Well, the current East Coast Snowpocalypse has put the kibosh on our planned trip to Washington, DC for the ACDC square dance weekend. Poot.

The event is still going on, as they expect the weather to have cleared somewhat by Friday, but our plane tickets were for Wednesday and the airline canceled them today. We could have tried to reschedule, but given the number of stranded and desperate people who will be trying to rebook and the likely condition of the airports and roads, we decided with great reluctance to bag the whole thing. Because it’s a weather-related cancellation we can get all our money back from the airline, and ACDC will roll our registrations over to next year.

But, as they say, every dark cloud has a silver lining, and when one door shuts another opens, and three skinks are as good as a lemur: This weekend is also Radcon, a science fiction convention in Pasco, WA. Everyone’s been asking whether I’m going anyway, so since we no longer have any plans for the weekend we’re embracing serendipity and going to that. It’s also a chance to visit Kate’s folks in Kennewick.

The convention hotel’s sold out, but the amazing Radcon Bob has managed to scare us up a room, and he also says he’ll find a spot on the program for me to present my Mars talk. I might also be on some other programming. Whee!

In other news, I’m told there’s a display at Powell’s Cedar Hills of ten local SF writers’ recent books and their favorite books by other authors. I believe I’m represented by Space Magic and Iain M. Banks’s Consider Phlebas. Also, I’m getting a lot of media attention on the Mars thing and hope to have some news to share with you soon. I’m no longer worried about making it back from DC in time for my appearance on AM Northwest on Tuesday morning, so if you’re in Portland, set your TiVos for that!