At the end of April, Jane and Scot traveled to Hollywood to attend the Writers and Illustrators of the Future workshop and awards gala. We met so many wonderful people, the artists, writers, judges and some of our “digital” friends, Wulf Moon, Catherine Weaver, Brittany Rainsdon, and award-winner David Hankins.

We got there on Wednesday evening and were invited to Author Services theater where we watched a radio play of L. Ron Hubbard’s story, “If I Were You,” featuring some very talented actors, including Nancy Cartwright (Bart Simpson).

On Thursday, we explored the nearby Hollywood Museum for a couple hours in the morning. We saw some TV and movie costumes and props. Pictured below is Marty McFly’s vest, the original Batman and Robin costume (they aren’t in great shape anymore), and Scot with a number of costumes from various versions of Star Trek. In the afternoon, Scot talked to the award winning writers about submitting to magazines and Jane talked to the illustrators about differences in illustrating a story rather than a book cover. Scot was also interviewed a couple of times. WOTF is planning ahead for next years big 40th Anniversary!

Friday was the big gala. We wandered the streets and found a great Mexican restaurant for lunch, then went back and got ready for the awards gala. We had a limo ride to the beautiful Taglyan Complex where we enjoyed socializing and hors d’oeuvres before sitting down to a spectacular dinner. After opening a time capsule from 25 years ago, the awards were handed out to the first second and third place winners in each quarter of the previous year, before awarding the Golden Pen Award to David K. Henrickson and the Golden Brush Award to Dao Vi. You can see many gala pictures on the Writers and Illustrators of the Future blog.

One of the highlights of the evening was meeting illustrator Larry Elmore. He’s a wonderful artist know for early D&D art and his fantasy illustrations. He was so kind, humble and friendly. Jane in particular was thrilled to meet him.  We also go to meet writing judges Tim Powers, Steve Stirling, Kevin J. Anderson,  Jody Lynn Nye, Robert J. Sayer, Dean Wesley Smith, and illustration judges Echo Chernick, Lazarus Chernik, Brian Hailes, and Brittany Jackson.

On Saturday, we toured the Author Services offices where they manage L. Ron Hubbard’s literary estate. This is also the offices of Galaxy Press, the Publisher of the Writers of the Future Anthology. They had an impressive library of books published by winners and judges over the years – including Writers of the Future Volume 6 containing Scot’s winning story from 1990, Riches Like Dust.

Sunday was a long travel day home. It started at 6AM PST and we didn’t get back home until almost 8PM. Still the clouds and cleared and the setting sun was bright and lit up Pittsburgh as we were coming in for a landing.  A beautiful ending to a great trip.