Dr. Phil's Dreamwidth Journal

A Beautiful Voice, Heartbreaking Lyrics

Funny how you misremember things. I might've thought it was older, but apparently it was 1975 and I was in high school when Janis Ian came out with the iconic song "At Seventeen". I've always loved that song, being a geeky loner isn't reserved just for seventeen-year-old girls nor is the song's resonance, and during a 1978 trip in his van, my college buddy Rick and I toured New England and parts of Canada -- what was it, 4200 miles in 17 days? -- and Janis' album Between The Lines figured prominently in the music rotation.

And in another one of those things you keep forgetting, I was reminded that the other year when they re-ran the very first Saturday Night Live, there was Janis Ian singing "At Seventeen".

For The SF/F Fans, A Genre Version

Even amongst those who were huge Janis Ian fans 30-35 years ago, not so many know she's still out there plugging away -- and is also a SF author and attends SF cons. I either caught of glimpse of her at one of the WisCons I attended, or else am remembering the pictures including her which ran in Locus. (grin)

Anyway, at the 2009 Nebula Awards, Janis not only served as Toastmistress, but came out with a SF/F genre version of "At Seventeen". She's recently released mp3s online of this SFWA anthem with just her and her guitar and with backing accompaniment.

No one can annunciate serious vocabulary like Janis Ian. Seriously. (happy-grin) And her voice is still absolutely lovely. (sigh)

Not sure of the lyrics? The song created quite a lively discussion at "Janis Ian Filks Herself" on Snopes.com. But you can go here to see Janis' annotated deconstructed lyrics so you'll become one of the "in" crowd that knows all the subtlety.

Note that this isn't the only alternative version of "At Seventeen" that Janis has done. She did a version about Jerry Seinfeld and his then girlfriend for Howard Stern. Wikipedia, however, is not hip enough to mention the new Nebula version. (grin)

Finally...

I had a Borders Gift Card lying around -- wait, there's another one, and... actually make that three cards, including one with a partial balance -- so I took care of that little pending detail and ordered a bunch of Janis Ian CDs. You can't buy all your favorite old music (and new music) all at once, but sometimes you just have to say, "You know, I'm thinking about it, so let's do it now." (grin) Thanks, family members.

To everyone, enjoy!

Dr. Phil

The Closest Yet

Received a rejection from Gordon Van Gelder at The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction today at the P.O. Box in town, my 40th from him. Usually I get a pretty fast turnaround from Gordon, who'd been our Guest Editor at the 2004 Clarion workshop, but this one took 73 days. He wrote, "I've been on the fence about this one, but I'm afraid I've fallen off on the wrong side and I'm going to pass on it." Now another person might say, Damn, another rejection. (sigh). But I must confess that I had a totally different reaction.

Sure, Gordon ultimately chose not to buy my story, but he held onto it since early February and thought about it. This has to be the closest I've come to selling a story to F&SF, and I have to say I am greatly pleased. In my complicated scoring system, I have to score this as a Win and mark it down as an Encouraging Letter.

When you are still a work in progress yourself, you have to take your victories where you can find them, much as I've commented before on Honorable Mentions in the Writers of the Future contest. That's probably the strongest advice I can give writers just starting to submit their works.

And of course I re-read my story, tweaked it a bit and am about to print it out to send to Sheila Williams at Asimov's Science Fiction on Monday. Keep those stories moving! Now, do I have anything ready to ship that Gordon hasn't seen yet? Hmm...

Huh

Even without daydreaming of flying off to Australia for WorldCon this summer, there are a lot of SF/F cons to go to. Alas, Penguicon is right in the middle of Grade-a-thon, I passed on registering for WisCon over Memorial Day in case I'm teaching a Summer-I class, and I'm not even sure if I can get away to NASFiC in Raleigh NC in August or World Fantasy in Columbus OH this fall.

