So, you know it’s the 15th, right? Regular readers–both of you–know that this means I’m probably dirtying up somebody else’s blog. In this case, it’s the Novel Spaces blog!
This month’s installment was prompted by an unexpected yet very fortunate happenstance which occurred last week, when I finally got to meet and shake the hand of the man who gave me my start. Author and editor Dean Wesley Smith had accepted the job of shepherding the very first Star Trek: Strange New Worlds writing contest for Pocket Books back in 1997, and one of the stories he got stuck reading for that first anthology was mine. It was the first time I’d ever submitted anything to a paying market for consideration.
You know the rest of the story.
And though it only took fifteen years, last week in Vegas I finally was able to thank Dean face to face. That meeting and the conversation which ensued with him as well as his wife, Kristine Kathryn Rush, along with writers Kevin J. Anderson and Rebecca Moesta–whom we make a point to see every year in Denver–and Dave Wolverton, was a delightfully unexpected bonus for the trip, and a definite high point of the weekend.
Read my babbling about crossing this item from my Bucket List over at Novel Spaces: “It’s All This Guy’s Fault.”
Anyone else have a mentor or someone else who inspired them that they’re hoping to meet? (No, *I* don’t count.)
My Novel Spaces archive can be found by clicking here.
The Fog of Ward. 