You are listening to a Clarks World magazine podcast with your host and narrator Kate Baker.

Holy crap, Clark's World Citizens. I think I'm still on Cloud 9 somewhere. It's been two weeks

since returning home from Reno and I am just, I'm flabbergasted. So I don't know how many of you follow me on my

blog but I ended up writing a renovation World Con Recap and I've learned the absolute hard way that when you have something important to say the best way to do it is to write it down.

One of the examples I used is I was sitting next to Sean Wallace who was the editor for Clark's World magazine along with Neil Clark last year.

And we were all eagerly awaiting the category in which they would announce the nominees and ultimately the winner.

And he had asked me earlier whether or not I had a speech prepared if we had won. I said, yeah, no problem. I've got it all right here up in my head as I pointed to my

addled brain. Well, I'm taking this directly from my blog because again I've learned the hard way that if you do not write something down it's gone forever

So excuse the verbatim

I will tell you one thing about winning something you're not expecting. Reality sort of fades as adrenaline starts flowing through your excited body.

I had to keep whatever wits I had left to manage coherent

thought. I don't remember practically shaking with glee and saying, oh my God

on stage. I don't remember how just only a few of the words snake their way out of my memory to the microphone.

What I truly wanted to say up there on the stage was this.

Let me tell you a story of thanks.

To my children who were my first and most critical audience in their pajamas as the sun was setting thank you.

To my best friend in the entire world, James Seals, who allowed me to narrate some of

his works into a 12 dollar microphone. I wouldn't be standing here without your

encouragement. To the wonderful Mary Robinette Coal who offered my name to

Neil Clark as a reader, I am forever in your debt.

To Neil, Sean Wallace, Cheryl Morgan, and the rest of the staff at Clark's World,

I could ask for no better friends and colleagues. I wish you were

...