This entry was posted on Oct 26 2010 by

A Good Couple of Days

Last Thursday I received an email from Christian Trimmer, editor extraordinaire, alerting me that the graphic novelization of The Lightning Thief had debuted at #8 on the New York Times bestseller list.  This with only about a half-week of sales under its belt, the book having been released on October 12th, and the list closing out on the 16th.  All outward appearances seem to indicate that sales are continuing to be strong, so we’ll see if we climb the list any in the coming weeks.  The news came to me while I was standing in line for Thunder Mountain Railroad at Walt Disney World.  It was a Disney-fied moment on many fronts.

Brief aside: I grew up in Florida and even lived in Orlando for a while, so I’ve been to The Magic Kingdom more times than I can remember.  Last week marked my first return to the park in nearly 15 years, though, and I expected to see some cracks in the veneer.  Much to my surprise, the park is as clean and well-run as it has ever been—everything looks as though it was built the day before, and not 40 years ago.  If I have one complaint, it’s that they’ve retrofitted the Pirates of the Caribbean ride to include Captain Jack Sparrow and Davy Jones from the films, which to me is a shameless tie-in.  The ride had always been my favorite, but as a show of protest I’ve switched allegiances to Splash Mountain.

Anyway, the following evening I attended the annual Black & Gold Gala at the University of Central Florida, where I received a Professional Achievement Award from the College of Arts & Humanities:

Knightie

There were roughly 600 people at the event, mostly university staff, alumni, and fellow award winners.  The food was good and the company at our table even better.  The only downside was that, two bites into the meal, I sent a ranch-dressing laden cucumber slice rolling down my necktie.  I was assured by the photographer snapping pictures for the university’s publications that he’ll treat me kindly in Photoshop. 

What a marvelous digital age we live in.


2 Responses to “A Good Couple of Days”

  1. Shannon Smith
    8:13 am on October 26th, 2010

    Congratulations Rob. Good work.

  2. duane ballenger
    11:28 am on October 27th, 2010

    Rob that award statue is the coolest!! Glad to hear you’re enjoying yourself. Are the Jack Sparrow and Davey Jones animatronic and talk?

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