Book Signing . . .

. . . on World Book Day -- what could be better than having an author sign his books on the day when the world is celebrating books.

I learned about this book celebration earlier today as I browsed through some of the journals here on Blipfoto and read about this on the BlipForum.

Yesterday my journal told about my experience of attending the "Portal to Your Future" series of Game Design Workshops at the campus where I teach. I had attended the workshop about "Interactive Storytelling." I found it to be very informative and very interesting (and completely brand new to me).

This morning I emailed Judy, the professor who was overseeing this series of workshops, to ask if I could attend this afternoon's, "Character Design Workshop." Her immediate email response was "Please come to the afternoon workshop and come too for lunch." This is the description of the workshop, "Concentrates on creating a believable game hero and giving him or her exciting things to do in a richly-imagined world."

So I went. This was another very engaging and interesting lecture by Ernest Adams. Even though I feel completely out of my league because I am not at all in touch with the world of video gaming, I want to learn about gaming because it's an industry that involves lots of writing. I think the English Department needs to be involved and the instructors in the computer department are inviting that.

Everyone was invited to an evening dinner to hear Adams' lecture, "The Future of Interactive Entertainment through 2050." It was a great evening. The dinner was delicious and the lecture was very informative and interesting.

The bonus came at the end of the evening when everyone was told they would be given one of Adams' books and that he would personalize each one. I think everyone was genuinely delighted. Students lined-up first and there must have been at least 50 of them in line. Then the rest of the guests were invited to get in line.

This evening before dinner Mr. Adams walked over to where I was sitting to talk to me; he knew my name. I was a little surprised . . . I had attended two of his workshops, but had not been introduced to him. So this evening he told me he had seen my blip entry from yesterday. He explained that he has a google setting that notifiies him whenever his name is mentioned on the Internet. I had never heard of that, but I think that sounds really cool -- as a "gamer" would say, "That rocks!"

So today I've not only "blipped" a book, but I have the fabulous bonus of showing all of you the man who wrote the book. Ernest, if you are reading this -- Thank YOU for the gift of your book and for the fabulous workshops and interesting evening.

From Southern California, good night everyone.
Rosie (& Mr. Fun), aka Carol

Edit: Amazing how the blip from a year ago aligns with today's photo!