Well, I didn’t make it to ConDFW today like I thought I would. Just too much going on. Hopefully I’ll get to see most of the folks I’m missing at the other cons this summer.

It looks like the Oklahoma Speculative Fiction Group might happen. That’s very cool. Adrian Simmons is the man putting it all together. He says we’ll have our first meeting in March. If you’re an Okie spec fic writer interested in attending (in OKC this time), leave me a message and I’ll get you in touch with Adrian. Last I heard, the plan was to have the meetings in different parts of the state, so if you live in, say, Tahlequah, you should be able to attend a meeting in Tulsa. Yeah, I’m looking at you, Gregg Winkler.

Yesterday, Tapestry came to my creative writing class. I wasn’t sure what to expect from the visit; it’s an odd collection of kids who sometimes are very talkative and sometimes seem half dead. The kids sure had no clue what was about to happen to them. Watching them while Tapestry performed the first poem was priceless. You could read the, “Holy shit, this ain’t Robert Frost!” in their faces. haha They were pretty quiet during the poems and talk, so I wasn’t sure what to make of their overall feeling on the day. One guy asked a question at the end, then one of the best writers in class asked Tapestry to read one of her poems. I still don’t know how everyone felt about it, but after school one of the students who often stops to visit with me said, “He was friggin’ awesome!” So, I’m thinking it went well.

I’d like to bring in some more guest speakers. There’s a particular romance author in the metro who has a good story about being persistent, but it looks like she hasn’t published anything in the past few years, and I haven’t had any communication with her in a long time. I’m running out of time, too. We only have two more weeks in this block, then this class will be over.

One final word on Tapestry — He’s interested in doing more of these performance/speaking engagements. Visit his MySpace at the link above and send him a message if you’re doing something where you might need a way-out-of-the-ordinary speaker, poet or comic. Or drop by Galileo’s on a Wednesday evening to see what he’s about.