Fran and Jack's Place


If you're looking for more information about the person who has created a number of sites on the internet then you've come to the right place. My name is Jack. I am 49 years old. I was born in the year of the dragon and so it is not too terribly surprising that I learned a great love for science fiction and fantasy. I have a degree in Psychology, have owned book stores, wrote computer programs, dealt at science fiction Worldcons and been interested in science fiction from almost the moment I learned to read which was not long after I learned to walk. I went to my first con in the late seventies and have been hooked ever since. My wife and I recently celebrated our sixteenth wedding anniversary and we look forward to many more years to come.

I am a web designer and have my own domain name hosting and web design business known as Web Witchery Consulting If you like what you have seen on recent Norwescon web sites or the Northwest Science Fiction Resources site or elsewhere, please consider us for your web Design projects. You can also take a look at my resume online. And please be aware that my business page is probably my least maintained page of all.

 I am the founder of the Seattle HTML SIG, an active member of the Northwest Science Fiction Society, Northwest Con League, KEGS and am an active and attending member of Saint Columba's Episcopal Church.

My one major passion thse days is my love of scuba diving. This has proved both a major boon to my health and my passionate love of our environment on planet Earth. We got our PADI Open Water Certification and went on to dive both off of Oahu and at Kona on the coast of the Big Island. We had the opportunity to swim with large sea turtles as well as manta rays. Given we were both still working on our buoyancy skills we elected not to take any pictures, although I may capture some stills from the video someone else made in which were seen swimming hand in hand. Although tendinitis of my left elbow has had me sidelined a bit, we planned and made a dive trip to Fiji in September of 2001, despite the events of September 11. It was while there that we completed our PADI Advanced Open Water Diving certification. Since then Fran and I have gone on two over three hundred dives for myself and two hundred for Fran. I am presently pursuing my Dive Master certificate in both PADI and NAUI. I have my cert for underwater videography, peak performance buoyancy, basic nitrox, nitrox blending and more.

   To go along with this relatively new interest of mine, I have established a web site and a proposed collection of fen with an interest in science fiction, fantasy as well as snorkeling and scuba diving, entitled Fen With Fins           .

 

  Or if you would like to see a little of our diving, take a look at the Northwest Diving Video Page. This will hopefully include others doing video than just us, but at present this is Fran and I diving at Seacrest, Titlow, KVI, Maury Island Barges and hopefully other sites will be up there when you visit.

   

A death of my cousin from complications in trying to deal with his addiction to alcohol and his homelessness, has added a new focus for my life along with those described above. Please feel free to read an essay I wrote entitled Putting A Face On the Homeless: Memories of a Cousin.  

     

Shadows In A Dream is a collaboration of four authors including the web master of sfnorthwest.org - please consider it for your next book buy.  

I also recently had a collaborative writing project come to fruition.Shadows of A Dream is the first published book to grow out of Writer's Notebook and forwriters.com, two projects that have been part of my life for much of the last five years. Now there is a book that expresses that experience that was created by four of the members of the Notebook. Consider it for your reading please and your next book purchase. If you would like to read more about how this book came into existence and the individuals responsible for its gestation and final birth, please visit the page set aside in honor of it. Also, please visit the new and updated version of Writers Notebook that continues to celebrate the muse and writing and aspiring writers that participate in this great artistic enterprise that we call writing.




This is Fran and myself.    

Fran is my best friend, my soul mate, my wife. She is an RN and works in Pediatrics at Children's Hospital in Seattle. We moved from Montana to this area largely because we wanted to be in the Pacific Northwest and this area had so many science fiction conventions with people we knew. The fact that Seattle is supposed to have more book stores per capita than anywhere else in the country didn't hurt, either. We will be celebrating our fifteen wedding anniversay and renewing our vows this coming June 21, 2000. Our marriage became somewhat closer, as if that was possible, when it was found that Fran was diagnosed with breast cancer. Later results have shown that it was caught early and all things being equal her chances are very good. We would like to here thank everyone who wished us well and prayed for us. It really did help. I also would like to make note that Fran is hard at work on her own website called A Walk With Breast Cancer. In September, 1999, we took the opportunity to celebrate our continued good health with a visit to Australia. If you would like to see some great pictures. Feel free to check out our Australia posi-web page as well. And more recently, we took the opportunity to further explore our interest in scuba diving by visiting and doing diving in the soft coral capital of the world, Fiji. Feel free to check out the details of our trip in our Fiji Pages. Posi-web is a phenomena of several years running where people from all over the world enter thoughts and reflections about their lives down for all to share. Our initial attempt in this regard with regard to Australia has taken on a life of its own and has become its own fixed web page that we hope to add to over time, perhaps even with another visit if time and money permit.

 

     Other interests include almost everything except country music and sports , but I have a special passion for computers, HTML and Web page design, gourmet cooking, reading, writing and of course good friends.

Westercon 56 was a major passion for me between 2000 and 2003. Or, I should say, being the originator and bid chair to shepherd Westercon 56 to the Puget Sound Region in 2003 and ultimately helping as the Vice Chair to bring it to final fruition. I would also like to thank William Sadorus and all those others that helped make this a reality as a major convention after my helping to bring the bid to reality. Though it could not quite be the technological phenomena I had hoped due to the downturn in our economy, it still proved a great event enjoyed by all who attended.

 

Cooking and Good Eating

My favorite personal recipe that I created myself is my Kitchen Sink Rice Pilaff

My favorite cookbooks include:

China Moon Cookbook by Barbara Tropp

The Modern Art of Chinese Cooking by Barbara Tropp

At Home With the French Classics by Richard Grausman (especially his Chocolate Soufflee with Grand Marnier)

Chef Paul Prudhomme's Louisiana Kitchen by Paul Prudhomme

 

Copyright © 1995 - 2002 by John J. Beslanwitch