This Just In....

"...and the fluffy kitten played with that ball of string all through the night*. On another note, the 2002 stories.com convention has just ended and our reporter on the spot Stacey Marks is there with the full story. Stacey?"

"Thanks, Kent. The 2002 stories.com convention held August 16-18 at the Radisson Plaza Lord Baltimore Hotel in Baltimore, MD seems to have been a complete success judging by the looks of the faces leaving the convention. Let's see if we can get a few reactions. dingolord! What did you think of the convention?"

"Madness! Madness, I tell you! Total insanity! When does it start again?!?"

"Well, we have it in from The StoryMaster that it will be next year August 15-18. Will you be attending?"

"Wild horses couldn't keep me away!"

"That goes for me too!"

"And me!"

"Why if it isn't The Milkman and Zoo - Salted and Roasted ! Mind giving me your reactions to the conference? You first The Milkman ."

"It was definitely a life-changing moment in my life."

"It seemed to be that for many of you, The Milkman ! What about you, Zoo - Salted and Roasted ?"

"The Convention was AWESOME!"

"A short but sweet insight, Zoo - Salted and Roasted !"

Let's take a look at some of the footage from the last three days. It all started on Friday evening with people coming into the mezzanine and meeting the mythical The StoryMaster and The StoryMistress . Contrary to popular belief they are not the same person and each loyal subject was greeted with a smile. They also recieved a goody bag with many... well, goodies. There was a folding brush with a mirror from DermatologistRX.Com, the latest issue of Writer Magazine, a Bessie the cow squeeze toy, a stories.com travel mug, a stories.com t-shirt with the instructions to wear it the next day and many more stories.com goodies. Many of the attendees then headed downstairs to the lounge to take a look into bags and meet some of the other attendees. One of the first things many of them got started on was getting signatures in their guide books, which had been created by The StoryMistress and published by Instant Publisher, one of stories.com's great supporters. They all anxiously awaited the opening of the bar and seemed very happy after it opened.

After a couple of hours they were told that dinner was about to start and they all headed to the Versailles room for a wonderful buffet of Italian cuisine. There was lively conversation although Lively herself was not able to attend. After a brief introduction and welcome by The StoryMaster , dinner was eaten and more books were signed. There was a short break and they got started on the Open Mic Night.

There was hardly a dry eye in the house as The StoryMistress started off with her letter, "Dear StoryMaster..." . She was followed up by many great acts, including: The Milkman , reading some poetry; deanadon, with a comedy act; shaps, singing the song "Hero"; scribe1 had everyone in stitches as she read two letters to her imaginary friend, Marcia; an amazing acapella rendition of a song called "Alice" by 6149; jfharnish also had everyone giggling as he talked about selling "buck", but you had to be there to really understand that one; Pam and David J IS Death & Taxes had everyone laughing at their Sonny and Cher impersonations; auric and John~Ashen each read some of their beautiful poetry; Zoo - Salted and Roasted accompanied exodus with his guitar as exodus blew everyone away with his amazing rapping skills and the evening ended with a live campfire creative headed by dingolord. The campfire was a about a duck, who thought he was a rabbit and he was dressed in a cow suit. He got taken to jail by Marlene, who he later found out was a male impersonator and met Santa Claus, who somehow ended up with no pants on. After trying to get help from the Easter Bunny, Joe Pesci and Harry Potter, he was finally bailed out by his mother. I caught up with some of the attendees as they left the Versailles room that night, let's take a look at some of that footage.

"Hi, ma'am! Well, if it isn't The StoryMistress 's own mother catwoman ! catwoman , what did you think about Open Mic Night?"

"I really enjoyed Friday night when we had Open Mic Night. All that talent from members of stories.com!!"

"Indeed! From the footage it looked like a great time was had by all! Let's see if we can get a comment from someone else. You sir! Ah, if it isn't native Baltimorian, auric! auric, can you please tell us what you thought about Open Mic Night?"

"The live campfire will definitely stand out in my mind, antic being an understatement. What else can result when you have a room of crazy people told to put together a story on the spot?"

"Yes, it did seem like quite a funny campfire! And here comes the man that made it all happen, dingolord! dingolord, would you like to comment on Open Mic Night?"

"There was this rap performance by exodus that was amazing! Then, this live campfire that just went completely nuts!"

"It sounds like a good time was had by all! Afterwards, about twenty of the attendees were led by devc to a downtown hot-spot for a night of fun. Our cameras were not allowed along but we hear that they had a lot of fun and didn't return to the hotel until nearly three am."

Saturday started with the attendees gathering in the Versailles room in bright yellow stories.com shirts. Even though many had little sleep the night before as they awoke over coffee and breakfast, they talked liked old friends. They broke up into small groups and went off to explore Baltimore. Our cameras caught Stormy Lady standing a little too close to the waters edge with her camera and yellow shirts all over the Inner Harbor. We caught a group including waterbaby , 1amme, Miyon , *Moni , lyriclyblind, dingolord, GoCartCherub- St Louis U , The Milkman , and peanut having a rocking good time at the Hard Rock Cafe. We hear they even made plans there for a surprise to be given that night. Throughout the day we saw many yellow shirts going in and out of the Barnes and Noble; imagine that, writers in a book store! One attendee told us later that at Godiva when asked if she was a preferred customer, waterbaby replied, "I'm not preferred! I'm a Senior Mod!" The clerk was said to be very confused but the people with waterbaby couldn't stop laughing.