But today on Facebook, fantasy writer Patrick Rothfuss posted a link to MadCon 2010. Apparently this is the first time in nine years that this Madison WI SF/F con is being run. Of much more interest is that besides guests Patrick Rothfuss and Allen Steele, the GoH is Harlan Ellison. Really? Harlan? I've never had the chance to meet Harlan or hear his stories in person. Lots of people tell Harlan stories, but geesh. Madison? In September? The 24th to 26th?

It's tough to drive around Lake Michigan and it's expensive to take the Lake Express ferry across Lake Michigan, and if I'm teaching in the Fall... But Harlan's going to be there?

(sigh) Pencils in MadCon 2010 for September.

In Case You Were Wondering... But Probably Not...

I know Patrick from the WOTF XXIV workshop in August 2008.

Demonic Patrick Rothfuss in Evil Hotel California

Actually, Patrick is a really nice guy who tells wonderful stories, both in print and in person. He and Eric James Stone were among the previous WOTF winners brought in to encourage us in our writing careers. Eric, of course, holds a special place in my heart as he is also a WOTF Published Finalist who went on to win in the WOTF the next year. It can be done! (grin)

Eric James Stone and Patrick Rothfuss holding court at WOTF XXIV workshop

Anyway, that's enough name dropping for one day. (grin)

Dr. Phil

In Memory Of IROSF

It was just a month ago that I posted about the passing of IROSF, the Internet Review of Science Fiction. The last issue, February 2010, mentioned that Lois Tilton's short fiction reviews were going to show up at LOCUSonline. But I guess I thought they'd show up in March. Instead, I found today that her first column was dated Sunday 21 February 2010.

If you need to catch up, the second and third installments of her reviews are here.

I like Lois' reviews. They do a good job of capturing the essence of a story. And she is well read, allowing her comments to assess important aspects of all the worlds that the authors are trying to invent. I find I enjoy the reviews whether I've read the stories or not, and whether I agree with her conclusions or not. And often I will make the effort to track down intriguing stories that I might not have otherwise run into. To me, that's the mark of a good reviewer.

Dr. Phil

Well, We Knew It Was Coming... To An End

Last month I mentioned that The Internet Review of Science Fiction was going to end its run with the February 2010 issue. Alas, that day has come. But it's still worth checking out IROSF, since there is still a February 2010 issue.

Of course, any magazine worthy of the title "Review" should contain reviews -- and IROSF did. Both in terms of current short fiction and analytical and retrospective discussions of science fiction. I think what I was anticipating missing most was Lois Tilton's short fiction review column. But...

Despair not, gentle reader, we knew that a reviewer of Lois' caliber would not languish in obscurity. Henceforward, her reviews can be found at Locus Online. We all congratulate Lois for this transition, and look forward to her future efforts.

Locus magazine already has lots of reviews in its pages -- Lois Tilton's comments will provide them with another set of reviews in the online pages.

Then again there's the case of Kristine Kathryn Rusch, whose column is entitled "Here We Go Again" this month:

I'm going to write two essays like this in two months. This is the first; the second is for my column in Baen's Universe. Both magazines are going away, both for different reasons.

If I were the pessimistic sort, I'd think I'll never work again. Or that internet magazines are doomed. Or that magazines in general are doomed. Or that writing is doomed.

But as anyone who has read this column through its first incarnation in Æon and now here at IROSF knows, I'm a realist. I know magazines come and go, markets come and go, and that's normal.

How normal? Consider Ellen Datlow's comment posted to Kristine's column:

Hi Kris,

Actually Baen's Universe was not "one of the first online magazines to pay well and get excellent fiction;"-not by a long shot.

Maybe the 5th?

OMNI Online,
Event Horizon
SCIFICTION
Strange Horizons

Those were the first.
Cheers
Ellen

I'm sure we haven't heard the last of that argument. (grin)

A Last Hurrah -- And Three Cheers For The Folks At IROSF

So let us raise the metaphorical glass in praise of IROSF and all those who contributed. Though this venue will fall silent with new content, we can hope that the years of content for IROSF will continue to be a resource for some time to come. And those who wrote columns will surely, as others have noted, write again.

