All at once

It's fascinating that you can go for weeks, if not months, and nothing happens of interest, and then for some strange reason - WHAMMO - everyone schedules events at the same time.

This past weekend there were four different events I could have gone to. Locally, the Northeast Texas Writers Organization had a weekend retreat and workshop. On the state level, the Associated Press Managing Editors (APME) held their annual Texas meeting in Austin. Regionally, Conestoga was held in Tulsa. Nationally, the Nebula awards weekend was in Los Angeles.

I've not had much to do with the local writers group - they're mostly old people who've taken up writing in retirement. The APME conference is something the paper would have paid for; last year I was sent to Galveston, but this year the trip was cut as part of the overall belt-tightening because of the economy.

I attended Conestoga in 2006 and 2007, but skipped it last year - again, to save money - and the same applies this year. I really, really liked the Con, I've had some of my best times at a con there, but ya' can't be every place. They also moved it from July to April this year, which wiped it off my calendar very early because of the aforementioned conflicts.

I went to the Nebulas last year because they were in Austin, but otherwise there was no way I was going to schlep myself out to the West Coast this year. I hate traveling, in general.

In case you didn't see it somewhere else, here is the list of winners and honorees:

2008 Nebula and Andre Norton Award Winners
Best Novel: Powers by Ursula K. Le Guin
Best Novella: "The Spacetime Pool" by Catherine Asaro
Best Novelette: "Pride and Prometheus" by John Kessel
Best Short Story: "Trophy Wives" by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
Best Script: WALL-E Screenplay by Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon, Original story by Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter
Andre Norton Award: How a Girl of Spirit Gambles All to Expand Her Vocabulary, Confront a Bouncing Boy Terror, and Try to Save Califa from a Shaky Doom (Despite Being Confined to Her Room) by Ysabeau S. Wilce

2009 Award Honorees
A. J. Budrys -- Solstice Award
M.J. Engh -- Author Emerita
Marty Greenberg -- Solstice Award
Harry Harrison -- Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master
Joss Whedon -- Ray Bradbury Award
Kate Wilhelm -- Solstice Award