I didn't notice the giant brain floating over the audience at the time, but it couldn't be more apropos. Up front there center right are Marla Akin and Jim Magnuson, who lavish their brainpower and even more importantly their love on the Michener Center for Writers year after year. Delegates from the present and future of fiction and poetry surround them, with the occasional game designer and horse whisperer thrown in. Thank you, Liz, Julie, and Jen (hovering angelically just out of the frame) for making sure things ran just right.So much began for me here in Austin. That, those above, and the fact that I spotted an actual, archetypal white 70s Cadillac convertible with mounted longhorns downtown, made for a memorable trip.