UNREFINED by Martin L. Shoemaker
Art by Tung Chi Lee
One of the fantastic aspects (the very best part, IMO) of the whole Writers of the Future experience is the discovery and founding of your tribe. It doesn’t happen on the first day, or even the second, but as the big names arrive for the gala, all us neopros get our geek on and realize we’ve become a unit.
For the WOTF31 tribe, I think the irrevocable bond solidified as we were called upon to sign 300 copies of the galleys. A daunting task, but not for us. We lined ourselves up in publication order and signed our stories, then opened the book to the next story in the book, and handed it to the person sitting next to us. We got a real rhythm going, and (with Brandon, Deirdre, Vanessa, and some of the other spouses helping), we were done in little over an hour.
By then, we were family.
And then, someone (was it my dear siblings Amy & Brandon?) suggested sending out sample ARCS. And my dear brother Scott R. Parkin narrated wonderful introductory audio blurbs for the stories. And my sweet, sweet, brilliant and clever brother Martin Shoemaker set up UTUBE video channels and yesterday, a new home base for our tribe.
It’s called WOTF31 ROCKS!. Bless you, Martin. It’s our very own scrapbook, and it’s all here.
We are the class of 31. And we always will be.
