The Jack Williamson Lectureship

I need to figure out if I'm going to this year's Jack Williamson Lectureship. It sort of crept up on me. It'll be April 11 (next Friday) at ENMU in Portales. It's a wonderful way to remember Jack Williamson, who left us a couple of years ago. I had the priviledge of meeting him a few times in my life. He came to New Mexico by covered wagon and sold science fiction stories to pro markets for nearly a century, beginning in the 1920's and ending just after the turn of the millennium. The couple of times I visited his home (all the attendees of the Lectureship did this when he was alive and in good health) I learned what virtually all of the major awards in science fiction, fantasy, and horror look like, because he had them everywhere.

The Lectureship itself is a low key event, but a good chance to spend time with other writers and trade magazine editors. Because Portales is a small town, and the Lectureship is only a few hours, I've spent a lot of time at Dairy Queen or the local coffee shop with people like Connie Willis, Charlie Brown, and Ed Bryant. I've sat in Jack's livingroom with Fred Pohl and Bob Silverberg (who along with Jack made a rare triplet of SFWA Grand Masters in one place). I've been at dinner squished between Kim Stanly Robinson and Walter Jon Williams. It really is a gem of a conference.