Worldcon 2025
I had the good fortune of attending Worldcon 2025 last week in Seattle. The last time Seattle hosted this incredible Science Fiction and Fantasy community event was in 1961, a year before the city hosted the World’s Fair. This year’s Worldcon theme, Building Yesterday’s Future – For Everyone, echoed the Century 21 Exposition theme of the Seattle World’s Fair.
I’m a little embarrassed to say that this was my very first speculative fiction (spec-fic) convention. I’ve never been to Worldcon, never been to Norwescon or any of the smaller community gatherings in the region.
I know, crazy, right? I’ve been devouring science fiction since I was 10 and when I discovered fantasy fiction at 16, I read nothing else for years. I wrote my first science fiction short story when I was 14 and my first fantasy short at 17. When I discovered D&D in my senior year of high school, my creative focus shifted from writing short stories to RPG storytelling. I did this for decades and didn’t start writing short fiction again until I was in my 50s. But that’s another blog post, isn’t it.
The point is, I’d never been to a con and have no idea why, so stop asking. I’ve remedied that now, and what an amazing event to end my mystifying isolationism.
Worldcon took over the Summit Convention Center from August 13th through the 17th. The Summit is a spectacular venue in the heart of downtown. The space accommodated 5,000+ attendees and never once felt overcrowded. If you ever have the opportunity to attend an event there, count yourself lucky.
My takeaways from the week are too numerous to go on about in a blog post, but a few stand out…
This is a diverse community of creatives… The spec-fic community – writers and artists and fans – are my people. I don’t think I’ve ever been around a more supportive group of humans in my life. I’ve had glimpses of it, at the annual Rainforest Writer’s Retreat and in my local critique group, but I’ve never experienced it at this scale. There’s a welcoming kindness in this community, refreshing in this dreary timeline in which we find ourselves, and I can’t thank each and every one of you enough for inviting me in.
None of us are imposters… I’m only the smartest, most accomplished person in the room when I’m alone, so… Imposter syndrome is a thing. A couple psychologists coined the phrase in the late 1970s, but I didn’t hear it until maybe ten years ago. A colleague mentioned it in a meeting, and I thought, oh, so that’s it, and promptly checked out of the discussion.
I walked in the door last week with my imposter syndrome muttering in my wake. But it was quickly drowned out by reverie and warm greetings and surprising conversations. So, some advice… You belong wherever you find yourself, and while there are some who might tell you otherwise, more often than not, the person doing the admonishing is you. Yes, you are the asshole. Stop it. We’re all in the process of becoming, so listen up and jump in. I (mostly) did just that.
Damn, I just fanboyed Matt Dinniman... I promised myself I wouldn’t do it. I saw George R. R. Martin and Robin Hobb (aka, Megan Lindholm), and, dear god, that’s Larry Niven! I could go on... Naomi Kritzer and Neil Clarke and Nancy Kress and… yeah, sorry. I’ll stop. I didn’t fanboy any of them, actually averted my eyes from Martin out of fear I might blurt out the question. Well done, high marks and all that. And then I ran into Matt Dinniman, the author of Dungeon Crawler Carl and its many sequels. At a Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) networking event. And… well, scene. In short, he was gracious, and I took my seat a few moments later with just enough dignity left intact to get through the event. Nice guy! I’m sure he won’t remember me (please don’t remember me).
Five days of panels and events... Where to begin? Start to finish, I attended 25 or so panels on topics ranging from character development to the philosophy of magic to the nuances of navigating the publishing industry. I went to the aforementioned SFWA networking event (much less terrifying in reality than it was in my head in the hours leading up to it) and joined a multitude of creatives and fans for the Hugo Awards. Here are some panel highlights:
Interview and Q&A with Martha Wells. This was a packed session. Martha, the conference guest of honor, is revered in the community. She’s the author of the Murderbot series of novellas and novels (now on Apple TV!), and one of my favorite fantasy novels, The Death of the Necromancer. She spoke at length on her process and gave insights into how she develops magic systems for her fiction. And, as you might imagine, there were a lot of questions about her enigmatic character, Murderbot. Great fun!
