Norwescon

Norwescon 35 Science Guest of Honor: Bridget Landry

Norwescon is proud to announce Bridget Landry as our Artist Guest of Honor for Norwescon 35!

Bridget Landry was educated as a chemist and planetary scientist, trained as an engineer, and has worked in spacecraft operations for more than 20 years. She has worked on the Hubble Space Telescope, the joint US-French oceanographic Earth-orbiter Topex, the (wildly successful!) Mars Pathfinder project, and the Cassini mission to Saturn. Ms. Landry is currently a team member of the Dawn mission, which begins a year-long orbital mission at the asteroid Vesta in mid-2011, then departs to rendezvous with and orbit the asteroid Ceres in 2015. She also takes great interest in the advancement of women in technical fields, and the helps and bars to their progress, as well as in the problem of sparking and maintaining girls’ early interest in science and math. In her technical hat, she has been on science-related panels at WorldCons, local, and regional conventions.

With the other side of her brain, Ms. Landry is a Master Level costumer with a twisted sense of humor, (Google “Strauss Waltz Assault Team“), and a fondness for ST:TOS. She has been on panels and won Masquerade awards from the local to the WorldCon level.

Norwescon 35 Writer Guest of Honor: Stephen Baxter

Norwescon is proud to announce Stephen Baxter as our Writer Guest of Honor for Norwescon 35!

Stephen Baxter was born in Liverpool, England, in 1957 and now lives in Northumberland. Since 1987 he has published somewhere over forty books, mostly science fiction novels, and over a hundred short stories.

Mr. Baxter has degrees in mathematics, from Cambridge University, engineering, from Southampton University, and in business administration, from Henley Management College. He worked as a teacher of math and physics, and for several years in information technology. He is a Chartered Engineer and Fellow of the British Interplanetary Society.

Mr. Baxter applied to become a cosmonaut in 1991—aiming for the guest slot on Mir eventually taken by Helen Sharman—but fell at an early hurdle.

Stephen Baxter’s professionally published short story appeared in 1987, and his first novel in 1991. He has been a full-time author since 1995. Mr. Baxter is President of the British Science Fiction Association, and a Vice-President of the HG Wells Society.

His science fiction novels have been published in the U.K., the U.S., and in many other countries including Germany, Japan, France. The books have won several awards including the Philip K. Dick Award, the John W. Campbell Memorial Award, the British Science Fiction Association Award, the Kurd Lasswitz Award (Germany) and the Seiun Award (Japan) and have been nominated for several others, including the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the Hugo Award and Locus awards. Mr. Baxter has published over 100 sf short stories, several of which have won prizes.

His non-fiction includes the books Deep Future and Omegatropic.

Stephen Baxter’s website is www.stephen-baxter.com.

We are live!

And with that flip of the switch, the Norwescon 35 website is live!

While we’ve done everything we can to have a lot of information ready, it’s still nearly a year until Norwescon 35 rolls around, so there’s still a lot of information yet to come! In the coming days, weeks, and months, we’ll have announcements of additional Guests of Honor, exciting events, and all the other good stuff you’ve come to expect over the years. Though it seems far away now, it won’t be long at all until we kick off our thirty-fifth year!

In the meantime, don’t miss out on any announcements! Follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook, or sign up for our eNewsletter or Google Group.

Feel like reliving memories of Norwescon past? Check out our photo and video archives.

Looking to connect with your fellow convention attendees more often than once a year? Stop by our forums or check in with the LiveJournal community.

With all this to keep you busy, Norwescon 35 will be just around the corner!

Rainn Wilson on Jimmy Kimmel Live

Actor and comedian Rainn Wilson mentioned attending Norwescon in his youth during this interview on the late-night Jimmy Kimmel Live talk show. The “good stuff” kicks in at about 41 seconds in.

Norwescon 8 on Seattle’s KOMO4

Thanks to Don Glover for uploading this gem: Ten minutes of coverage of Norwescon 8, in 1985, on Seattle’s KOMO4!