GeekyLibrary at Norwescon 37

It was our first day at Norwescon and we certainly started out early, traveling from Portland to Seattle.

Our con schedule highlighted and the PKD nominees stuffed in our backpack, we arrived at Norwescon 37. After registration (free books!), the first stop of the day was the panel “The Best in Recent Science Fiction.”

The panel didn’t go quite as I expected, but we took good notes, and as someone in the audience suggested, “Someone should, like, take notes and post them online on like a blog.”

Challenge accepted. I quickly took the list of authors and books we’d been writing down and posted them online. Sorry there isn’t much explanation, I had to post it from my mobile.

We enjoyed meeting authors, publishers and fans yesterday.

I enjoyed meeting the author of PKD Nominee The Mad Scientist’s Daughter,  which I read the day it came out last year. I rarely read a book that makes me cry like that one did. It was amazing to meet Cassandra Rose Clarke in person.

Cassandra Rose Clarke reading
Author Cassandra Rose Clarke read from her newest YA book and from an adult short story.

The interview with 47 North was fascinating and afterward, we spotted PKD nominee Anne Charnock in the audience and asked her to sign our copy of A Calculated Life.

47 north meeting and Anne Charnock at Norwescon
Kallen talks to author Anne Charnock, author of PKD Nominee A Calculated Life, while Taylor talks to a representative of 47 North.

David D. Levine was also there, but not to give an author talk. He instead recounted his recent experience touring Kennedy Space center as part of the NASA social program.

We also enjoyed giving out a free book!

However, the highlight of the day was definitely the much-anticipated Philip K. Dick Award ceremony. Every nominee had a representative there to read an excerpt from the book. Without a lot of pomp, we finally got to hear the 2013 Philip K. Dick Award winner and special citation: Countdown City by Ben H. Winters (winner) and Self-Reference ENGINE by Toh EnJoe.

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The crew wrapped up the day by attending Ben H Winters’ author reading. The handful of people that attended (the entire present GeekyLibrary crew and three or four others) were able to get some insight into Winter’s view on the Last Policeman series and on writing.