Dr. Phil

Well, I Suppose It Had To Happen

Forty years ago or so, the people at the Harvard Lampoon published a parody called Bored of the Rings. The faithful were properly offended, but it was funny -- and the sucker's still in print! So back in the late 60s and early 70s, every college and high school student was reading LOTR. If lightning were to strike again, what meme would be attacked in 2009? Why yes, it's:

Nightlight

About three things I was absolutely certain. First, Edwart was most likely my soul mate, maybe. Second, there was a vampire part of him–which I assumed was wildly out of his control–that wanted me dead. And third, I unconditionally, irrevocably, impenetrably, heterogeneously, gynecologically, and disreputably wished he had kissed me.

Yes, the Harvard Lampoon has done a novel of Belle Goose falling in sort-of vampire-lusting love of Edwart Mullen, a computer geek who actually isn't a vampire, no matter how much Belle wants him to be. No, I haven't read Nightlight, or Twilight for that matter, but I thought I'd pass on the info. (grin)

I read about this in The Chronicle of Higher Education, but their online article is subscription based, so I won't link it here. Amazingly, this is a work of about a dozen people -- and the article mentioned that it was accidentally dumped into the Recycle bin for two days before someone noticed it and saved it. Ooh, vampire love and destiny -- this is the novel which had to be told! (eyerolls)

Let's hear it for parody. (But will it still be in print in 2049?) (Only time will tell)

Dr. Phil

Twilight Of The Sparkly Midnight New Moon

Say what you will about Stephenie Meyer and her Twilight books, but they are popular. And the two movies? Huge.

To give you some idea, let's point out that the Grand Rapids area biggest line this week was not at the Barnes & Noble bookstore at Woodland Mall. No, we're talking about the midnight showings for Twilight: New Moon.

Long considered the staple of SF/F and Star Wars and Star Trek geeks, the midnight showings locally were taken over by a largely female crowd of all ages. Only a teen phenomenon? Oh, puh-leese. Pictures on the local news and in the Grand Rapids Press showed many middle-aged women who were not all mothers chaperoning their teens or pre-teens.

When Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace opened on 19 May 1999, Studio 28 had a midnight showing in Theatre 1, then had it running in 3 other theatres for the first 24 hours. Fast forward to 2009 and while Studio 28 is gone, the same chain's Celebration North mulitiplex opened New Moon in all 17 non-IMAX theatres at midnight -- over 3500 seats -- and sold out. Systemwide, they sold something like 14,200 midnight tickets, exceeded only by one of the Harry Potter's at 14,600 (and Celebration North opened it in 14 theatres at midnight).

While some of this is marketing and choosing to open extra theatres and offer more seats for the midnight showings, one needs to point out another set of interesting factoids about West Michigan: (1) this was on a school night and (2) with (most?) West Michigan schools on trimesters, final exams start like on Friday. And still the teens contributed to the surge.

The Inevitable Complaints

Last Sunday, I showed up for part of a 10am panel at WindyCon 36 on "Rowling and Meyer" and what young readers are reading. J.K. Rowling's writing poor and predictable? Stephenie Meyer can't write either and her vampires aren't (sniff) canonical? Does not seem to be hurting the sales, folks. Even the NPR news quiz show Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me on Saturday tried to argue that all these Twilight fans are going to be unprepared to go up against real vampires. (grin)

Look, I haven't read any of the Twilight novels or seen the movies. And I know some people who have and their heads didn't explode -- some of them really like them. But they are successful and I won't begrudge either writer, stars or studio their success. Did I mention that Mister Werewolf in New Moon is a local boy from Michigan? (grin) While not all these readers and moviegoers are going to become lifelong SF/F fans of all genres, there will be some who go on to read more books and see more movies.