Fantasy Writing Series. Three novel writing panel sessions over three successive days with Daryl Gregory, Jason Denzel, Randy Henderson, and Leah Cutter, and moderated by G. R. Theron (who was masterful). The first session covered how to write the opening chapters of a novel, the second examined how to navigate its vast middlemarch, and the third covered how to bring it all to a satisfying conclusion. The panel gave advice on integrating worldbuilding and character development, pacing, tone, emotion, dialog, writing a first draft, and the editing process, and conveyed all of it in a way that made sense to both plotters (writers who work from detailed outlines, like me) and pantsers (writers who fly by the seat of their pants). Great stuff, and some of the liveliest panel discussions of the week!
Why Fantasy? A Q&A panel with… wait for it… Larry Niven, Fonda Lee, Stephen R. Donaldson, Robin Hobb (aka, Megan Lindholm), Terry Brooks, and Peter Orullian, moderated by the intrepid G. R. Theron.
I think I was smiling through most of this one, though one of the panelists walked right up to the edge of cringe when they started complaining (really?) about the dominance of women’s voices in the industry. To be clear, the voices of women (and non-binary authors) are shining because they are among the best spec-fic storytellers writing today. Two of them were sitting right there on stage.
I was amused by Larry Niven’s assertion that one of the most compelling things about Ray Bradbury’s writing is that “you just know there’s a story in their somewhere,” or something to that effect. And I was moved when he said that there is no such thing as genre, that genre is a marketing construct and otherwise meaningless to the writer. I like this observation. It reminded me of Endo Shihan’s (8th Dan) response to a question during an Aikido seminar some years ago concerning what technique we were supposed to be doing. He replied, “There are no techniques, only movement and energy.” Listen to the assertions of the grandmasters around you. They are both opaque and right.
Robin Hobb and Fonda Lee spoke of their childhoods and neatly mapped their formative experiences to their work. Robin’s early explorations into the old stories of the world bring nuance and color to her storytelling, and Fonda’s life-long love of Hong Kong cinema and martial arts is woven into her work. They are inspiring writers, and I need to read more from both of them.RUR – Rossum’s Universal Robots. It was two hours long, but I couldn’t resist. I first read Karl Capek’s 1923 play in a high school science fiction class. Capek’s work marks the first appearance of the word robot in literature. The actors presented RUR in the style of a radio play. It was entertaining and three of the actors were fantastic, particularly the leads.
One of the early scenes included some prophetic dialog concerning the fate of man in the face of robots taking over their labors. “Yes, there’ll be unemployed. But then, there won’t be any unemployment. Everything will be done by living machines. The Robots will clothe and feed us. The Robots will make bricks and build houses for us. The Robots will keep our accounts and sweep our stairs. There’ll be no unemployment, but everybody will be free from worry and liberated from the degradation of labor. Everybody will live only to perfect himself.”
Remind you of anything? Let me help… Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI has stated that AI will inevitably lead to universal basic income and time for all of us to pursue our true interests. Other AI-focused tech leaders have asserted the same. What could go wrong? Read RUR – written in fucking 1923 – to find out.Pitch Perfect: Developing a Solid Book Pitch. This one is a bit premature for me but as I’m starting my first novel late next year, I sat in. In short, writing a pitch (and all of the variations on said pitch) sounds almost as complicated as writing the novel itself. Lots of good stuff here. I wrote a nascent pitch of my planned novel using the structure the panel suggested for pitching to an agent. I have to say, it sounds like a great story! Best get to it!
There was so much more – the Hugos (inspiring!), the Fairwood Press readings (bravo to all and thanks to Patrick Swenson, as ever, for making it happen), and a panel on the philosophy of magic (I will sit on this panel someday).
So ends my summary of Worldcon 2025. It was one of the most satisfying experiences I’ve had in recent memory. Next year in Los Angeles. I’ll be there, and I’ll be at Norwescon in April of 2026.
See you soon.
