Talking with Anne McCaffrey from NWC16

This entry was published on November 21, 2013 and may be out of date. For the most current information on this year's Norwescon, please see our most recent blog posts. Thank you!

It’s 1993, Norwescon 16, and the Special Guest of Honor will not be able to attend the convention due to health reasons. What to do? Before the days of ubiquitous Internet and video conferencing, the only choice typically available was to establish a phone connection, a deeply unsatisfying experience. This was the situation we faced with Anne McCaffrey.

Ms. McCaffrey had been the Guest of Honor at Norwescon 9, just seven years prior. She was so delightful that we were bringing her back as a Special GoH. Unfortunately, health concerns made it impossible for her to make the long journey from her home in Ireland to Seattle.

What we did instead was accept Ms. McCaffrey’s gracious invitation to send some committee members to Ireland to visit her and make videos to bring back and show at the convention.

Pat Booze (Oros at the time), Chris McDonnell, and David Valentine made the trek and (with the magic of portable VHS cameras) recorded greetings, interviews, and readings to bring back to Norwescon.

We are making the available for your enjoyment today–Anne McCaffrey’s birthday.