I chatted briefly with Peter C. Newman in the restroom at Pearson Int’l Airport in Toronto about 4 years ago. This was just after he had published his behind the scenes book on former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney. I had read it and found it fascinating and felt compelled to tell him so. He was surprisingly gracious about a complete stranger gushing all over him in the men’s room
I’m still kicking myself over missing Neil Gaiman. I was in an Edinburgh bookstore the day before he was having a book signing and I was seriously considering extending my stay just so I could go and meet him. Unfortunately, I had to be at a wedding in the south of England and really couldn’t miss my train
Thanks, MsWhatsit. What a tool! If I were a famous writer, I’d come to your store, IW. Montana or not. I mean, what, Mr. Stine, does writing Goosebumps and Fear Street make us too good for the “heartlands”?
While working at the Library I helped **Lael Littke ** do research about the moving of our town for a book. Then when the book cameout “Lake of secrets” she had set it in another state.
Also when it was our library’s turn to host the regional library confrence we were thrilled to get Richard Paul Evans to speak for only $500 a 10% his usual fee. He called the day before said his best friend had come for a visit and was also an author, could his friend also speak? We said sure and was surprised to get a talk from David Baldacci.
Me too. It was strange, because it was my first book signing and I had no idea that he would actually try to engage me. Then he asked what I do and I told him “chemist”, but I always feel uncomfortable saying that because then peopled usually try to tell me how much they hated chemistry in high school blah blah blah. Actually, he was quite nice, but I must have looked awkward. He’s definitely one of my favorite authors.
I met Douglas Adams while I was in college. “Met” isn’t exactly right–it was at a book signing. The line was long, he was a bit crabby (probably wanting a cigarette) and I didn’t want to hold things up. So I ended up just telling him my name, giving him the book and saying “thank you.”
The lecture he did before that was great, though. He was promoting Last Chance to See, and it was a lot of fun hearing him talk about his travels.
I also went to a lecture by Carl Sagan while I was in school, but he wasn’t signing, unfortunately. Years later I was acquainted with his son’s girlfriend, but never got to meet any of the Sagans.
Well, I’m an author. But I’m not particularly famous, so this is a great time to tell my cool Isaac Asimov story.
Back in the early 80s my first husband was a teacher at a small Christian school on Long Island, and the two of us, along with a few other teachers, chaperoned a busload of the school’s high school students on a day trip to Six Flags in New Jersey. As we drove into Six Flags, one of my friends, the history teacher, and I saw a sign at the entrance announcing that Isaac Asimov was going to be lecturing at a pavilion at noon. Excited, we raced to the pavilion at around 11:30 so we could get a good seat. There was no one there, so we sat in the front row. Eventually a family of about five, parents and three kids, joined us. Mr. Asimov came out, saw the tiny crowd but didn’t seem a bit bothered, and sat on the edge of the stage right in front of us, only a few feet away. For about the next hour, the eight of us had a private conversation with him. Even though I was an English major, I’d read only a few short stories and one short novel by Mr. Asimov and I couldn’t remember them very well, so I didn’t say much, but the family seemed familiar with his work and asked him a lot of questions about robots, which he seemed happy to answer. He explained the rules of robots or some such thing; it was fascinating to me, because at the time I wasn’t a scifi fan, but I realized that it seemed like he had created so many of the cool things that modern scifi is based on. It was quite a memorable experience.
Also, while I was in grad school and a graduate assistant I met the British poet Stephen Spender, who seemed very tall and British and tweedy, just as I expected. And I was briefly introduced to Margaret Atwood when she came for a reading at a local university; she was kind of prickly.
Margaret Atwood, Robertson Davies and Susan Musgrave, all at author readings. I’ve seen Susan Musgrave’s car parked outside my old office once or twice.
Work at the homes of a few of them. Robert Parker being the top one that comes to mind. Never spent much time talking to him, though my father has. He never tends to be home when I’m around
R. A. Salvator used to stop in at a gaming store I hung out at as a kid. He was always very social and liked getting first hand opinions on his books.
My ex BF was a grad student with George Mason University, studying Nonfiction literature. I went to multiple parties with his professors attending all of which were successful published authors.
