Something to be said about hope. Mr. Helfers actually sent me a really nice email back, telling me it will be 8-10 weeks (instead of the 12 I was expecting). The other part that was really nice is that he remembered me. Actually, he remembered me from last year's GenCon, despite the fact he probably sees a couple hundred people every convention, each one desperate to sell their own book to him. And it wasn't the fake "I remember you" that I've gotten in a few places. He actually remembered details of Wind, Bear, and Moon which he read eight months before and that was one of the things that I was really impressed with. I'm not used to people remembering me.

I'm not that good with remembering people, but I remember details. I remember some of the names, like Dylan Birtolo because he happens to have the same name as mine, which is the reason I went into the Author's Lane at GenCon, but also because the fight scene near the end of the book and the one in the garage. I can barely remember Mr. Helfers except that he sat next to the lady who didn't like the pool love scene from Undead and Unwed, one of my favorite romances. She, I probably could remember on sight, she wore a dark suit the first day I saw her. Couldn't for the life of me, tell you who she was or what she wrote. I could tell you what position she sat in the last two GenCon's on the table though.

Yeah, its the little things, but I still have to admire that he remembered my novel from what was basically his slush pile from half a year before. Well, not quite. The first workshop at my first GenCon (2005), I went to his panel on writing. It was much like the various panels I've been on (just not the writing industry), but it was really interesting in how networking, which was a later session, worked in the writing industry. He told us when to send a manuscript, what format, who to send it, and also what to put in the subject.

If you can't tell, I'm already getting a bit excited about getting a response.