There was one piece of business from our recent amazing experience at Comic Con FanXperience here in Salt Lake City, Utah, that had been left undone. Our amazing new texting system had worked beautifully to select a winner of our grand prize, but I had not yet arranged to deliver it.
Fortunately, also because of our amazing texting system, it was easy for me to get in touch with the winner – Mutt Lavender. As it turned out, he did not live more than about a half an hour away from my home and so, as a part of his prize, I offered to meet him for lunch at a local restaurant and bring the prize with me.
When I arrived, I was delighted not only to meet him but his family as well. His older daughter had wanted to come along and this invitation quickly cascaded, as things can in families, to eventually include all five of his children and his wife. He shared a delightful and enjoyable lunch, talked about fantasy and stories and life, and got to know each other much better. I was able to deliver to him his copy of a hardback ’Wayne of Gotham’ (from among those cases that arrived too late to appear in our booth at the convention), an advanced reading copy of our ‘Unwept’ novel that is coming out in July, both in audio and hardback version of our ‘Swept Up by the Sea’ and a rare Dragonlance miniature which I had rescued before they were all melted down at the close of TSR’s miniature division.
So congratulations to Mutt for winning the prize and thank you from me personally for a delightful lunch.
