LAST CHANCE TO VOTE: If you haven’t yet turned in your ballot, this meeting is the last chance to do so. Every vote counts, make sure we get to count yours!

STAFF T-SHIRTS: If you haven’t yet picked up your staff t-shirt, you can do so at this meeting. They will also be available at the Volunteer picnic this summer.

May’s Norwescon 37 post-con meeting will be held:

DATE

Saturday, May 17th, 2014 (R.S.V.P. on Facebook or Google+)

TIME

• 11:00 a.m.–12:00 noon: Executive Team Meeting
• 12:00 noon–1:00 p.m.: Lunch
• 1:00 p.m.–5:00 p.m.: Convention Committee (ConCom) Meeting

PLACE

Doubletree by Hilton Hotel Seattle Airport
18740 Pacific Highway South
SeaTac, WA 98188
206-246-8600

For directions and a map, please see the hotel’s website.

NOTE: There is a discounted charge of $8.00 for parking.

Park information is available here Parking is available, first-come, first-parked!

See you there!

We’ll be keeping an eye on social media and the rest of the web for your Norwescon 37 posts, pictures, and memories. We’ll get our official photos processed and posted as soon as we can, but with literally thousands of shots taken by seven official photographers over the course of the weekend, we have a lot of work to do to get them all sorted, processed, and ready to post, so we do ask for your patience. In the meantime, if you’d like to share your photos with your fellow fen, we’d love to see you add them to the Norwescon 37 group on Flickr!

But now that we’ve wrapped up 37, what about 38? If you haven’t heard already via social media or the official announcement at our Masquerade halftime, we have big, big news for next year!

Norwescon 38 will be held April 2–5, 2015; our theme is Distant Horizons, Epic Adventures. We will once again be at the Doubletree by Hilton Seattle Airport, and we expect to have room reservation information posted soon.

To introduce the guests of honor we have confirmed so far, here’s Norwescon 37′s Programming Director and Guest of Honor Selection Committee Chair, Loree Parker:

As Director of Programming, I have the distinct privilege of chairing the Guest of Honor Selection Committee. Along with the convention chair, vice chair, and the two elected members of the committee, it is our job to assemble our dream lineups for the next convention – and next year’s selection of guests is truly amazing.

Another of my duties on the committee is to come up with the theme for the next convention. In some years, the theme informs the guests we invite, and in other years the guests we select give us the idea for the theme. This year is definitely the latter.

The theme for Norwescon 38 will be Distant Horizons, Epic Adventures.

Our Science Guest of Honor works with space telescopes and knows a thing or two about Distant Horizons. She is Deputy Project Scientist for the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer. At JPL she is the Principal Investigator for the NEOWISE project to study minor planets, and the proposed Near Earth Object Camera space telescope mission. She has appeared several times on the History Channel series The Universe, as well as the documentary featurette “Stellar Cartography: On Earth” included with the Star Trek Generations home video. I am honored to announce that the Norwescon 38 Science Guest of Honor will be Dr. Amy Mainzer.

Our Artist Guests of Honor practically define Adventure. Working nearly exclusively in fantasy, their hyper-representational paintings cover dozens of book covers in the genre. Their awards include the British Fantasy Award and the Chesley award, and have multiple Hugo nominations to boot. Avid fitness and weightlifting enthusiasts, they each have played the role as model for the works of art they produce. I am thrilled to announce that the Norwescon 38 Artist Guests of Honor will be Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell.

Our Author Guest of Honor takes Epic Adventures to new heights. But I can’t take credit for inviting him, I’m afraid — all accolades for that go to my predecessor SunnyJim. It’s taken awhile to get him here, because he is very, very busy. How busy? When we asked him in 2012 if he could join us, his reply was “Not next year, or the year after. How’s 2015?” The Executive Team enthusiastically agreed he was worth waiting for. A novelist, short story author, and anthology editor, he is well known in the realms of fantasy, horror, science fiction, and television. His writing career began by writing and selling monster stories to other children in the neighborhood, dramatic readings included. He moved on to writing letters to comics editors, and the first of his many writing awards was for a prose superhero story. He organized the first Hugo Losers’ Party at the 34th Worldcon, served as regional director and vice president of SFWA, left the world of novel writing for a while to become a book editor, and then made the move to Hollywood.

