More from the Nebulas, plus the Daedalus audiobook!

It takes a lot for me to feel like the little guy. I’m over six feet tall and not exactly waifish. Professionally, I’ve held my own conducting interviews with politicians and CEOs for many, many years. I’ve had Steve Ballmer yelling at me a bare foot away from my face, and broke down in laughter with Jeff Bezos after a particularly fun grilling.

But here, at the Nebula Awards Weekend, I was most certainly the little guy. And it was pretty cool.

As part of my volunteer duties, I helped babysit the press room. And there was a moment yesterday where I’m sitting there while Sword & Laser interviewed the legendary (and truly wonderful) Gene Wolfe, with Nebula nominee Kim Stanley Robinson listening intently nearby, and John Scalzi and Mary Robinette Kowal hovering by the door, also eavesdropping.

And I’m just this newbie, you know? I don’t fanboy much, but it was a great moment.

Needless to say, I’m having a blast. Everyone continues to be welcoming to the new guy, and I’ve met authors whose works I’ve enjoyed. I had a beer with Saladin Ahmed and had a great chat with awesome anthologist John Joseph Adams as we shared a table at last night’s mass signing. Even with The Daedalus Incident delayed, two people asked me to sign one of the flyers I ginned up to help spread the word, and I got a few folks signed up for the ebook giveaway. I even signed a 1950s Stanford yearbook, which I thought was a particularly random-yet-clever way to gather autographs.

I also gathered a bit of news to share about The Daedalus Incident. A gentleman from Audible.com (whose name escapes me now, sorry!) came up to my table and expressed enthusiasm for getting the audiobook of Daedalus out as soon as the Night Shade/Skyhorse deal wraps up.  Now, I wasn’t quite sure when or how — or even if — that was happening, so needless to say, this was a very pleasant surprise.

Thus, when Daedalus finally launches, it will indeed be available as an audiobook from Audible.com! This is great, exciting stuff, and I can’t wait to actually hear someone read it aloud.

Today we have our SFWA business meeting, a few panels, and the Nebula Awards dinner and…awardings, I suppose…this evening. Scalzi has warned that if we don’t get a quorum for the business meeting, he will conduct it before the Nebulas are handed out, and I believe him. So I better get moving. If I can, I’ll be Tweeting from the awards ceremony tonight, so feel free to follow along, and see some of the photos from last night’s signing, too!