Bored in Vernal, just so you know, I’m still working on my answers to your interview questions.

GameBoy, CatGirl and I spent the day at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. It’s billed as the “country’s largest celebration of the written word”, and as devout readers, we try to make an annual pilgrimage to this book lovers’ Mecca. My main accomplishment was getting writing advice from SF authors Cory Doctorow, John Scalzi, and Kage Baker to add to my Page of Inspiration (if you follow the link, scroll down to see it).

I was especially excited because I had recent (little) connections with each of the authors, and they were signing at the same time in booths right next to each other. I recently discovered Baker through Mother Aegypt, a collection of unforgettable short stories. In it, captive lions give character insights to little girls in the 18th century English countryside; a rakish sorcerer escapes entanglements with damsels, deities and debtors; and the daughter of impoverished Southern gentry marries (and consummates that marriage with) the son of a wealthy widowed spiritualist without ever laying eyes on him. Her general mix of subdued magic and ambiguous separation between us and the other and her emphasis on complex and sympathetic characters are what I aspire to in my writing.

I was turned on to Scalzi through his Hugo-nominated Old Man’s War. His fiction is great, but I’m a bigger fan of his blog, Whatever (which unleashed both “bacon taped to a cat” and the recipe for Schadenfreude Pie, which we baked to celebrate the change of power in Congress). Scalzi is a master of stealth self-promotion. Half of the time you don’t he’s doing it, and when you do notice, you actually want more because he’s got that perfect balance of entertainment and self-effacing humor.

Cory Doctorow is a rising SF author who also happens to be one of the editors of BoingBoing. I just made this connection today. If you squared the number of visitors mindonfire.com receives each day and then multiplied that number by two, you’d probably still fall short of boingboing’s unique hits. I’ve been interested in reading him because of his connection to Bill Shunn, and I’m going to settle in with my freshly signed copy of Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town. I love it when my reading, writing, blogging and meatspace worlds converge.

When I grow up, I want to be Cory Doctorow.

Anyhow, here’s what each wrote on my “Advice for an Aspiring Author” page:

Baker: “NEVER GIVE UP.”

Scalzi: “Learn grammar. No, really.”

Doctorow: “One page a day => One book a year.”

I finally tore the sheet out of the notebook, shielded it in protective plastic, and fastened it to the wall in my little writing corner. There the words of my heroes will hang, inspiring or guilting me into daily output.