Strolling With The Stars

Helping Jordan Stalk Lou Anders
Photo: Shaun Farrell

Saturday promised to be an epic day for Worldcon. Another writing group member, Harrison Paul,  cruised over from California to join us, bringing our 'Dave Farland's Writer's Death Camp' group to five. Several good panels were lined up for that day and the Hugo award ceremony that night promised to be epic.

So Saturday morning, my buddy Jordan decides he wants to go do the Stroll With The Stars to chat with Lou Anders. I thought it sounded like a lot of fun because Lou is so awesome.

We get to the Walgreens parking lot and hang around with all the Worldcon attendees and about ten minutes later Lou arrives. Jordan and I manage to be the first to chat with him. A little bit later, I got to talk to artist Bill Willingham and Jordan kept talking with Lou.

Bill Willingham's early career saw a lot of work with TSR on AD&D material (which I totally played). Growing up, I spent so much time admiring his work in White Plume Mountain and The Isle of Dread, without ever knowing who he was, that I'm pretty sure I was suppose to name a kid after him. (Sorry Bill!) Most recently he's been working with DC Comics.

Anyway, the stroll begins and I'm enjoying the walk, when I hear Jordan talking to someone behind me. In a couple seconds, I spin around realizing Jordan is talking to Shaun Farrell, the host of one of my favorite podcasts, Adventures In Sci-Fi Publishing!

Author Kay Kenyon and Author/Podcaster Shaun Farrell
Photo: Shaun Farrell

Adventures in Sci-Fi Publishing is one of the best, if not the best, podcast available for the writing craft and industry. Their author interviews are awesome and with the publishing industry changing as much as it has in recent years, it's a great source for news.

We'd hoped to see Shaun Farrell at Worldcon, but didn't have a clue how to meet him. Fortunately, Shaun is just as nice as he sounds on the show. Jordan and I spent the entire stroll monopolizing his time by chatting about his podcast and writing. And to prove he's so awesome, he invited us to be on the show and hang out with him after the Hugos!

The Stroll With The Stars on Saturday was amazing and I wish I'd had more time to go the other days. But if I had, I wouldn't have been able to get in line to sign up for the amazing kaffeeklatches on the other days. If anything, there are so many amazing opportunities at Worldcon that you're forced to pick and choose your favorites. There's simple too much to do. But you can be sure that, with all there is to do, even if you do hit a dud panel, simply walking and talking with the stars can bring you ultra success.