Taking a break from editing Hellhole chapters to do a quick summary of the things that kept me too busy to post blogs since I wrapped up The Winds of Dune tour in mid-August.

As a pleasant change of pace after I came home, Rebecca and I had a chance to meet James LaBrie in person. James is the lead vocalist for Dream Theater, and he also sings on our Roswell Six/Terra Incognita CD, the character of Omra in the tracks “Ishalem,” “I Am the Point,” and “Anchored.” We had dinner at the Wynkoop Brewery in downtown Denver just after James had come into town, and then the following night we attended the Dream Theater concert (great show!) and afterward backstage we also met band members John Petrucci and Jordan Rudess.

With James LaBrie at the Wynkoop Brewery

That weekend Rebecca and I flew to LA to teach part of the Writers of the Future workshop and to present at the awards ceremony, which was held at the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood. We got to spend time with many of our author friends — Doug Beason, Dave Wolverton, Rob Sawyer, Steven Savile, Tim Powers, Dr. Harry Kloor, Jerry Pournelle, Eric James Stone, Steven Kotowych, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Sean Williams, and others.

Teaching the workshop

Presenting the Awards

With Illustrator Judge Val Lakey Lindahn and grand prize winner Emery Huang

Rebecca presenting an award with actor John Francis Daley
(“Sweets” on the TV show BONES)

Rebecca, John Francis Daley, and prize-winner Heather McDougal

Less than a week later, we were off to DragonCon in Atlanta, where we had numerous panels, signings, as well as a table in the dealer’s room. The Max Lager’s brewery restaurant not far from the convention hosted a special party for Winds of Dune, Terra Incognita, and Roswell Six. (The brewmaster JR even created a special, and delicious, AnderZone IPA for the occasion.) Chris Brown, the guitarist for Roswell Six, gave an acoustic performance at the event and also hung out with us in the dealer’s room for most of the weekend. Frank Herbert’s grandson Byron Merritt (from dunenovels.com) also came, his first DragonCon, and scoped out the convention.

At DragonCon with Chris Brown, guitarist for Roswell Six

Saturday night John Tackett arranged for us, along with fellow WordFire representatives Diane, Sarah, and Joe, to have a behind-the-scenes tour of the Atlanta aquarium, which was quite amazing. (Yes, whale sharks are enormous.) Throughout the weekend, Rebecca and I had twelve readings, autographings, and panels on various tracks including apocalyptic fiction, Star Wars, Dune, writers’ workshops, young adult fiction, horror, and music. With all those appearances, plus our table in the dealer’s room, we hope that every fan had plenty of opportunities to meet and interact with us.

And now it’s back home for a while to do some serious catching up.