Let’s keep dancing…
The Writers and Illustrators of the Future bash plays the honor roll to the hilt, with a tightly run awards ceremony full of glitter and panache. There were over 400 people there (best guess), and we were a good-looking group, if I do say so myself, proving that even SF types clean up all right when we can be pulled from our computers.
Rick and I packed as much as we could into a few hectic hours. The first highlight was meeting fellow-OWW-er Stelios Touchditas and his beautiful wife, Ira. (The handsome fellow in back is Rick.)
Resident Los Angelinos, they met us at the hotel for a pre-ceremony dinner (Er – dinner for us. Stelios, being Greek, eats at a more civilized time of 10PM or so…)
We checked into the ceremony shortly after six, happy to discover that we had reserved seats right next to a chair with Patty Jansen’s name on it. We’d been wondering how we would find her, but they already had us down as her guests and cheering section. We got to meet her before the show started!
The ceremony will eventually be online at writersofthefuture.com. For now, you’ll have to trust me. It was filled with literary and artistic stars of the genre. Speeches, cheers, and encouragement ruled the night. The twenty-four (!) award winners (12 writers, 12 illustrators, although did I count just 11 illustrators?) each gave a short acceptance speech as they received their trophies. Yeah, that took a while, but they were worth it!
Patty with her illustrator, Scott Hargrave. I’m sorry it turned out blurry!
Here’s a better picture of Patty and her trophy (no, Gregory Benford is not the trophy!)
Patty, like all the winners, was swamped. We all got a copy of the this year’s anthology and they had to stand around for hours signing everyone’s books. Rick and I, and the Touchditas’, made the rounds too, getting our own copies signed by everyone.
Marlene Dotterer 