Thanks to SeattleGeekly for creating this!

In the 90s, he returned to writing novels, beginning a fantasy novel inspired by the Wars of the Roses and Ivanhoe. This blossomed into an epic fantasy series, the fifth volume of which won the Locus Poll Award for Best Fantasy Novel. In 2011 the series made the jump to television, winning numerous Emmy and Hugo awards, among so many others. The fourth season is airing now on HBO, and if you haven’t seen last week’s episode, you are in for a treat. I am absolutely gobsmacked to announce that Winter Is Coming, because the Norwescon 38 Author Guest of Honor will be none other than Mr. George R.R. Martin.

Pre-registration for Norwescon 38 is now open! A full four-day membership is $65; this rate will increase later this year, so pre-register today for the best deal! We’ll be rolling our website over to Norwescon 38 information in a few weeks (our webmonkeys need some downtime to sleep and recharge their banana supply after this weekend), so keep an eye on this website and our Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ social media accounts for further announcements about Norwescon 38 over the coming year!

Back in April of 2011 – my husband Ivan and I decided we wanted to attend our very first Sci Fi convention, so he got to work on creating our costumes for the event. Ivan decided he wanted to make functional Mechanical hands and after studying how the human fingers work and taking a few lessons from a crab leg..he figured it out.

His hand was a hit at NORWESCON and within weeks, the silly little Youtube video he had created to share his awesomeness was getting thousands of views a day.

Little did we know that this would not only lead him to getting numerous orders for pairs of these mechanical hands from fellow goofballs that love to dress up and be a little crazy too, for a director of a play, a plastic version for a team of scientists at UCLA and a major Robotics company…but that one day he would get an email from a man named Rich in South Africa who was curious to see if Ivan could help him find a way to figure out the design he had been working on to restore two of the 4 fingers he had recently lost on his right hand due to a woodworking accident…after looking into a few prosthetics and researching the Xfinger design and being told it would cost him up to $10,000 (US Dollars) per finger…he knew he would never be able to afford this and wanted to design something on his own.

This was no longer a “Silly project” Ivan had been doing for a few extra bucks once in awhile…this now had purpose. It had possibilities. It could…change lives.

You can read more about this incredible project at coming up short handed, and Norwescon is proud to have such dedicated people in our membership. Congratulations and best wishes to Ivan Owen and Richard Van As!

Thank you for your patience,

Felice Nightengale, Publications and Promotions Director, Norwescon 36

Find the 501st in the hotel lobby on Friday evening, starting at 7pm and lasting until 10pm or until the last of the rebel scum have been appropriately dealt with.

What kind of things would I be doing?

Because Norwescon is entirely volunteer managed and run, EVERYTHING is done by volunteers! That means you could be doing everything from taking registrations in the lobby, checking bags in the art show or cloak room, running errands for the staff, counting heads and timekeeping in the panels, to washing dishes in hospitality.

How long would I have to work?

We can use any amount of time you are willing to give! An hour spent washing dishes in hospitality would be wonderful! Two or three hours spent doing badge check at the dance is fabulous! Five minutes to watch a table while someone runs to the restroom is really nice (Especially for the person going to the restroom)!

If you have time, and there isn’t an immediate need, you can certainly cop a squat in the Volunteers Lounge and something is bound to come up!

How do I go about volunteering?

On Wednesday you can just come on down to the hotel. You will see several people running around unloading trucks, putting this here, that there, and building this or changing that. Just ask, and you’ll get pointed in the right direction.

Thursday through Sunday, go down Wing 7 and make a right at the Volunteers Lounge! There will be a warm and friendly person there who will sign you in and tell you where to go. It’s as easy as that! If you have something specific you want to do, they will either try to get you lined up for it or, if it’s too late to do something this year, give you info for doing it next year.

Why should I volunteer?

See question one! As a member of the convention, it is your right and privilege to be part of it. Simply attending may be lovely, but at the end of the day, when you have worked to make Norwescon a wonderful experience for you and 3,000 of your closest friends, you can sit back and say to yourself (and the other volunteers): “Look at what we did!” Norwescon is an amazing experience, and our volunteers make it so.

