I met Ray Bradbury in 1991 at the San Juan Capistrano Library where he was doing a small book signing for The Halloween Tree.

My mom drove me to the signing and as I stood behind her, holding my ripped and taped up Bradbury book, I heard her say "I thought the characters' names were just wonderful! Moundshroud...so Dickensian!" And Ray Bradbury replied, "That was EXACTLY the tone I was going for Madam!" and they lauuuuuuggghed.

About twenty million minutes later, when the laughter subsided, I closed my eyes halfway, shuffled towards the author table and kind of fumbled my book at the Bradbury shaped man sitting there and then drooled on my face for awhile in response to his, "Hello, young lady". This went over pretty well, as you can imagine, and I now have a signed copy of R is for Rocket inscribed to "Koala, keep looking towards the stars". W00t.

This is why I believe Joss Whedon received the Ray Bradbury Award from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America this year and I did not. There could be other reasons, but this one makes the most sense.

Watch Joss's acceptance speech and decide for yourself.