The day after the awards ceremony was extremely well organized. We met near 11:00am (with many of us have just awakened), and set out by bus to Vroman’s bookstore in Pasedena. There, we were arranged in a bit of a random formation and signed tons of books.

Joshua J Stewart and Tobias Fruge were to either side of me, which made my signing feel a little anti-climactic, since people attending the signing could look at their portfolios, but they hadn’t read my story yet (obviously). Still, I talked to a bunch of buyers and I had a blast.

At about 1, we were supposed to head off for lunch, and then to the Barnes & Noble in Burbank, but our driver was nowhere to be found! There was much milling about near the coffee shop for nearly an hour. When he was finally located, we ended up arriving at B&N with only minutes before our signing and missed out on lunch! Tim Powers, however, was absolutely awesome. He located a stash of cookies for us to munch on and brought them over.

On the way back, we passed the Warner Bros studio and saw the smoke coming over the mountains from the forest fires that were only kilometers away. I had a wonderful talk with Rob Sawyer about novels, media fiction, and how to win awards. The man is completely frank and open, and that make him a goldmine for a neo-pro like myself.

We’d planned a poolside party that evening but it was Sunday and the pool closed early, so we ended up hanging out in the lobby where Tim Powers regaled us with Philip K Dick stories. It was one of my favourite moments of the whole week, and it was with great reluctance that I headed to bed around 2 am.

Tags: Workshop, Writers of the Future