A rising tide raises all boats. Wrestling a tsunami is a little harder. (grin)

Dr. Phil

Friday The Thirteenth

Continuing on with my coverage of WindyCon 36, I had planned on leaving West Michigan around noon EST, with 2004 Clarion and WOTF XXIV classmate albogdan Al Bogdan driving over from East Michigan. But that would suppose his car was working. He told him me to go on without him. So I actually got out of town by about 12:30. (grin)

Last year I ran smack into a massive construction rebuild project on Chicago's I-88 Reagan expressway (East-West Tollway) -- in the rain and at rush hour. Crawled the last four miles or so. This year I was running early. Now WindyCon's planners decided to route all the directions away from I-88 and Highland Avenue. But given we're across Lake Michigan from Chicago, I've got WBBM-AM News Radio 78 (and WGN Radio 720) on presets. So I was able to get traffic info every ten minutes and they kept saying no delays on the Reagan. I-290 near Austin was, as usual, more of a bottleneck. No further problems and I arrived at the Westin Lombard around 4pm CST. Also heard from Al, he'd gotten ahold of a vehicle and was driving all the way in from metro Detroit.

Checked in and hit my first panel at 5pm, "So What Is Steampunk?" (see picture of panelist James Ballard Smoot here), then 6pm, "I Could Kill You With My Mind", started with River Tam from Firefly and talked about morality and moral codes about killing -- and insanity.

Meat Up With Mattw

7pm, Opening Ceremonies. Some people like them, some people don't. If I'm there, it's fun to see the various con invited guests. Afterward, the 8pm presentation was the "Gaslamp Fantasy" Girl Genius and "Revenge of the Weasel Queen", projected artwork by the Guest Artists Phil and Kaja Foglio and voices by the same bunch of crazies who did the little play at last year's Opening Ceremonies. Then at 9pm, former Hubble Space Telescope worker Christian Ready did a lovely presentation on the Electromagnetic spectrum and the various space telescopes searching the various bands. (Really hard to do a Google search on "Christian Ready".)

Amongst all this, I heard someone behind me say, "Dr. Phil" and fellow UCF member Matt came up. He was even wearing a UCF logo T-shirt. (grin) Naturally, I thought I'd commemorate this meat-up, but holding my little Sony out in front, there was no flash. No picture?

Camera was firing, but no flash -- because of the very bright indirect lighting of the ceiling.

Dr. Phil: "Uh, is this thing working?" (FLASH!)

Matt and I talked, and then I went up to the room to see if Al had made it. Actually, he was coming out of the room just as I turned the corner from the elevator. So we went in the room and talked a bit, then we headed down to see if I could still grab a hamburger or something, having not had dinner. Alas, as 10:20pm the kitchen had closed. So we went by the ConSuite, where I had a traditional con peanut butter & jelly sandwich (with Ruffles potato chips) and a Coke. (extra special grin) Such is con life.

Saturday 14 November 2009

The Westin's hotel restaurant is superb -- Harry Caray's Italian Steakhouse / Holy Mackerel -- and they do a more than complete breakfast service. Pancakes it is. (triple-stack-grin) On to panels!

10am, "Baen is for Men, DAW is for Women". Eric Flint (Baen Books) started out by reading the title as a question, then saying, "Yes." But of course he wasn't serious and it was all more complicated than that. Jim C. Hines was supposed to be on the panel, but was double-booked with the writers' workshop and only showed up at the end. The panel seemed to feel that the perception of the title was more on the reader than the publisher, though Baen covers were thought be recognizable from across the room. 11am, "Doing the Science in Steampunk", was similar to the panel I was on for Sunday on Alternative Tech in Steampunk, and it has a lot to do with a consistent vision by the author. Because armored zeppelins ain't never gonna fly. (steel-plated-grin)

Quiet lunch by myself in the restaurant with a turkey club sandwich and a coke (Pepsi). This year the restaurant also was offering a lunch and dinner buffet by the con itself -- buffet lunch was $13, dinner $15. My lunch in the restaurant? Exactly $13.00. (smile) 1pm, the Christian Ready show continues with a presentation and half-hour video of May's fifth and last Hubble Space Telescope's repair and upgrade mission. Interestingly, today NPR was reporting that the Wide Field Camera 2 pulled from HST is now on display at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum.

