Fan Guest of Honor
Patty Wells

Biography

Patty has been on the Committee of every Orycon since it began over 20 years ago, and will be Chair of Orycon 25, next year.  You would have thought that she was old enough to know better by now.  However, since this year's motto is "Orycon:Coming of Age, but Never Growing Up", there seems to be little risk of that.  Considering what she's done in the past, as merely an Instigator and Collaborator for "Not Ready For Sidereal Time Players" at Orycons - Patty likes bad amateur theatricals for opening ceremonies - I recommend that you don't miss out on what she does when she's in charge of the whole con.

As well as eating Worldcon Committees, Patty has been known to stage the occasional coup, and replace the entire con committee with more capable entities such as six-year-old children and stuffed toys.  Despite these bad habits, she has occasionally found brave souls who are prepared to be on a con committee with her.  She was Co-Chair of the 1990 Portland Westercon and Division or Department Head for all the other Portland Westercons (and one for Seattle).  She has headed or co-headed Operations, Facilities, or Programming Divisions for Worldcons in Boston, Orlando, Glasgow, and San Antonio.  Patty likes working for people from foreign countries such as the United Kingdom and Texas.

She has just finished working on the program for a mystery convention, Left Coast Crime, but insists that her heart still belongs to science fiction.  She has also committed fan writing on several occasions, with articles about her assorted misadventures appearing in the Hugo-Award winning fanzine File 770 and the Hugo-losing fanzine Plokta.

In the alleged "Real World", Patty is finishing her second Masters Degree, this one in Adult Education.  Meanwhile, she teaches computer applications at a community college.  She and her husband, Marc, have three kids - Sean, Zoe, and Lillie - any combination of whom will likely be taking over the world as soon as she lets them.  Or maybe before.  But, like most of us, Patty prefers fandom, because it gives one such great stories.  Just ask her about her most memorable fannish adventures and you'll be treated to the negotiation-of-the-hostage-contact-lenses story.  Or maybe the drivers-licenses-for-radios exchange problem.  Or perhaps being busted for kidnapping a giant stuffed armadillo or . . .

-Bruce Scott