Why else should I volunteer?

Because you’ll have the opportunity to get and do things that non-volunteers don’t! Our Volunteer Lounge is one major perk. Not only are there ribbons, freebies, and tchotchkes you can’t get any other way, we see to it you are fed, watered, and praised!

This year we’re doing something a bit different: We’re having a volunteer celebration every day!

Wednesday the event is being hosted by our Chair, Shawn Marier, in the evening.

Thursday at 3pm we’ll have cake & goodie give-aways.
Friday at 3pm we’ll have ice cream floats & goodie give-aways.
Saturday at 3pm we’ll have strawberry shortcake & goodie give-aways.
Sunday at 1pm we’ll have pizza & goodie give-aways.

What kind of goodies?

All kinds! Things donated by our pros, dealers, publishers, and so on; things in the crafting corner; discounts to your membership for next year; and even a free membership to Norwescon 36! Come down to the Volunteer Lounge to see what’s available!

This is the fourth consecutive year Worldcon members have cast a record-breaking number of Hugo nominating ballots. Chicon 7 received 1,101 nominating ballots, exceeding the 1,006 received by Renovation last year. Prior to that Aussiecon 4 received 864 in 2010 and Anticipation received 799 in 2009, each a record-setting figure at the time.

Conventions taking part in the announcement are:

• Norwescon 35, a Pacific Northwest sf convention, at Seatac, WA (1 p.m. PDT)
• Leprecon 38, an annual Arizona sf convention, at Tempe, AZ (1 p.m. MST)
• Minicon 47, Minnesota’s longest-running sf con, at Bloomington, MN (3 p.m. CDT)
• Marcon 47, an annual Midwest sf con, at Columbus, OH (4 p.m. EDT).
• Olympus 2012, the British Eastercon, (9 p.m. BST).

The final ballot voting deadline will be July 31, 2012, midnight PDT. The winners will be announced at the Hugo Awards Ceremony on Sunday, September 2.

The full press release from Chicon 7 follows the jump.

PRESS RELEASE #18

Chicon 7 Hugo Finalists to be Announced on Saturday, April 7

Chicon 7, the 70th World Science Fiction Convention,

Chicago, IL – August 30 to September 3, 2012

press@chicon.org

www.chicon.org

Postal queries to: Chicon 7, P.O. Box 13, Skokie, IL 60076

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Chicago, Illinois, USA – Chicon 7, the 70th World Science Fiction Convention (“Worldcon”), is delighted to report that the finalists for this year’s Hugo Awards and John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer will be announced on Saturday, April 7, starting at 3 p.m. CDT. We are also proud to announce that this year’s number of nomination ballots set a new record.

The nominations announcement will be made simultaneously at five conventions in the United States and Europe. Science fiction fans around the world will be able to follow the announcement live and celebrate the authors, editors, artists, and works that have been selected as the best of 2011.

Conventions taking part in the announcement are:

• Norwescon 35, one of the Pacific Northwest’s premier science fiction and fantasy conventions, at Seatac, WA (1 p.m. PDT)

• Leprecon 38, Arizona’s annual science fiction and fantasy convention, at Tempe, AZ (1 p.m. MST)

• Minicon 47, Minnesota’s longest-running science fiction convention, at Bloomington, MN (3 p.m. CDT)

• Marcon 47, the Midwest’s largest annual convention, at Columbus, OH (4 p.m. EDT).

• Olympus 2012, the British National Science Fiction Convention (Eastercon) (9 p.m. BST).

Chicon 7 representatives will be joined for the announcement by special guests including authors George RR Martin at Eastercon and Joe Haldeman at Leprecon, and artist John Picacio at Norwescon.

Final arrangements are currently being made to broadcast all five convention presentations via Ustream. Details of how to follow the announcement online will be announced on the Chicon 7 website shortly.

This year’s nomination process set a new record, with over 1100 ballots received for the first time in the long history of the Hugo Awards. Chicon 7 received a total of 1101 nomination ballots, compared to the 1006 nomination ballots received by Renovation (the previous record holder) in 2011.

