Well, I have arrived back at the Roosevelt Hotel exactly one year after I left it as a 1st place winner of the L Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Contest. This time, I’m free of all the anxiety I felt last year, and I feel like I can just kick back and have some fun!
I was picked up at the airport by Mitch and Peter (Peter you might know as the admin of the WotF Forums) and had a great time chatting with them about fiction. Turns out they’ve both put the pen to paper themselves a few times, and Peter even admitted to completing an outline of his own SF story. Go Peter!
I was met at the Roosevelt Hotel by Joni LeBacqui, the contest administrator. Joni is the heart and soul of his contest (I thanked her specifically in my acceptance speech last year), and, as usual, she was run off her feet. On observing Joni’s hectic schedule last year, my wife Alicia asked, “When does she eat?”, so upon arrival I made sure to take her to lunch, where she caught me up on the state of the contest, the schedule, and how the winners were managing.
Everyone was in the middle of their 24 hour story, but I met Steve Saville and Eric James Stone in the lounge of the hotel where we shot the shit. Also present was Jason Fischer, who was both furiously trying to finish his story, and also doing his best to Be Australian (which is to say, friendly, funny, and generally good-natured).
Jason also gave me a copy of his novella, which I can’t wait to read!
Jason Fischer's Novella
The welcome party–where the winners get to mingle with the judges–is tonight, so I’m going to try and get a few hours of shut eye before then. I’ve been up since 3:30am this morning, and I want to be my best tonight to at least keep to a minimum how many times I put my foot in my mouth.
6 Comments(+Add)
Say hi to Paula R. Stiles. She’s the editor at Innsmouth Free Press and the Cthulhu to my Nyarlathotep
Hi Silvia,
Is she coming tonight, or will she be at Saturday’s event? What does she look like?
Say hi to everyone for me. And make sure those young whippersnappers know their place!
Enjoy the burgers.
Good call on taking Joni to lunch. That’s one of the few times you can get her to stop moving. (grin) At least until after the Event. (double-grin)
Dr. Phil
She’s the lady wearing a pink shirt in this photo and typing on her computer: (scroll down) http://www.writersofthefuture.com/blog/day3
Silvia,
Met her. She’s awesome!
Matt,
Everyone’s super cool. There was an odd number of winners, so I even got to participate in some of the drills. Said “hi” to everyone on your behalf. I’ll keep you up to date!
Dr Phil,
Honestly, Joni has a bottomless reservoir of energy. I don’t know how she does it. It was a “quiet” lunch for her, and she took at least six phone calls in the space of 30 minutes