Eric James Stone

It was my 40th birthday on Friday. The highlight of the day was my birthday party at Chili’s. The Parents™ were there representing the family. Jade, Carla Jo, and Nikki (and her two cute little girls) from my old Barnes & Noble writing group came. Ben Hardin from the Quark writing group was there. Brandon Sanderson (and his wife, Emily), Isaac Stewart, and Janci Patterson from my new writing group were there. Rounding out the attendees were Howard and Sandra Tayler, with whom I’m not in any writing group.

Ben was kind enough to commission a piece of birthday artwork for me from Howard, who is the creator of Schlock Mercenary, my favorite webcomic. Here it is:

(Click to see larger version.)

For those of you unfamiliar with the webcomic, that greenish blob is Sergeant Schlock, who has a plasma gun he is often a little over-enthusiastic about using. The human is his commander, Captain Tagon.

The evening was spent in fun conversation and eating. (A big thank you to The Parents™, who paid for the meal.) Gradually the party shrank in size as various people had to leave, and eventually we decided to yield the tables to other customers. Howard and Sandra were nice enough to invite those who remained over to their house, where we continued talking until it was no longer my birthday.

All in all, a great birthday, even if it does mean I’m forty.