Take A Break

SF cons, Physics and Chemistry conferences -- I can usually fill up the whole day with sessions. But sometimes you need to take a nap and definitely take some time to regroup before you're up. With say a reading, perhaps. So I wandered back to the room and caught the last 30 seconds of the Northwestern game (NU beat Illinois, they're 7-4 and bowl eligible!), the last 3 minutes of the Michigan State game (MSU beat Purdue right at the end), saw that Michigan got beat up by Wisconsin (snort), and turned off the Ohio State-Iowa game after it started. Took a nap for a while. When I woke up, it was 10-10 in the 3rd quarter, and I told Al, who'd also come in for a nap, that we hadn't missed anything. OSU won in OT, completing a brief survey of Big Ten football on the room's decent LG HDTV.

Read through my story one more time, then headed downstairs...

Next up: Dr. Phil's reading and Steakpunk!

Dr. Phil

So Yesterday Was A Silver Anniversary

Yeah, me and Mrs. Dr. Phil had a lovely wedding ceremony in Bond Chapel on the campus of the University of Chicago twenty-five years ago on 27 October. So naturally I didn't go straight home last night after Exam 2, but went off to Schuler's Books and Music on Alpine Avenue for a quick bite to eat, and then a reading and book signing by Jim C. Hines.

What? Don't look at me like that. (a) The 27 October 1984 was our second wedding ceremony. The first was back on 12 January 1984, where we got married before a Cook County (Illinois) judge who didn't see us***, in the midst of moving to the U.P. (2) We've got another GVSU special wine pairings dinner scheduled for 12 November with a wonderful menu, so we'll celebrate just fine thank you. (III) Hey, Mrs. Dr. Phil got a signed book out of the deal.

Second Exam

I was pretty worried about that Exam 2 in my PHYS-1060 Stars and Galaxies class. So many people were down with the flu. But they came through. 115 out of 124 people showed up for the exam, and just about all of the 9 who didn't managed to drop me a line or a phone call. So I think it worked out all right. Chose not to hold class after the exam, and made it 50 instead of 30 multiple guess questions. Managed to finish well before the end of the class time, get the tests boxed up for the grad student to run to the Scantron center. And I made it to Schuler's by 6:02pm, and by 6:28 I'd hit the bathroom, bought five copies of Jim's new book to sign, and had just been served my salad and half roast beef with horseradish sauce sandwich on French bread.

And Then Much Madness Pursues

Jim C. Hines is a Michigan author whom I've known from cons and the web for a couple of years. We've been on some panels together and he's a WOTF winner and author of a series of Goblin books and now kick-ass Princess books. The Stepsister Scheme was launched at ConFusion in January and now it was time for the second adventure, The Mermaid's Madness.

He's also a charming speaking and great teller of tales. Rather than read from the new book, he chose instead to read from his Muppet-inspired werewolf story, The Creature in Your Neighborhood from the anthology Strip Mauled. It's written as a TV script and Jim did a lovely job of voicing the different memorable characters and provide some sound effects, including deleting certain words not suitable for children's hearing using a squeaky toy. A Mr. Happy Fun Ball, I think he said it was. (grin)

There were perhaps a dozen people in attendance, though most were Jim's family and friends from the Grand Rapids area. Even at that it was quite a successful event, plus Jim's books got some nice featuring in the front of the store and in their monthly news flier.

