - "Iron Heaven" by Jay Lake - was critiqued. And since it was Tax Day, tacky gifts were given out. Here everyone's holding up their (mostly unwrapped) gifts. We have John Burridge, Jay Lake, Deb Layne, Jerry Oltion (behind Deb's arm), Ken Brady, artist Aurora Lemieux, Jim, Dianna Rodgers, Ray Vukcevich (behind Leslie's arm) and Leslie What.
Some of these people I've written about before, and others I
don't know or don't know much about yet (sorry!). Well, here goes... Jay
Lake has had some 48 stories either published or accepted, and was just declared
a winner in the Writers of the Future Contest; he's up for the Grand Prize this
fall. Deb Layne
is publisher of Wheatland Press; she is going to publish the collection of Jay's
stories and my art called Greetings from Lake Wu. Looks like we'll be
doing a couple different versions, the cooler one being an extremely limited
release color, hardcover version. Wow! Jerry Oltion is working
on a new novel to be called Anywhere But Here, inspired by recent events,
in which America attacks different countries all around the world as soon as
they start any sort of colonies anywhere. Jay tells me that "Aurora Lemieux is
an artist, a writer, a fiddler, a fetish clothing model and about to start grad
school." Dianna Rodgers has a story in Dead
on Demand, a collection of ghost stories. Ray Vukcevich is author of the
amazing collection Meet Me in the Moon Room. Leslie What, a Nebula
award winner, has had
stories in Asimov's, F&SF, Realms of Fantasy and other top
markets, some of which are collected in The Sweet and Sour Tongue; her
novel Olympic Games is due out shortly.
Another foto, mid gift-distribution. With Deb Layne, Ken Brady, John Burridge, Jim, Ted Stetson, Kathy Oltion, Ray Vukcevich, Jay Lake, Leslie What, Diana Blackmom, and Nina Kiriki Hoffman.
Ken Brady, John Burridge, and Deb Layne.
Nina Kiriki Hoffman showing off the Mad Scientist goggles she got. Her sartorial splendor set off a fashion trend and at Norwescon the following weekend, we all had to have goggles, too.
Also at the meeting, though she didn't make it into any of the fotos was Robin Catesby. She rode with us from Eugene to Portland, cramming into my tiny car with big Jay and all my art stuff. Robin is a playwright, with a musical adaptation of "The Velveteen Rabbit" currently in production around the US.
NORWESCON, SEATTLE, 2003
During the spectacular opening ceremonies, a dragon wandered in, harassing Betsy Mitchell, science fiction editor at Del Rey. When asked if editors eat author's children, Betsy responded that it was her job to see that they never had a chance to have kids in the first place. Well, here the dragon threatening to eat her is evening the score.
Ken
Scholes reads us one of his stories. The program book tells me that Ken - in
addition to having pubs in Talesbones, Twilight Showcase and Best of
the Rest, repeatedly claims to be an excellent driver. Hm.
What does Ken say? Ken says, "I'm big and good to look at." Hmm.
Science GOH Geoff Landis.
When we were waiting for our food to arrive, Lori Ann White once again insisted on showing us the trick of turning a napkin into a chicken. She couldn't stop herself! But she also did teach Lindsey Johnson the same trick.
Liz Shannon, whose novel Tempest Raised came out a year ago. She's also an agent with the Pacific NW Literary Agency.
J.C. and Barb Hendee, holding up and reading from their first novel-length collaboration, Dhampir.
Mike Moscoe, who at the panel had a wall of his novels standing up in front of him, like the Great Wall of Moscoe. On a panel about cool villains and lame-ass heroes, Mike discussed his novel First Casualty. In the beginning there are two guys trying to destroy the earth and two guys trying to defend it. But it's not clear that anyone is really evil (until villains are introduced much later in the novel). I thought this was a cool idea, but he said readers found it confusing (perhaps purposefully). For his subsequent novel, his publisher told him how he was going to write it - with villains.
Syne Mitchell, whom I had the pleasure of being on a panel with, discussing viruses. Here she is also on the panel on heroes and villains. Syne talked about her novel The Changeling Plague in which a guy starts out really selfish (his illegal treatment for his own disease leads to millions of people dying). But then he has to deal with his guilt and redeem himself, thus going from villain to hero. She's also expecting, and I tried to convince her that Frank was a good name, but she said she'd already picked one. :o)
Bruce "Mr. Magic Realism" Taylor and editor Patrick Swenson of Talebones magazine.
Terry McGarry, reading part of her epic fantasy, The Binder's Road, just out from Tor.
Special Guest Michael Whelan. He had an excellent slide show with two carousels, and we still couldn't get enough. He showed us some stuff he was doing for the last Gunslinger novel by Stephen King. It is a dozen illos, and he started in acrylics, and then went to oil, which makes him think that by the end of the series, he might go into charcoal or digital.
Michael also brought to the art show some of his paintings, including one of my all-time favorites, his painting for Joan Vinge's Snow Queen. I consider this - and actually several of his paintings, including Asimov's Robots of Dawn -among the dozen or so best paintings done by anyone in the last century. I must have stared mesmerized at the Snow Queen painting at the art show for fifteen minutes. There is staff running and policing entrance to the art show, but there aren't guards like in art museums telling you not to breathe on the paintings. I studied that masterpiece, my nose inches away, trying to figure out how Whelan had woven this magic with little blobs of white and gray and blue paint. It had a Not for Sale tag on it, but for fifteen minutes, Snow Queen was mine, and I was in heaven.
Ken Rand reads us a story. He's written some fifty-plus published stories, and his writing and living philosophy is "Lighten Up."
