Day 2 of my stay here went fairly well. We got up at some ungodly hour and went on a tour of the factory where they are printing Writers of the Future Vol XXVI. This was a little like a sci-fi movie in itself. There was a constant hum of machines and the smell of hot pulp was overwhelming. The reams of paper they load into the machines weigh 2900 lbs and can only be stacked so high because they’ve been known to fall and crush unlucky workers. Amongst the “webs” as they call these rolls of paper, we came to an area where there were tons of copies of Vol XXVI stacked haphazardly in some kind of pit–defective copies apparently.  Defective or not, the book was gorgeous and it was a great moment for the winners. Plans to slip a few copies into pockets or under shirts were discussed, but there was no need. A few minutes later we were able to see it whiz by on an assembly line.

At the end of the tour we were given some unbound pages and a cover as a memento. I remembered at the last minute to grab one for Jason Fischer, who was too sick to attend and dropped it off for him later.

I figure that part of the reason Author Services asked me back was to help this year’s winners enjoy the workshop, so I’ve made a point of introducing them to all of the judges. Some of them, like Mike Resnik, I’ve never met myself, but because I’m not in the workshop I’m able to meet them in off-hours, or I’m be introduced to them by the other judges. This allows me to get to know them enough so when the Thursday Mingler or the Locus party rolls around, I’m able to introduce them to the winners.

I remember was it was like to be a winner last year. You’re super nervous, and the temptation to cluster into “safe” groups with your workshop mates and not interact with the judges is huge. Whenever I saw one of these groups forming, I’d beeline over there, ask if they’d met so-and-so, and if the answer was “no”, introduce them. For the first time in my writing career, it really feels like I’m “paying it forward”.

Steve Savile and I spent much of the evening at the Locus Party gathered around Mike Resnick, who was telling funny stories from the old days–Harlan Ellison stories, DeCamp stories, you name it. At the end of the evening, Mike asked me which of the writers in my year were likely to make it. I gave him a few names, some who read this blog, some who don’t… it was an interesting exercise. The ones Steve and I thought of are the ones we know have been working on novels. Persistence is the safe bet of success.

Anyways, I’m nearly late for Ken Scholes and Steve Savile workshop speech, so I’ll make sure to update again later!