The chair of Chicon 7, Dave McCarty, said “We are delighted to continue the momentum built up over the last few years in raising the profile of the Hugo Awards and the level of engagement in the nomination process. The Hugo Awards have a long record of highlighting the best in the genre and that relies on the active participation of the diverse membership of the Worldcon.”

After the announcement, the final voting process will begin. Attending, Young Adult, and Supporting members of Chicon 7 will be able to cast final ballots until July 31, 2012, midnight PDT. The winners will be announced on Sunday, September 2, during the Hugo Awards Ceremony at Chicon 7.

For additional information, contact us at hugoadmin@chicon.org.

ENDS

Chicon 7 is the 2012 World Science Fiction Convention (“Worldcon”). The first Worldcon occurred in New York City in 1939 and Worldcons have been held annually since then except for 1942-45 when there was no event due to World War II. Chicon 7’s Guests of Honor are five-time Hugo winning author Mike Resnick, artist Rowena Morrill, art agent and collector Jane Frank, science fiction fan and former Worldcon chair Peggy Rae Sapienza, and astronaut Story Musgrave. Chicon 7’s Toastmaster is John Scalzi.

For more details about the convention or to purchase memberships, visit www.chicon.org. Send press questions, or requests to be removed from the Chicon 7 press release mailing list, to press@chicon.org. Send general queries to info@chicon.org. “World Science Fiction Society,” “WSFS,” “World Science Fiction Convention,” “Worldcon,” “NASFiC,” “Hugo Award,” and the distinctive design of the Hugo Award Rocket are service marks of the World Science Fiction Society, an unincorporated literary society.

Coming for just a day? Our registration system will only allow purchase of one-day memberships on the day they will be used. If you plan on only attending Saturday or Sunday please arrive early and check our website and/or Twitter feed (the #nwc35 hashtag will have the most current info) before you travel. We’ll keep you up to date on the status of registration.

REGISTRATION HOURS

Thursday: noon – 10 pm
Friday: 9 am – 10 pm
Saturday: 9 am – 10 pm
Sunday: 9 am – 5 pm

REGISTRATION/MEMBERSHIP RATES

Full-weekend: $70

Single-day admission rates (as available):
Thursday: $40
Friday: $50
Saturday: $50
Sunday: $30

Lost badge replacement fee: $50

Philip K. Dick Awards
c/o PO Box 78
Pleasantville, NY 10570
(914) 769-5545
http://www.philipkdickaward.org

March 6, 2012

For Immediate Release

2012 Philip K. Dick Award Judges Announced

The five Philip K. Dick Award judges for distinguished science fiction published in paperback original format in the United States in the 2012 award year are:

Bruce Bethke
PO Box 28094
Oakdale MN 55128-0094

Sydney Duncan
38 Teaberry Lane
Frostburg MD 21532-2301

Daryl Gregory
1895 South Allen St.
State College, PA 16801-5920

Bridget McKenna
4700 35th Ave S Apt 304
Seattle WA 98118-1768

Paul Witcover
414 36th St # 3
Broklyn NY 11232-2508

Publishers who issue eligible titles during the calendar year 2012 are encouraged to provide copies to each of the judges as the books are published during the year. (All works of science fiction published originally in the United States as paperbacks during the year 2012 are eligible.) The nominees will be announced in January 2013.

The Philip K. Dick Award is presented annually with the support of the Philip K. Dick Trust for distinguished science fiction published in paperback original form in the United States. The award is sponsored by the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society and the award ceremony is sponsored by the NorthWest Science Fiction Society. The 2010 award was given to The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack by Mark Hodder (Pyr) with a special citation to Harmony by Project Itoh (Haikasoru). The 2011 awards will be announced at Norwescon 35 on April 6, 2012.

For more information, contact the award administration:
Pat Lo Brutto
John Silbersack (212) 333-1513
Gordon Van Gelder (201) 876-2551

For more information about the Philip K. Dick Trust:

For more information about the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society, http://www.psfs.org/:
Contact Gary Feldbaum (215) 665-5752

For more information about Norwescon: https://www.norwescon.org/:
Contact NorthWest SF Society: (425) 686-9737

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