None of the authors I’ve dealt with functioned like you expect celebrities to. They tend to be known by looks to a much smaller base then movies stars, so people recognizing and annoying them isn’t a constant threat. Their attitudes towards stuff they’ve written tends to be uninterested and they steer conversation to things they are working on. I imagine by the time a books gone to publish they know it inside and out and are bored with it.
I’m an author, too. I’ve also met dozens of them at science fiction conventions and are friends with quite a few. Some names of people know me on sight include Esther Friesner, Jane Yolen, Allen Steele, Debra Doyle, James McDonald, Sharon Lee, Steve Miller, Hal Clement, Shariann Lewitt, Jacqueline Lichtenberg, James Morrow, Paul Levinson, Ian Randal Strock, Mary Robinette Kowal, Josepha Sherman, Pam Sargent, George Zebrowski, Rosemary Edghill, Geoffrey Landis, Joshua Palmatier, Darrel Schweitzer, John Betancourt, Joel Rosenberg, Raymond Feist, Terry McGarry, Ryk Spoor, Eric Flint, Robert Sawyer, and Melissa Scott. There are dozens more that I’ve dealt with online (e.g,. Norman Spinrad, Jerry Pournelle, Dafydd ab Hugh, Greg Feeley) or on the phone (Harlan Ellison), by letter (Jack Williamson), or met only once or twice (Kristine Katherine Rusch, Dean Wesley Smith, Octavia Butler, Barry B. Longyear, et. al.). This doesn’t count editors and book artists I’ve met.
The list is not particular notable for anyone who’s been going to SF cons for 25 years.
BTW, authors love being complimented on their books (though my conversations are generally about other things).
The first time I met an author, I was in grade school. Wilson Rawls (author of Where the Red Fern Grows) came to speak to our class. I have very little memory of that. The second time was in sixth grade, when Zilpha Keatley Snyder (author of The Egypt Game, among others) came to speak to our class. Don’t remember much of that, either.
As an adult, I was involved in a local science fiction fan group, and met some well-known SF/Fantasy authors – Dennis McKiernan (who very kindly let me buy him a drink, and then remembered me a month later at another convention when I brought my husband, who’s a trufan). John Norman. Greg Benford. Larry Niven (I went gambling with him and his wife once). Steven Barnes (from whom I took a T’ai Chi class). Katherine Kurtz (a lady in the truest sense of the word). Among others.
Two memories stand out. First, at the 1995 World Science Fiction Convention in Glasgow, Scotland, I saw a gentleman wearing a corduroy jacket over a vest made of fabric that had a starfield and planets all over it. I went up to him and complimented the vest – he’d had his hands in his pockets, so the jacket was pulled back and the vest was easily visible. He told me that his wife had made the vest, and it was the same fabric as the kid’s sheets in the movie Apollo 13. About that time, he took his hands out of his pockets, the jacket fell into place, and I saw his nametag. I was chatting up Robert Forward, author of Dragon’s Egg and Starquake. I told him I’d really enjoyed Dragon’s Egg when I read it. He thanked me, and we went our separate ways.
A few years later, our local SF group hosted a regional SF convention, and our guest of honor was Poul Anderson. I volunteered to pick him and his wife, Karen, up at the airport and drive them to the con hotel. Karen asked if we could drive by the statues by Arlin Robins. Upon questioning, we realized that she meant the mermaid statues outside The Mirage. I said of course we could detour past them, though it would mean a somewhat longer trip to the con hotel.
So we drive west from the airport toward the Strip, and in the skyline is the pyramid-shaped Luxor, which had recently opened. I start to tell them that it’s named Luxor, and Poul says, “There are no pyramids at Luxor.” And proceeds to give me a minor lecture on Egyptian history. His wife, Karen, does much the same when we pass the statue of the man mounted on a horse at one end of the Caesars Palace property – telling me who the man was, what his reign was, and so on. A history lesson while stuck in traffic on the Strip – but that’s okay, I was (and still am) interested in Roman history and Mithraism, and there aren’t many better informed folks on the subject than the Andersons.
As a general rule, I try not to talk about their books specifically, unless they bring up the subject. There are lots of other subjects to talk about, and it’s been my experience that authors are more receptive if you’re not just gushing about their work. Others’ mileage varies, I’m sure, but that’s been my experience.
