Quick update…

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Summer is nearly over (and I have yet to write about the adventures and catch up on all the things), like the successful second annual Wyrd Words workshop:

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While it was full and happy, I’m eager for the renewed routine that Autumn brings. I’m home from a trip overseas with the kids to visit friends (more on that hopefully soon), with enough time to do laundry, buy school supplies, and pack once more…this time for DragonCon (my first time)

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The beautiful Gullfoss waterfall, Iceland.
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Landscape outside Reykjavik, Iceland.
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Hever Castle and Gardens, the childhood home of Anne Boleyn.

Now it’s time to try on things and decide what to pack for DragonCon 2016. (I may have picked up an accoutrement or two in recent travels.)

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If you’re attending DragonCon, my co-author Stephen H. Segal and I will be talking about and reading from Geek Parenting on Sunday at 2:30pm; we’re also on a panel about “How Horror Fans Raise Kids” on Saturday at 11:30am.

In the meantime, if you’re looking for ideas for your own upcoming adventures, here’s a piece on travel that Stephen and I wrote for Quirk:

TO THE INTERSTATE AND BEYOND: GEEK VACATIONS FOR SCI-FI AND FANTASY-LOVING FAMILIES:

“Geeks seek to boldly go where no one has gone before, right? Sometimes that means studying artificial intelligence or genetics or astrophysics. Sometimes it means reading sci-fi and fantasy novels or playing mind-expanding videogames. And sometimes it means getting in the car, picking some quirky destination that connects somehow to all that beloved magical stuff, and driving across state lines to explore the strange new worlds that await out there among our fellow Americans.

Every nerdy family, after all, needs to get away sometimes…”

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Looking for fish in the crater lake. (Kerið, a volcanic crater lake in Iceland.)

Share Your Geek Family Portraits!

What did you watch with your parents growing up? What do you read with your kids now?
At part of our promotion for Geek Parenting, we’re looking to celebrate the spectrum of geekiness with family portraits and quotes. Dig deep into your family album or take a photo the next time you sit down to play Clue and put on your stormtrooper masks and tiaras (or maybe that’s just our house?) Follow the link and click the “Submit” tab on the Geek Parenting website to send us your picture and a bit of backstory. We’ll choose one every week to share!
 
Here’s one to start us off from my coauthor, Stephen Segal and his father dressed up as the Doctor and the Master.
 
“Dad and I didn’t have the traditional American father-son bonding ritual of football or basketball to bring us closer together. Science fiction did that for us. We started going to Star Trek conventions when I was 12, and always had a blast together collecting T-shirts, autographs, and memories. Still, it wasn’t until more than 20 years later that I finally talked Dad into putting on a costume for DragonCon. We turned to one of those unforgettable Doctor Who moments that had been on in our living room: the Fifth Doctor waking up in the Fourth’s clothes after the Master tossed him off a 200-foot radio telescope. Sure, Dad’s version of the Master was a little more Roger Delgado than Anthony Ainley, but then, that’s my family: We’ll do it our way rather than the official way pretty much every time.” — Stephen Segal
What does your Geek Family look like?