This was a nice little surprise -- I'm flipping through the mail yesterday, throwing the bills onto one pile and the junk mail on another (no rejections! cool!) and find a check from the San Jose WorldCon. In my name! For 150 bucks! How cool is that?

Seems they had sold enough memberships for last year's con to give folks who'd helped out a break on their membership cost. Since I'd helped out with the writing workshop (which really wasn't all that much -- just an hour or so, working with some other writers, and I got to meet some cool writers, including Devon Monk, in the process), I got me some free money!

Seriously, this is one of those "they didn't have to do that" kind of things. But it just goes to show you that paying it forward is ALWAYS a good thing -- I was helping out some new writers, and that is going to help pay my way to a workshop that only yesterday was looking like it was out of my price range, travel-wise, to attend. Thanks, Tom Whitmore and Kevine Standlee (ConJose co-chairs)!!!