Jim's note for the future: Yes, it is a good idea to bring more books with you to make sure the bookstore has books to sell. But if you have a series, don't bring the same amount of each. Bring LOTS more of Book One. Because you won't sell the later books in a series if the first one isn't there. (wise grin)

I love Jim's clever and funny writing style. Go buy his books. And if you are at WindyCon 36 in mid-November, you could meet Jim C. Hines there as well.

Dr. Phil

*** The judge was blind. Married by Blind Justice on his lunch hour -- what could be more symbolical? Well, it's worked for a quarter of a century plus.

A Fine Dine Out

Given we had tickets for downtown Grand Rapids for Friday night, I picked up Mrs. Dr. Phil at the back of the GVSU library and we drove back into Allendale to Stromboli's. Actually, we took the back way around which avoided all the traffic lights and Michigan Left Turns -- and had the added benefit that as the gray clouds broke into blue sky and the sun came out, we got to enjoy some of the fall countryside. Mmm.

More Mmm was the lovely dinner we had at Stromboli's. This Italian (and Greek) restaurant in Allendale has long been a favorite because they feature very nice sauces and quite a varied menu. They've been adding and changing their menu -- and next week Chef Cezar said that they are adding some 1-star fine dining items to the menu. Well, we think they did quite fine last night -- we shared a Greek Caesar salad with black olives and feta. Then I had the lasagna and Mrs. Dr. Phil had the eggplant parmesan. Both were the best ones and prettiest we've ever had there. Seriously good yum.

Actually, we'd planned on trying their new Friday-Saturday dinner buffet, since when we have visitors and have them deliver we usually have an array of dishes to sample, but alas the buffet didn't start until after 5:30 and we did need to get out in an hour or so. Unfortunately our waitress, who was quite new, didn't quite translate this and the eggplant parmesan, which takes some time, took some time. The hostess, Mrs. Chef Cezar?, was much more apologetic than it really needed, and comped Mrs. Dr. Phil's glass of wine. Apparently the new girl was having some troubles, because I heard the hostess comp the wine at the table behind us. For all the things we love about food and restaurants, running a restaurant is hard work.

The Grand Rapids Symphony in Concert
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Friday 16 October 2009, 7pm, DeVos Performance Hall, Grand Rapids MI
Mezzanine Left, Row E, Seats 48-49, 2×$67

Our seats on the far left aisle were perfect for us. We could see nearly the whole orchestra and the two choirs behind them, and we had a good sight line back to where the two soloist singers stood, plus the huge projection screen was not at an appreciable angle. And we were the first ones to the bathrooms before they got huge lines at Intermission. (grin)

Howard Shore's glorious score to LOTR has been performed before as The Lord of the Rings Symphony, but only a few cities have hosted a symphonic and choral performance of the film. This was the real deal -- they didn't just play the DVD. HD widescreen format, surround sound speakers, and the music soundtrack deleted. I realized at one point that the conductor had a flat screen monitor right in front of his score, and it included some large white dots over the center of the screen at key timing points. You could be forgiven for thinking you were just at the movies and get lost in the story, because the musicians were flawless. But of course it was a lot of fun to watch the orchestra as well -- and who wouldn't want to put on their resume that they played First Clanking Chain -- as they sat and played through a three-hour movie marathon.

Of we know both the theatrical release and the Extended Edition DVD versions of the movie backwards and forwards. Actually we know LOTR-FOTR EE much better -- they should never have cut it in the first place. But this was the shorter version, which is still plenty long.

It was a very appreciative audience. Many were LOTR fans who had never been to a symphony concert before. Some were Grand Rapids Symphony subscribers who probably had never seen LOTR before. Yes, it was a huge and sold out house, but I don't think I've heard as many gasps and laughs and murmurs since we saw the first films on their opening nights. And one of our pet peeves is that most people don't stay through the credits, but except for a few people trying to get their cars out of the parking structures ahead of the crush, the concert went all the way to the closing fade to black at the end of the credits -- and a bright red line panned across the conductor's screen. (Mrs. Dr. Phil said that the opening black screen with the overture after the Intermission was greeted with a similar green timing line.) Too many people give standing ovations at the drop of a hat, but this was a tour de force performance.

