I met Jay Lake at Worldcon 2004 in Boston, where I took the photo on the left that somehow ended up being on his Wikipedia page for the last few years. That’s also where I cried at a reading for the first (and so far only) time, when Jay read his story “The Angle of my Dreams.”
Now Jay’s made me cry again.
There was always a side of Jay that was larger than life, even when the repeated battles with cancer and chemo began to wear him down, but there was also a very human side to him that his many friends got to experience. I didn’t get to see him as often as I’d have liked over the last decade, but whenever our paths were going to cross at a convention I’d look forward to spending time with Jay’s sense of humor, his quick wit, and his kindness.
In between those times I was lucky enough to be able to get early looks at his novels, from a very alpha draft of TRIAL OF FLOWERS onward, even before I began working with his agent, Jennifer Jackson. Jay always made me feel like my feedback on his work was important, even when I wasn’t so sure of its worth myself. I still hope that someday more readers will get to experience the last novel he completed, CALAMITY OF SO LONG A LIFE, the first in the Sunspin sequence.
It’s hard to believe there won’t be more Jay, or more of his stories, but I’m be glad to have had the chance to know him and his work.
I’ll miss you, Jay. And I’ll always remember.
“And when I tell you to, jump into the sky. Just forget how to fall.” — from “Angle of my Dreams” by Jay Lake
Sadness.
Very much so.