I have autographed books from the following authors I’ve met personally:
[ul]Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins (better known as the Apollo 11 astronauts; met at National Air and Space Museum, where I worked at the time)
[li]Isaac Asimov (book signing: no great story)[/li][li]Daniel C. Dennett (philosopher, scientist; met at Randi’s Amazing Meeting in 2006)[/li][li]Murray Gell-Mann (Nobel prize-winning physicist; met at Randi’s Amazing Meeting in 2006)[/li][li]Milton Glaser (graphic designer; met at a lecture in the 1970s)[/li][li]Thor Heyerdahl (met at NASM)[/li][li]Penn Jillette and Teller (met at signing)[/li][li]Garrison Keillor (met at signing)[/li][li]Jim Lovell and Jeffrey Kluger (Apollo 13 astronaut and co-author; met at NASM)[/li][li]Philip and Phylis Morrison (Manhattan project physicist and wife; met on several occasions)[/li][li]Mark Okrand (creator of the Klingon language; met at NASM)[/li][li]John Allen Paulos (author of Innumeracy; met at NASM)[/li][li]Roger Penrose (mathematician; met at signing)[/li][li]Philip Plait (Bad Astronomer; met at Randi’s Amazing Meeting in 2006)[/li][li]James Randi (met at Randi’s Amazing Meeting in 2006)[/li][li]Richard Rhodes (Pulitzer prize-winning author; met at NASM)[/li][li]Carl Sagan (met at NASM)[/li][li]Alan Shepard (first U.S. man in space; met at NASM)[/li][li]Dava Sobel (met at conference. I gushed. See below.)[/li][li]Clifford Stoll (met at signing)[/li][li]Kurt Vonnegut (met at NASM. Nice guy. Very tall. Had very young son.)[/li][li]John C. Wright (Science fiction author; I went to college with him.)[/li][li]Chuck Yeager (First man through the sound barrier. He’s a jerk. Met at NASM)[/li][li]Jeana Yeager and Dick Rutan (first to fly around the world non-stop, unrefueled; met at NASM)[/ul][/li](Do I win the thread?)
I also happen to be friends/colleagues with a number of authors whose names you wouldn’t recognize, mostly from NASM.
The vast majority of these authors were charming, pleased to be complimented on their work, and happy to sign. By and large, I didn’t make too big a fool of myself with any of them.
My Dava Sobel story: last year I attended a conference at which Sobel spoke, but I didn’t know that until I got there, so I hadn’t brought my copies of any of her books. I was thrilled that I was going to meet her (it was a very small meeting), but disappointed that I wouldn’t get an autographed book. I mentioned this to the woman who had invited Sobel to the meeting, and she told her.
When I met Sobel, I gushed, telling her how much I had loved both Galileo’s Daughter and Longitude. She kindly gave me a paperback copy of Longitude that she happened to have, and autographed it to me. I sat with her over dinner, and was able to tell her my story about seeing the Harrison clocks at the Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England.
She was very charming, modest, and an interesting conversationalist. It was a real pleasure to meet her. I later sent her a first edition of Galileo’s Daughter for her autograph. Nice lady.
The one who got away (sort of): Bill Watterson, author of Calvin and Hobbes. On a trip to Ohio, I once spent an hour or two in Chagrin Falls, hoping I might catch a glimpse of him, perhaps riding his bike. (He looks exactly like Calvin’s dad.) The center of town is exactly as he depicted it in this drawing. Calvin is “eating” the candy shop where I had a milkshake, and on the left is the bookstore where Watterson occasionally signed copies of his book. He stopped fairly early on (long before I got there), after he discovered that people were reselling them for large sums on eBay.
If I had seen him, I would definitely gone into a world-class gushing session that probably would have resulted in death by mortification for both of us. So perhaps it’s just as well I didn’t see him.
I was in grade school when a handful of us (for some reason) got invited to a lunch with Ray Bradbury. Probably too young to be “wide-ranging, free-wheeling”, but he was very nice and friendly, and signed my 1st edition of Illustrated Man.
OK, I’m still in awe of **silenus’ **getting drunk with Spider Robinson.
Best I can do in that department is a chit for a drink at Callahan’s signed by Spider and by Jeanne, since I’d asked for that when I wrote in my answer to the riddle (coffin:baby boy = Pall (Paul) New Man, IIRC).
