As I’ve said many times before, I’m crap at writing obituaries. That goes double for Jay because I have this stuff in my eyes that is preventing me from focusing on the screen and keyboard. Jay was a friend.

I’ve been spending some time looking for a photo to use with this post. Amazingly I didn’t have a good one. So I have chosen the above photo from Locus because it shows Jay at his larger-than-life best, and wearing one of his trade-mark Hawaiian shirts.

Jay will be remembered for many things, in particular for a significant amount of very fine fiction. However, I hope that he will also be remembered for the tradition of the Campbell Tiara (which he created with Elizabeth Bear). Jay was happy to talk about gender identity issues long before it was fashionable to do so, for which I will always be grateful.

He will, of course, also be remembered for the ferocity with which he fought his illness. If people could survive cancer simply on the basis of their determination not to be beaten by it, Jay would still be with us. In addition to fighting on his own behalf, Jay did everything in his power to ensure that his own struggle would also benefit those who came after him. Because that’s the sort of person he was.

I will miss him dreadfully. So will many other members of our community.