Bound Together

The hall swelled with attendees. More waited outside under the red book banner marked FICLY-NOMI-CON, waiting because they hadn't bothered to pre-register.

Everybody here shared something special that brought them together from all over the world. Two simple beliefs bound them. The first was that anyone could be a writer. The second, everyone had a story worth telling.

A tall, imposing man, dressed in rumpled blacks leaned against a corner, where the hall bent around the convention hall marked B, fingering his badge. _Robert Quick_. It was his pen name, painstakingly chosen from dozens of others that hadn't quite made the cut. It meant a lot to him. The only thing thing he wanted more was to see that name grace a book cover.

Blinking behind thick glasses he looked up and tried quell the bout of nausea that came with moving his head. He'd never had a head for flying! Dark eyes darted from badge to badge, checking names against a mental list. He'd made a lot of friends on Ficly, now it was time to meet them.