Back from Austin

I left Friday afternoon to attend the Nebulas Weekend in Austin. Because my roommate left earlier Friday, I took a bus and caught up with him. We drove back up together in his car.

Had a great time visiting with some old friends, including Lee Martindale, Jayme Blaschke, Mel Tatum, Joe Lansdale and Ardath Mayhar, and some people I haven't seen in a few years, such as Stan Schmidt and Geoffrey Landis. I met Paul Stevens and Gordon Van Gelder, who I saw last year at various cons, and I met some people such as Walter Jon Williams, Michael Capobianco, Paul Melko and Sheila Williams that I had never met before.

The awards banquet wasn't too boring. Joe Lansdale's toastmaster speech was a hoot, and Michael Moorcock's Grandmaster speech was fascinating - to me. I bet a lot of old timers found it boring, but a lot of the history he recapitulated was new stuff to me.

The winners by the way were:

Novel: The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon

Novella: "Fountain of Age" by Nancy Kress

Novelette: "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate" by Ted Chiang

Short Story: "Always" by Karen Joy Fowler

Script: Pan's Labyrinth by Guillermo del Toro

Good news from an unexpected quarter

I got an email today I didn't expect. It began:

"Congratulations! You have been selected for a follow-up appointment at an upcoming Jeopardy! contestant search for the Dallas area, exclusively for those who successfully passed the online test. This is the next step in becoming a Jeopardy! contestant. We have reserved the following appointment for you:" and so forth.

I took the on-line test for the game show a few weeks ago and promptly forgot about it.

I had thought that my story on Ardath Mayhar had run in the Nacogdoches Daily Sentinel last Sunday, but I called Managing Editor Bobbie Goodrich today and learned that, because of a scheduling mistake, it didn't run until today. I asked her to me a tear sheet.

Getting ready to leave for Austin the day after tomorrow.

Thanks!

My rate of posting has slowed somewhat, as I am rushing to meet my goal of having a book completed by the time of the Nebula weekend.

As I noted previously, I published my story on Ardath Mayhar in my paper last Sunday. I sent a clipping to her, and she emailed me a few days ago.

She was very pleased with the story and said it was very accurate, "You came nearer writing a flawless interview than any reporter I have encountered so far."

"I hope to see you next week in Austin," she continued. "Thank you
for the nice write-up."

The Nacogdoches paper should be running the story this Sunday. Ardath said they sent someone oit to take their own photo.

Responsibility

I got emails this weekend from Terry Bramlett and Paula Goodlett. Terry has been nominated for a Nebula award in the novelette category for his story "Child, Maiden, Mother, Crone" which was published in Jim Baen's Universe last June.

This is the first story ever nominated for a Nebula from JBU. It's a great honor and appropriate recognition for Terry, and I'm sure he is justifiably proud.

Terry said he can't attend the awards banquet, and he asks that in case he wins, I accept the award for him. Of course, I said yes. In addition to being a fellow JBU author, I published one of Terry's stories, "Day of Heroes", last year in Sentinel SF.

Paula (who is the managing editor of JBU) also said she can't attend, and so she seconded the suggestion. So I will be representing JBU and Terry at the banquet.

Terry pooh-poohs his chances, as a first-time nominee from a relatively new publication, in the face of stiff competition from folks such as Geoff Ryman, Nancy Kress and Ted Chiang, among others - but I say, don't count the kid from Mississippi out!

Mayhar story

Well, I published my story on Ardath Mayhar in Sunday's paper. It came in at over 1,200 words and was the only story on the Entertainment page. I've already sent a copy to Bobbie Goodrich, the managing editor at the Nacogdoches Sentinel. She loved it and plans to run it next Sunday.

I will offer the story through the Associated Press and if they pick it up, it will be available to papers throughout the state.

Plans are firming up for the trip to Austin the weekend after next for the Nebula weekend.

I'm hitting the keyboard hard and fast to finish up a novel that I want to have complete before then.

The Day the Earth Caught Fire

My newspaper has a Spanish-language weekly edition - which I edit with the help of a bilingual staff member (I don't read or write Spanish myself). I use Spanish-language articles from the Associated Press on some of the pages, and in working on the section I noticed there was a photo of a street vendor in Mexico City chopping up blocks of ice - they'e having a heat wave, and it was up to 81 degrees today.

I'm using the photo in the paper, and that jogged my memory of this movie - which not only was a neat s-f flick, but just about the best movie I ever saw as it relates to the newspaper business.

Conversation with Ardath

I had about a 40-minute conversation with Ardath Mayhar on the phone yesterday afternoon. Ardath is being recognized by the SFWA as Author Emeritus at the Nebulas weekend.

Since Ardath is a regional author, I plan to write up a story for the entertainment page of my paper, and let everyone know about this recognition.

It was a very pleasant conversation, and I learned a lot. I met her at Fencon in 2004 - I had no idea that, because of mobility problems, that was the last con she attended. She was only able to be there because Joe Lansdale carried her, and it will be MoJo Joe who will be taking her to Austin later this month.

I called SFWA President Michael Capobianco to get some authoritative information on the recognition itself.