I’m Home…
And Will Be Catching Up Tomorrow (Sunday)
Great fun as I have been saying all week. And the award ceremony was amazing like normal for Writers of the Future. You can see it at WritersoftheFuture.com
The five hour drive back was five hours because one again this year I got lost coming out of Hollywood, got on the wrong freeway, and went a few miles out of my way before correcting course.
Met a lot of great new writers and a lot of old friends I hadn’t seen for years. That was a lot of fun as well.
So going to cut this short and leave you with two pictures. First a picture taken by Wolf Moon of me and Kevin J. Anderson and David Farland. Talk about three old friends. I’ve known both of them for over 35 years.
And in case you are wondering, both Dave and I are drinking water.
And here is a picture of me being the very first person ever to walk across the Writer’s of the Future stage thirty-seven years ago. From Left to Right is Robert Silverberg, Roger Zelazny, Greg Benford, and Algis Budrys. (And yes, the world was black and white that far back.)
9 Comments
Mihnea+Manduteanu
wow. No idea you knew Roger Zelazny. Dude’s Amber series, always dreamt of writing something like that.
dwsmith
Talked to him a few days before he died, actually. I even wrote a story for a sport anthology he edited. Really, really great guy.
Philip
Great pics. I bet it was extra fun to see old friends and meet new writers after this godawful pandemic. If I wrote SF, I’d definitely submit to this contest.
I love Silverberg, especially since I recently read an essay by him about how he made a fortune–bought a mansion in fact–from ghostwriting erotica novels back in the old days. He’d write a 50k book a week AND still do his sci-fi. Talk about pulp speed and not worrying about “the big important book.” I admire him.
dwsmith
He was actually faster. He would often do two of the soft-core books in a week. Plus sf and when the distribution system collapsed in 58-60 he did a ton of nonfiction books. I had most of the soft-core books signed at one point. Great fun and he did about 200 or so of them. A lot of writers were doing those back in the day. Mike Resnick, Lawrence Block, Marion Zimmer Bradley, and even Harlan Ellison.
Mihnea+Manduteanu
Do you have a link to that essay, please?
Lawrence
I love the pictures, Dean! I’m glad you enjoyed yourself.
Karen+F.
Hi, Dean!
I watched the ceremony live. Great fun! And it is on their Writers and Illustrators of the Future channel on YouTube, too. Very inspiring, and wonderful to see almost every age represented in the winner’s circles.
Almost makes me want to watch the previous ones, too! lol
Karen
dwsmith
The entire thing, including the passion and drive by all the young writers made me feel really, really good about the future of science fiction and fantasy. And the art was amazing as well.
James+Palmer
Great pics. So many legends of the field on that stage in the early picture. Kevin’s a great guy. I chatted with him at Dragon Con 2019 about the story bundle I was in with him back then. Made a good pile of money off that one.