Writer's Journey - Lesson from Watching an Award-winning Guest of Honor

Capclave’s Guest of Honor this year was Ursula Vernon. Honestly, I didn’t know who she was. Then I went to a session on “Writing Memorable Characters,” where she was on the list of panelists.

Of the six panelists, none had a name table tent as that of the Guest of Honor. One, however, was T. Kingfisher, who in her introduction, mentioned she had won Hugo and Nebula awards. That’s when I thought, that’s the author of A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking. I saw her win the Nebula for that murder mystery during the Pandemic when the Nebula Awards were livestreamed. I thought, if anyone is Guest of Honor, she should be the Guest of Honor, but she didn’t appear to be Ursula Vernon.

So, the next session was “Meet the Guest of Honor.” There was T. Kingfisher, who said, for her adult fans, she’s T. Kingfisher. Then she turned the name table tent around and said, “For those who know my children’s fiction, I’m Ursula Vernon.”

T. Kingfisher upon receiving her first Hugo explained that her acceptance speech may be the most memorable of all time. After all the wonderful truly earnest and sincerely winners spoke, they were beginning to sound all alike to her. Not that she didn’t want to be as earnest, she wanted to say thank you. But, she thought to herself, the audience might appreciate something different and she’d been researching yeast, which humanity had tamed to ferment long before dogs became “Man’s Best Friend.” Well, that research had led her to the wonders of slime mold. So, her acceptance speech was about slime mold and all its benefits to humanity.

I must admit, I wish I’d been in the audience for that. They were apparently quite appreciative. One person came up to her afterward, telling her he was a biologist and she was absolutely right about slime mold.

Now, you may wonder why I like going to sci fi conventions. I learned an important lesson. Should I ever be nominated for a Hugo, I’ll know the slime mold acceptance speech has already been done. Someone told for her second Hugo win she shared more about what she’s learned about slime mold.

Later that day, I went to her reading of an unpublished piece. It was a really well attended reading. The best atte.nded at Capclave ever was done by George R.R. Martin years ago. It was held in the ballroom—and, now that I think about it, it was a reading about the House of the Dragon. That one you could hear a pin drop. Ursula Vernon/T. Kingfisher’s was filled with laughter and encouragement to publish that story at long last. Imagine a retired angel and a retired devil solving a murder after just meeting for the first time… Ursula reading the story of their meeting was wonderfully done—and how she told it was another lesson for me.

I’m now a big fan of T. Kingfisher.

So, looking for free stories? Bigfoot Is Not Your Friend is available the month of October through Kindle Unlimited for free in Monsters of the Apocalypse. My urban fantasy, Grounding a Mockngbird, is featured in Free Fantasy Books to Binge.

Dare to Believe,

D.H.