This is my brief Orycon report. Orycon is held once each year in November, in Portland, Oregon.

I always enjoy this convention, and this year was no different.  I had many great conversations with friends. Most, of course, were about politics. So I’ll let you imagine those for now, since we’re all talking politics this month.  There will be a lot for all of us writers to say in the next year, hopefully with our pens and not just on social media.

The big news, of course, is that Edge of Dark (Pyr) won the Endeavour Award, which is given for a “distinguished SCIENCE FICTION or FANTASY BOOK written by a Pacific Northwest author or authors and published in the previous year.” I’m truly honored by the award, especially given the strength of the competition.  Pictured is Laura Anne Gilman, who was also a finalist for the award for Silver on the Road, Jim Fiscus, who does a lot of work to make this award work every year (he also has a team), and me.

At my reading, most of the audience had read Edge of Dark, so I read from POST (eSpec Books) for the first time. It went well, and I’ve already gotten some great feedback from readers who picked it up there are started it.  The Goodreads giveaway for POST runs through November 30th if you want to enter. POST is a near-future post-apocalypse story that explores the early parts of recovery after a complex set of disasters driven by climate change, economic stress, and illness.

I spent some time in the bar getting feedback from my official first readers for the first draft of Wilders. That’s the next book from Pyr, which will be out in June of 2017.  I was a little worried, but while there’s a lot to do to improve it and fix challenges, everyone who’s read it so far likes it.  So now the trick will be finding time to finish it and improve it! That will start after Thanksgiving.

I enjoyed the ride to and from Orycon, in spite of driving rain and big trucks throwing spray all over our windshield during our late-night sprint home on Saturday. I’ve known Laura Anne Gilman for some time, but hadn’t had the pleasure of long conversations with her (I love her writing – I haven’t caught up, but her Vineart fantasy series is fabulous, and her Silver on the Road was a finalist for the Endeavour). Since we rode together to and from Portland, we talked, some of our conversation tired and silly as we struggled to get home safely. Which we succeeded at, in spite of being tired-out writers post-convention.

Please consider signing up for my newsletter. It comes out once a month, and its a great way to keep up with me. More news on that front soon, but of note, there just might be a giveaway that ALL members of the mailing list get to participate in soon. Consider that a hint.