Rhea Rose, sharing one of her poems at the "Talebones Live!" reading party.
Artist Guest of Honor Jim Burns, the spectacular artist. Over and over again this con, Jim was asked about his role in designing stuff for Bladerunner. He said that he had done an illo in 1975 which was partially an inspiration for the design of the spinner cars. In the late 70's, director Ridley Scott hired him to do some pre-production work for a film version of Dune that eventually never happened. Then Scott asked him to work on Bladerunner. Burns protested over and over that none of his designs actually ended up on the screen, but that added even more fuel to the rumor that he had actually designed every last thing in the movie.
Also during an interview, he was asked about his many paintings of beautiful women. He was asked if there was a "hidden portfolio of Jim Burns erotica." He said, uh, no, sorry.
Jeffrey Turner, who read a hilarious story called "All the Dead Girls Love Alex," or something like that. I heard him read it twice and loved it both times, and right now it's sitting on someone's desk at Weird Tales. They should buy it. There's a word in this story - Purgalot - which I think is just great. Kinda of like Camelot, sort of like Purgatory, like being stuck in a Medieval fantasy quest plot and you can't get out. Jeff said I could use this word in a story, and I will.
My pal Michelle Garrison. Michelle's an epidemiologist at U. of Washington, and got stuck on every biology-related panel. Every single one. She was on something like a googolplex of panels at Norwescon. But she was fun. She ran all by her lonesome a panel on controlling and analyzing a possible epidemic caused by alien visitors. Everyone in the audience had a role - some of us were scientists (I got to be a prion scientist), some of us in charge of quarantines, some of us politicians whose job was to prevent the rest of us from doing our jobs.
Indexed list of fotos of me and luminaries (number indicates the page they're on):
Forrest J. Ackerman 1, Daniel Abraham 5, Carlo Arellano 2, Art car artists 3, Kage Baker 3, Greg Bear 10, Gregory Benford 5, Terry Bisson 9, Diana Blackmom 8, Ken Brady 8, Kent Brewster 2, (I'm Just a) Bill 3, Jae Brim 2 5, David Brin 7, Charles N. Brown 9, William Brown 1, Tobias Buckell 5, Jim Burns 8, John Burridge 8, Erwin Bush 2, Chris Butler 3, Ted Chiang 6, Eric Choi 7, Andy Clarkson 2, Hal Clement 5, Julie Czerneda 1 (big head Julie) 4 7, Ellen Datlow 5, John DeChancie 3, Kim DeMulder 7, Vincent DiFate 1, Cory Doctorow 5, James S. Dorr 6, Denise Duff 2, Bob Eggleton's hair 5 10, Harlan Ellison 7, Marina Fitch 2, Frank Kelly Freas 1 3 5, Esther Friesner 7, Susan Fry 5, Chris Garcia 10, Michelle Garrison 8, Lisa Goldstein 9, Kirsten Gong-Wong 9, Kelly Green 10, Joe Haldeman 6, Jennifer Hall 9, Russ Heath 4, Barb and JC Hendee 8, Alea Henle 6, Jay Arr Henderson 1, Raechel "Roach" Henderson and Matt Moon 5, Howard Hendrix 10, Nina Kiriki Hoffman 1 8, Rob Hole Jr. 10, iguana 5, Rebecca Inch-Partridge 1 5 10, Alex Irvine 5, Jaws 5 10, Rebekah Jensen 1 5 10, Lindsey Johnson 1 4 5 8 10, Tim Johnston 2, Mark R. Kelly 5, David Kile 7, James Killus 3, Jay Lake 4 8, Geoffrey Landis 8, Warren Lapine's hair 5, Deb Layne 8, Lenora Rose 6, Aurora Lemieux 8, Natasha Levitan 10, Val Lakey Lindahn and Ron Lindahn 1, Samantha Ling 9, David Marusek 5, Fiona McAuliffe 4, Tiffanie McCoy 5, Terry McGarry 8, Jessie McKenna 4, Besty Mitchell 8, Syne Mitchell 8, Mary Anne Mohanraj 2, Mike Moscoe 8, Derryl Murphy 2, G. David Nordley 9, Jerry Oltion 4, Kathy Oltion 4, Diana Paxson 10, Karen Perry 2, Bill Pierce 5 10, Tim Powers 1 2, Sergey Poyarkov 2, Ken Rand 8, Jonathan Richman 6, Kim Stanley Robinson 9, Dianna Rodgers 8, Rhea Rose 8, Deborah J. Ross 10, Rowena 7, Robert J. Sawyer 7, Ken Scholes 8, Liz Shannon 8, Heather Shaw 9, Robert Sheckley 6, Gary Shockley 5 9, Robert Silverberg 7, S.N.Arly 6, Wen Spencer 5, Ted Stetson 8, Carel Struyken 7, Patrick and Honna Swenson 2 8, Isaac Szpindel 7, Jason Taniguchi 7, Bruce Taylor 8, Jim Terman 1 5 9 10, Helen Thompson 6, Mark Tiedeman 4, Bjo Trimble 5, Jeffrey Turner 8, Carol Ullman 6, James Van Pelt 6, Carrie Vaughn 10, Vernor Vinge 5, Ray Vukcevich 1 4, Lara Wells 5, Ken Wharton 1 3 4 5, Leslie What 8, Michael Whelan 8, Lori Ann White 1 2 3 5 6 8 10, Connie Willis 5 9, Eric Witchey 2 4, Jason Wittman 6, Gary K. Wolfe 9, William F. Wu 3, Susan Yi 5, Melissa Yuan-Innes 1.
If you are looking for more fotos from various conventions, check out Mid-American Fan Foto Archive.
