Writers of the Future Workshop, Day 0

I had a great time at the WotF workshop, but really haven't posted any details. So here's the first day:

Arrived in LA safe and sound, after a connection in Memphis, which was celebrating Elvis week. Makes me wonder, isn't every week in Memphis Elvis week?

After I got my luggage, I looked for the WotF van, which would be waiting "outside." No sign of it outside, or anywhere up or down the terminal.
I eventually found the driver and the photographer, who had parked instead of waiting at the curb.
So back to the baggage carousel for some photos of me picking up my bags, me standing with a WotF sign, me standing with the driver. I felt kind of silly, even though I had been expecting this. There would be many more photographs taken during the week, so this was a good introduction.
We then went to the van, and drove to another terminal. There doesn't seem to be any central parking area for the LA airport, nor any convenient way to get from terminal to terminal. So we went from terminal to terminal, but the people we were supposed to pick up (Sonia and Sarah, I think, who wound up arriving last) had delayed flights, so we picked up the next two arrivals, Jemma and Ian.
Even though I had never met her, I spotted Jemma at the curb. She was standing there with a book under her arm. "That must be a writer," I told the driver.
After Jemma's photo shoot, we had a long wait for Ian's flight. He had come from Worldcon in Denver, and his plane had spent several hours on the tarmac, so he was not in the best of moods, but cheerfully submitted to his obligatory "arriving at the airport" photo.

After checking in, we went down to the lobby where all the writers and Tim and KD were hanging out. Jennette  had set up a livejournal group of all the writers she could find, so I knew many of them on-line, and it was great to meet them in person. I was looking forward to going out to dinner, but the workshop was about to start!
We had an orientation meeting, got assigned "writing twins" and got some homework. Wow! No slacking off at the WotF workshop. The work starts day zero!
Wound up having dinner at the hotel with Ian, Erin, Jemma and Dr Phil.
We then had a road trip to Whole Foods in the WotF van. When we got back, Sonia and Sarah were in the lobby, with Patrick Rothfuss, a former WotF winner and best selling novelist. This was one of the best things about WotF. Just hanging out with other writers, Tim and KD, the judges and former winners, being treated like "a pro."

More on the rest of the week later.

Comments

[ASterling]

Pat, how cool is that!! I am going to read all your WoTF entries. Joanie found me at LosCon last weekend and invited us to dinner with Tim & Serena, Larry & Fuzzy Pink Niven, Todd McCaffrey and Jim Glass and his wife Jean - a super nice lady I was glad to meet.

[dosferatu]

Yeah, one great thing about WotF is you meet a lot of people.