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Author, Editor, Media Tie-In Writer

Back From Sweden

I just got back from Gothenburg, Sweden, where I was the Guest of Honor at Sweden’s largest RPG convention, GothCon. What an amazing trip. We got to do a bit of sightseeing—the architecture of the city is spectacular—and hang out with the staff of the convention off and on.

The Husband took lots of pictures. Here’s a FB album of some of them.

Some thoughts about the trip:

* Traveling to Gothenburg is an experience. 22 hours to get there. 35 to get home. Layovers in Amsterdam both times. Thank goodness for Yotel Hotel. It’s like a deluxe coffin motel. The whole room was about 10’x10′. The bed converted into a couch. It was a tiny room. But when all you want to do is sleep, that’s all you need.

* GothCon was a blast. My lectures were well attended. I bought some gorgeous artwork. The staff was fun to hang out with. There were games everywhere. The staff food was really good. (By and large, the food everywhere in Gothenburg was fab!)

* Gothenburg is windy and that wind is cold. Seriously cold. The temperature wasn’t bad overall but I’m glad I had my heavy coat. Spring was finally breaking for them. Everyone mentioned how happy they were that the snow was finally gone.

* Gothenburg is made of hills and stairs. *smile* I spent a lot of time walking. More than usual. There is no surprise that the entire population of Gothenburg is good-looking and fit.

* The people of Sweden are mostly bilingual and very nice. Most of the people I met immediately switched to English as soon as they realized I didn’t know their language. I was grateful for this. It made the travel a lot less stressful. A lot of the signs were in English as well.

* The flora and fauna of Sweden is neat. I was forever pestering people about what that bird was or what kind of tree that was. I got a lot of funny looks. One thing of note—when bird calls are different than you’re used to, you hear every single one.

* We did a bit of wandering around. Pontus (my liaison) walked my feet off the first day to make sure we saw the architecture and the Crown as well as a couple of old churches. Later, we went to the Universeum. Getting to the waterfront was a bit of a challenge and Bella (a staff member) finally decided to take us to a private beach on Volvo company land. It was beautiful.

* Apparently, you can ice skate on the ocean in winter. It boggles the mind. Also, even though Spring finally appeared 90% of all of the lakes were still frozen.

I’m so glad I got to go. There were so many cool things. Thank you Pontus, Bella, Alex, and the rest of GothCon. I loved my visit to your lovely country.

 

Meet Jennifer Brozek

Jennifer Brozek is a multi-talented, award-winning author, editor, and media tie-in writer. She is the author of Never Let Me Sleep and The Last Days of Salton Academy, both of which were nominated for the Bram Stoker Award. Her YA tie-in novels, BattleTech: The Nellus Academy Incident and Shadowrun: Auditions, have both won Scribe Awards. Her editing work has earned her nominations for the British Fantasy Award, the Bram Stoker Award, and the Hugo Award. She won the Australian Shadows Award for the Grants Pass anthology, co-edited with Amanda Pillar. Jennifer’s short form work has appeared in Apex Publications, Uncanny Magazine, Daily Science Fiction, and in anthologies set in the worlds of Valdemar, Shadowrun, V-Wars, Masters of Orion, Well World, and Predator.

Jennifer has been a full-time freelance author and editor for over seventeen years, and she has never been happier. She keeps a tight schedule on her writing and editing projects and somehow manages to find time to teach writing classes and volunteer for several professional writing organizations such as SFWA, HWA, and IAMTW. She shares her husband, Jeff, with several cats and often uses him as a sounding board for her story ideas. Visit Jennifer’s worlds at jenniferbrozek.com or her social media accounts on LinkTree.

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