Let me start by saying that I had a fabulous time over the weekend. I lost a Nebula to James Patrick Kelly, but I wasn't unhappy about it. Burn is a terrific novel novella, and it's pretty incredible that after nine at-bats this is Jim's first win.

Anyway, the weekend started for me last Thursday afternoon, and between then and about 2:00 am Sunday Laura and I hung out with Sheila Williams, asphalteden, Bianca Miele, Trevor Quachri, paulmelko, paulwitcover, bobhowe, eleanor, Jim Minz, Paolo Bacigalupi, Jack Skillingstead, Scott Edelman, Toby and Emily Buckell, Steve Feldberg, Jim Kelly, John Kessel, Craig Engler, Jae Brim, rajankhanna, Barbara Krasnoff, Jim Freund, Chris Cohen, Marc Zicree, Brook and Julia West, Rick Bowes, Jeff Ford, Wil McCarthy, Daryl Gregory, Shawna McCarthy, Wayne Barlowe, Gordon Van Gelder, John Joseph Adams, slushmaster, and probably a couple dozen other people who are slipping my mind just now. I also appeared live on Jim Freund's radio program on two hours of sleep, had a lovely breakfast with Jack and Maureen McDevitt, and helped direct Norman Spinrad to the nearest subway station.

Hour of the Wolf 12 May 2007, full audio
5:00-6:10 am	MP3 file	31.3 Mb
6:10-7:00 am	MP3 file	21.9 Mb

A dinner out that Laura and I organized for a relatively modest-sized group of folks turned out well, and just as we in our nefarious scheming had hoped accumulated many more participants as we strolled across lower Manhattan from the book signing to the restaurant. Like iron filings to a magnet! Mwa ha ha ha ha ha! Good thing Laura had the foresight to make a larger reservation than we believed we would need.

The banquet and awards ceremony itself were interminable. Thank God the novella category came early in the program or it would have been even worse. Even so, the nervousness didn't start settling in until during dessert. Or maybe the delicious cheesecake concealed a botulism virus, I don't know. Laura and I were fortunate enough to sit at the Asimov's table with Sheila Williams and my fellow nominee Paul Melko, who cut quite a handsome figure in his spiffy tuxedo. (Brian Bieniowski and I looked good, but we were still hopelessly outclassed.) As I said above, Paul and I lost to Jim Kelly, but we're saving those acceptance speeches because we'll face off again in Yokohama. Better sharpen that katana, Melko! Dou itashimashite!

And last but hardly least, I can't forget to mention the seventeen kinds of awesome Laura looked in her Nebulas dress!

The photo above is from Ellen Datlow's collection, by the way. Our own photos to come.