Mile Hi Con in Denver. End of October. They tend to have more science programming than other cons, and I like that.
Bubonicon in Albuquerque in August. And yes, the name means what you think. Bubonic Plague is endemic in New Mexico. Often scientists from Los Alamos are on the program. I now know some of them. At least one also writes s-f. How cool is that?
COSine in Colorado Springs, which is always in January. Shudder. I'd passed on it for several years as I live in Santa Fe, and to get there I have to drive through the Raton Pass at the border of NM and CO, which can be a bit iffy in winter. But then one time, at a Bubonicon, talking to the guys promoting COSine, I realized I could book the hotel which could be cancelled at the last possible minute if the Raton Pass was impassible, and just pay for the con when I got there. I also persuaded them to have a special "Raton Pass" rate, which was the same as the advance purchase rate, for those of us traversing the Raton Pass. More to the point COSine is a WONDERFUL small con. Maybe a couple of hundred people are there. There is a dealer's room and an art show, which tend to have many of the same people I see at Mile Hi and Bubonicon. Hooray. That means they are making money, which is good. Also, Connie Willis, my absolute favorite author ever, is also there. Hooray again.
The Jack Williamson Lectureship in Portales, NM. In case you don't know (and forgive me for this if you do know), Jack was born in Arizona territory in 1908, and moved with his family by covered wagon to Portales, NM in 1915. He lived there most of the rest of his life. His first published story was in 1928. His last published work was in 2005. He died in Portales in 2006 at the age of 98. Before then, the Jack Williamson Lectureship was well established. Alas, I did not discover it until about 2015. It's wonderful. It's even smaller than COSine, in part because Portales is so far off the beaten track. But it is VERY well worth it. For one thing, Connie Willis is always there, and she is always a hoot. She gives a talk at the luncheon, which varies a lot from year to year, sometimes quite funny, sometimes more serious, but always worth listening to. There are a total of 6 panels, two tracks over three hours. You get to be very up front and personal with the attendees, be they random people like me, or the various guests of honor or other name s-f people who show up. Also, there's a dinner at a local steak place on Thursday night before everything starts. My first time at the Lectureship I was sitting with an s-f friend (Walter Jon Williams in the interest of name-dropping) and when the waitress took our drink orders, I expressed concern that she didn't seem to care who we were, or how we'd be charged. I already understood that the dinner was paid for, but I assumed that we were on our own for the alcohol. Walter said, "Oh, no, Poindexter. Jack funded this Lectureship very generously, and all of our drinks are paid for." Oh, my. So yeah, depending on where you live and your free time, the Jack Williamson Lectureship is well worthwhile.
SoonerCon. It's held in Norman, OK. I've only attended once, in 2019. The 2020 and 2021 cons have been cancelled, and the next one should be in June, 2022. I want to say that as someone who attends various cons, and who is a more or less card carrying member of the s-f community, I have always found the s-f community to be friendly and approachable. SoonerCon was beyond that. There was a level of friendliness I'd never experienced before. Wow. They also had programming that was very different from the programming at any other con. Another Wow. This is one I hope to attend on a regular basis.
ConQuest. This is held over Memorial Day weekend in the Kansas City area. I used to live there, and it was the very first con I ever attended. My best story about that is how on the first day, waiting in line to get a seat for lunch at the hotel restaurant, I tapped on the shoulders of the couple ahead of me, and asked, since I was a single, could I simply sit with them for lunch. They were agreeable, and partway through lunch I learned that I was sitting with Wilson Tucker. Oh, my.
About a year ago I was intending to go to NorWesCon, which is in Seattle in April. My plan was to take Amtrak, the Southwest Chief, from where I live in NM to Chicago, overnight there, then take the Empire Builder to Seattle, another two overnights on the train. I'd booked the roomette and the hotel in Chicago and then the Pandemic struck. NorWesCon was cancelled, darn, and so my entire trip was cancelled. I'd planned nearly a week in Seattle prior to the con to do sightseeing and meet with a long-lost cousin, but of course that was also cancelled. I am hoping that in 2022 or 2023 I can make that trip.
There is supposed to be a World Con in DC this summer. I would love to attend, as I've only ever attended one other World Con, in Kansas City in 2016, and I have friends and relatives all over the DC area. Depending on how the vaccines play out, I may or may not go.
I hope this is helpful. Completely unrelated to s-f cons, I do plan to be in DC over the Fourth of July in 2026, our nation's 250th anniversary. I want to be on the Mall that day. I was there on July 4, 1976, and I plan to tell every single person I see that I was there 50 years before. I also intend to drag my son with me, so he can walk behind and roll his eyes. But in 2076 he will be only 93 years old, and since (especially on his father's side) his family tends to live well into their 90s, I've been telling him he needs to be on the Mall on July 4, 2076, and tell every single person he sees that he was there fifty years ago, and his parents were both there 100 years earlier. (His dad and I were both on the Mall that day, but didn't meet for another couple of years.) Wouldn't it be wonderful to meet someone like that?
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