Rachel "Lit Agent X" Vater (left) and dark YA fantasy author K.Z. Perry were among the many attendees who packed the third-floor clubhouse of the Society of Illustrators for the Science Fiction Writers of America's annual Authors & Editors reception, known jocularly in the industry as the "mill'n'swill." Thanks to local author Paul Witcover, I was able to join the festitivies for the first time, and as I wandered around the room, I saw all sorts of nametags identifying writers I was too demure to introduce myself to: Michael Swanwick, Geoffrey A. Landis, Joe Haldeman, A.C. Crispin, etc., etc. Fortunately, there were any number of familiar faces, like Rachel and her fellow literary agents Diana Fox, Janet Reid, and Ginger Clark, or editors Juliet Ulman, Jim Minz, Diana Gill, and Liz Scheier.

One writer I did work up the nerve to approach was Larry Hama (center), who scripted the GI Joe comic for Marvel in the 1980s. (He was kind enough to introduce me to his pal, famed X-Men writer Chris Claremont.) I mentioned to Hama how much I admired another series he'd written back then, The Nth Man, and how I thought it would be perfect for reprinting in Marvel's "Essential" series, which stockpiles several comics into one bulky black-and-white trade paperback. "Start a letter-writing campaign!" he smiled, then told me how the book had been conceived from the beginning as a graphic novel with a finite storyline, a rarity back then. And it turns out that he's recently written a series of graphic novels for Osprey about some of history's most famous battles, including Antietam, Shiloh, and Iwo Jima.

For more photos from the evening, visit my Flickr photoset.