Slowly, the groups returned to the hotel from their day out. They showered and changed and met in the Mezzanine for a cocktail hour before the formal dinner that night. There were "Wow"s and "You look great"s as each attendee came off of the elevator "dressed to the nines." Finally at eight they headed upstairs to the Ballroom for the formal dinner. In one corner of the room there were tables with the creative auction items set up for the attendees to peruse at their leisure. They would be auctioned the next day but that night was for dinner, dancing and real life awardicons.

The dinner was chicken, prime rib and rice with a salad to start and a wonderful pie for dessert. I know because the staff gave me and my crew each a piece. Following dinner the awardicons were given, including one for Biggest Financial Supporter who helped over thirty authors to attend to ward890 the only awardicon receiver not in attendance, one for Best Creative Assistant to catwoman , one for Oldest Attending Member to Zoo - Salted and Roasted , one for Most Enthusiastic Attendee to 1amme and, of course, one for Creating and Maintaining the Best Online Writing Community, Stories.com to The StoryMaster .

The StoryMaster also allowed people to come up and say something. Most of which were thanks to him and The StoryMistress . waterbaby and those she spent the day with gave a special gift to catwoman , StoryMaster's mom, The StoryMaster and The StoryMistress as a thank you for everything. The highlight of the thank you's seemed to most to be when dingolord asked everyone but the two hosts to come up to the front. He then had everyone applaud The StoryMaster and The StoryMistress while they looked on. It was a very poignant moment.

Afterwards, the DJ let the tunes roll and several brave souls got up to dance. There is great video of exodus trying to Macerana, auric hopping across the dance floor on one foot doing air guitar and also slow dancing with 1amme, and no one there will ever forget The StoryMaster and his dad doing the Electric Slide. Here's some of the comments I got before people passed out that evening.

"What stands out in your mind about tonight, Ms Kimmie ?"

"SM and his dad doing the Electric Slide, all of us getting up on stage to say "thank you" and so much more."

"Sounds like you had a great time! Zoo - Salted and Roasted , what is your favorite memory of tonight?"

"My favorite memory: dingolord's toast."

"That was very nice, wasn't it? The Milkman , anything that you really enjoyed tonight?"

"I believe, for me, it was being able to stand up in front of everyone and thank The StoryMaster and The StoryMistress for their dedication and love of this wonderful website."

"I think many of you enjoyed that."

After the staff finally kicked them out of the Ballroom most people went to others rooms or to bed and a few went to The StoryMaster and The StoryMistress 's suite. While our cameras were not allowed in, we hear that some very interesting revelations came out in that room. The members in that room were sworn to secrecy. Though we did hear that at one point they got so loud and rowdy that a softball team staying down the hall called, just to ask if they were having a good time.

The next and final day of the convention, the attendees checked out and headed to the Versailles Ballroom for brunch and the Creative Auction. This report thinks that no one expected to have quite so much fun at the auction, nor did they expect that some items would go for as much as they did. The high bidding started out with haizey's hand-painted frame with one of her poems, "Invalid Item" . It went to ercole for $130. Another high priced item, that went for $195, was exodus's homemade tape of some of his raps. The StoryMaster and The StoryMistress had obviously been as blown away by exodus on Friday night as they won the bidding war on that item. Everyone was surprised as waterbaby outbid lyriclyblind for the Yankee's bat he had brought to the auction and planned to buy back. She won it for $300 but then returned the bat to him before she left. What a great gift! The highest selling item was Miyon 's hand-painted "I Love stories.com" rock. There was a hot and heavy bidding war between ercole and rangeric. rangeric finally won the rock for FOUR HUNDRED DOLLARS! Everyone was amazed, especially Miyon who was embarrassed when she handed her rock to The StoryMistress on Friday.

"That brings us to now. I stand outside of the Radisson Plaza Lord Baltimore Hotel and watch as these people leave with both expressions of happiness and sadness. I would like to end this broadcast with a comment from the hospital room of auric who apparently had too much fun on Saturday night and had some diabetic problems, a comment from one of the last to leave and finally a word from The StoryMistress . First, auric had this to say."

"I definitely had the time of my life. I was among true peers, who, even though might have been different ages, genders or cultures, we all shared the common love of writing. And the fact that everyone got to see my hometown of Baltimore made me proud. I made so many new and true friends for life just from one weekend."

"Even this reporter could feel the love from the convention. Now a word with, *Moni , what did this convention mean to you?"

"This convention was the most amazing weekend of my life. I have never met so many amazing people and then had the pleasure of spending so much time with them. I made friends here that I will keep for life. I laughed and I cried. Nothing can ever top this experience, and while I can not wait for next year's convention nothing will ever be like meeting The StoryMaster andThe StoryMistress for the first time. I think I should go now, I'm going to start crying again."

"I can't say I blame you, *Moni . I will close this broadcast with a comment from The StoryMistress . The woman who managed to bring this whole convention together with help from catwoman and The StoryMaster . Thank you to the attendees of the 2002 stories.com convention for letting us see a very emotional part of their lives. This is Stacy Marks, signing off; The StoryMistress , your final words please."

"You know, people tell me all the time that they'd like to ditch the real world, crawl into their computer and live in the Stories.Com community. I can honestly say that for one weekend, we got to do just that. I really felt like I was living Stories.Com. It was amazing. I can't pinpoint any one memory, person or antic as being the one that really stands out the most. The entire weekend was just so incredible; when I think of one great thing - I think of two more!"



*This line was said by "Kent Brockman" on a Halloween episode of the Simpsons.