I\u2019ve known Jay Lake<\/a> for most of my professional career. He\u2019s one of my generation\u2019s most prolific and beloved writers in the science fiction\/fantasy literary scene. For me, his formidable bibliography and the critical respect he commands are not the first things I think about when I hear his name.<\/p>\n

As in blue collar.<\/p>\n

All of us work hard in this sf\/f business. You have to, if you want to sustain a pro career. Hard work is not special. Being \u2018blue\u2019 is beyond just being hard-working, but possessing a seemingly bottomless wellspring of willpower to overcome long odds and to keep succeeding, despite setbacks, while being true to self.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s Jay.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s very publicly battled terminal cancer in recent years. He\u2019s allowed all of us to share in his journey in an uncommonly transparent way. He\u2019s a shaman, a showman, a magician, a poet.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s a force of nature.<\/i><\/p>\n

As many of you know, I\u2019m working on one of the major art feats of my career as I create 54 new artworks that re-engineer and reimagine the Mexican game of chance called Loteria for modern audiences. The first dozen of those artworks will appear in my 2014 John Picacio Calendar<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2018El Arbol\u2019 means \u2018tree\u2019 in Spanish, and that icon is one of the 54 in the traditional Loteria game, as pictured here, from the classic Pasatiempos Gallo \/ Don Clemente<\/a> version that I played when I was a kid.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n
Jay has agreed to be the inspiration for my version of this icon.<\/p>\n
Tomorrow, the terrific D. Scott Frey<\/a> has very graciously agreed to be an accomplice in this act of madness, as he shoots a few reference photos of Jay for me long-distance, so that I can use those as a springboard toward creating an original drawn\/painted illustration. I\u2019ll work like a demon in the coming days to make this art a reality before the calendar goes to press.<\/p>\n
I can\u2019t say what needs to be said to Jay in words, so I\u2019ll try to do it in an illustration.<\/p>\n
Jay\u2019s days are numbered. Same for you. Same for me. Life is a deadline.<\/p>\n
The Tree of Life lives forever.<\/p>\n
El Arbol.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s do this.<\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I\u2019ve known Jay Lake for most of my professional career. He\u2019s one of my generation\u2019s most prolific and beloved writers in the science fiction\/fantasy literary scene. For me, his formidable bibliography and the critical respect he commands are not the first things I think about when I hear his name. It\u2019s the color blue. As […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":562,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-conventions"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/johnpicacio.com\/onthefront\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/8061451198_48b33b9bb8_z_widget.jpg?fit=320%2C213","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5te7x-L","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/johnpicacio.com\/onthefront\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/johnpicacio.com\/onthefront\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/johnpicacio.com\/onthefront\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/johnpicacio.com\/onthefront\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/johnpicacio.com\/onthefront\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/johnpicacio.com\/onthefront\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/johnpicacio.com\/onthefront\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/johnpicacio.com\/onthefront\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/johnpicacio.com\/onthefront\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/johnpicacio.com\/onthefront\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}