And I cannot complain at all about the review in The Grand Rapids Press (whose pictures appear on this page -- I wasn't a troll with a camera in the audience), which gushed:

The Grand Rapids Symphony performs a full-scale screening of “Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring” with choirs and a vocal soloist Friday night, You can keep your surround sound — give us a night at the movies with the Grand Rapids Symphony anytime.

The orchestra and a couple hundred friends in the Symphony Chorus and Youth Chorus played the full Oscar-winning score to “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring” as the epic film played on a 20-foot tall by 48-foot wide screen Friday night in DeVos Performance Hall.

And, frankly, it doesn’t get any better than this.

You haven’t seen — or heard — Peter Jackson’s blockbuster like this, and the audience of 2,206 realized that right from the opening bars as Cate Blanchett’s narrations set the stage for the action to come.

What followed was an almost mind-boggling marriage of epic-scale cinema with live music that proved the power of music not only to enhance mood but to be a major member of the cast of characters.

An epic night. And should they try this in your city -- Go.
Highly Recommended

Dr. Phil

As You Know, Bob

My story "A Man in the Moon" was the sole Published Finalist in the Writers of the Future Volume XXIV anthology. As a result, I got to go to the WOTF Workshop with K.D. Wentworth and Tim Powers -- and a whole cast of guest speakers -- and also to the WOTF XXIV Event in August 2008.

Alas

Despite still having some eligibility, none of my WOTF XXV entries won anything, so I wasn't going to be sent to the big 25th anniversary bash that WOTF had planned for August 2009 (and the 19th year for the Illustrators of the Future). But... the other day they announced that they were doing streaming video live -- the 8:30pm PDT start translated to 11:30pm EDT.

A Lovely Event


So I just spent about two hours watching my laptop. Frankly, it's not the greatest way to watch video, but it's far better than nothing. (grin) Sound quality was excellent, but the video was running at less than full speed. I ended up refreshing the page for every speaker and every award, to keep them more in sync and to see the illustrations, etc. Don't know how much of that was my DSL/WiFi connection. Firefox worked better than Safari in Windows XP Pro.

There are twelve stories in this volume, meaning no published finalists. This year they presented the awards in author-illustrator pairs, in the order they appear in the volume. It was really nice to see the illustrations in context with the story titles.

In Case You're Dying To Know

Gold Prize Illustrator Award went to Oleksandra Barysheva.

Gold Prize Writer Award went to Emery Huang.

There were many nice stories, but I particularly liked the twelfth and final pair. The author told of submitting stories when he was a kid twenty years ago. When he got serious about writing, he looked up WOTF and found it was still around. The illustrator told of putting a drawing on the shelf fifteen years ago, rather than send it in. That was one of the drawings he submitted which won his award. Hear this out there? It's never too late.

But I Know These People

Between Clarion in 2004, WOTF in 2008, cons, LJ, etc., I knew a whole lot of the judges and people who run the contest. That's fun. And fellow 2004 Clarionite Amelia Beamer, now an editor at Locus, was there to present an award to the contest for being there for new writers for 25 years.

One Tiny Omit

At the end they played credits which listed all the WOTF and IOTF winners, starting with Volume XXV. Of course, my name didn't appear with Volume XXIV, because I was a Published Finalist and technically not a winner. Okay.

What? They listed the Published Finalists for Volume XXI and other volumes? And NOT Volume XXIV?

Aw, gee. I got gypped. (frown) The story of my life. (grin) I'll show 'em! (double-grin)

Anyway

I'm glad they ran the streaming video this year and hope they do it again in the future. Not the same as being there, but still -- it was nice.

Dr. Phil