Happy New Year, and welcome to 2012!

First things first: Pre-registration rates for Norwescon 35 go up on Sunday! If you haven’t registered yet, and want to make sure you get in at the current rate of $55 for four full fun-packed days, don’t dawdle! Register today!

We’ve rolled out a number of updates to the website over the holiday weeks. If you’re following us on Twitter, Facebook, or Google Plus, you may already know some of this — but you might not know all of it! So, here’s what we rolled out over the past week or so….

We’ve started listing attending vendors and artists on our Artists’ Alley, Art Show and Dealers’ Room pages. The Dealer’s Room is now fully booked, but we are still accepting applications for both the Artists’ Alley and Art Show. Those will fill up eventually, though, so if you’re still thinking about it…don’t think too long, or you just might miss out!

Our December e-Newsletter update went out. This is often the first place we’ll make announcements, so if you’re not on our mailing list, sign up today!

Our Norwescon 34 post-convention report also went out. This goes out the old-fashioned way — ink on paper through the U.S. Mail — but you’re more than welcome to download the .pdf version (493KB .pdf) for convenient viewing on the electronic device of your choice!

We have a ton of programming lined up for the musically inclined, whether you’re a music creator or just like to listen and dance! Our concert lineup of filk, chiptune, geek folk, and all sorts of gloriously geeky beats is live, complete with samples of some of the artists you can look forward to seeing perform this year. In addition, we wanted to give those of you into performing some time to prepare for the more participatory events, so we’ve also listed our events and workshops.

Our Sunday Special Event has been unveiled: Muggle Quidditch! Get that broom ready to go, practice dodging bludgers, and get ready to catch that golden snitch!

All of our attending pros and panelists are now also live on the site.

And finally, in a bit of a blast from the past, all of our photos from last year’s Norwescon 34 are posted to our Flickr account. Stop by, look for faces you know, relive some memories, and look forward to what’s coming in just a few short months!

That wraps it up for our holiday season updates. Of course, there’s much, much more to come as we move ever closer to Norwescon 35!