Have had conversations with a number of SF authors at various Westercons and Orycons: Larry Niven, Harry Turtledove, Dean Ing, Steve Perry, Ursula K. LeGuin, Connie Willis, etc.
Last November at Orycon 30 I had Harry Turtledove and Steve Perry autograph books with “Merry Christmas [son’s name] from Harry Turtledove,” etc. I scored Major Dad Points with that one.
I followed up with a “Happy Birthday” autographed first edition of Ken Scholes’ “Lamentations” for my son, after interviewing Ken for our newspaper. (Plug: his second book in the “Psalms of Isaak” series, “Canticle,” has just been released. They are both excellent.)
Among my autographed goodies:
[ul]
[li]Ken Kesey’s “Sometimes a Great Notion”[/li][li]Arthur C. Clarke’s “Childhood’s End”[/li][li]Ursula K. LeGuin’s “Earthsea” trilogy[/li][li]Dean Ing’s “Systemic Shock” and “Single Combat”[/li][li]Jack Chalker’s “Dance Band on the Titanic”[/li][li]Steven Barnes’ “Blood Brothers”[/li][li]Kevin O’Donnell, Jr.'s “Bandersnatch”[/li][li]Patrick Carmen’s “The Dark Hills Divide”[/li][li]Ken Scholes “Lamentations” and “Canticle”[/li][/ul]
Plus a number of books by local and regional authors, many of whom I have reviewed.
I’ve helped several authors by supplying historic photos and research and have been thanked in introductions and quoted in blurbs on a couple of book covers.
All have been polite and helpful. I do try not to gush, but if I ever meet Spider Robinson, will probably lose it,
Have met many authors, but the one book I wish I still had:
I met Abbie Hoffman, the 60’s activist - at his trial in Chicago. Happened to have a copy of his book, “Steal This Book” and asked him for an autograph during a break in the trial.
He signed it and gave it back and then went back into the courtroom.
Only after he went back into the courtroom did I read the inscription:
“Fuck off. Abbie”
I loved it! I proudly showed that book to many and it was a prized possession. However, when I moved to Europe, I had left the book with some of my things back home and when I returned, my mother had given away many of my books! It was gone and never found again. Still pissed that I don’t have that book anymore.
When I was in college, I got to interview one of my childhood idols, Maurice Sendak, a classy and talented gent. I tried not to gush, but asked the kind of dumbass questions college newspaper reporters are infamous for.
I’ve met lots of comic book writers and corresponded with Steve Gerber for years. Will Eisner was kind of a dick to me, but he was having a rough day, I guess.
I went on a drinking jag with Cecil Adams once. During the course of it, he defused a bomb and delivered two babies (twins). I think. My memories of that one were a little hazy.
I’ve met a few in the context of book signings - Molly Ivins, Sarah Weddington, Dorothy Cannell, Al Franken. No real gushing - I’m pretty shy, and we were pretty much herded through the line. Hand author book, author signs book, I say thank you…next! Which is probably good. I’m not at my best when I’m flustered, and I’m easily intimidated by “regular” people, much less authors I admire!
I did get the chance to have a long chat with Ann Rule (who is freaking hilarious) at a writers conference. I kind of had an “in,” since my brother was on the police force that had investigated a crime she’d written about not long before that, and she remembered him.
Yes, I hang out on a mailing list for Lois McMaster Bujold [she is very active on it] and went to Balticon a couple years ago. My friend Ginny and I arranged the mailing list dinner that we all went on. I think about 15 of us went to dinner with her. We also went to panels with her, and chatted in various rooms and hallways numerous times. We also had a small pot luck party in our room where she came [with the same 15 or so people off the list, and a few others from the Baen Bar list]
Lovely lady, very down to earth and fun to talk with.
In previous cons I have at least met and shaken hands and gotten autographs from John Ringo, David Drake, Pterry, Larry Niven, and just before his death Jack Chalker who was a lovely and intelligent man.
Romance & mystery novelist/sociologist Andrew Greeley. He spoke at my undergrad alma mater on “Images of God in the Movies”. Oh yeah, he’s also a Catholic priest G. At the reception afterwards, I’d brought three books for him to sign- two of his earlier novels (I think The Cardinal Sins and Thy Brother’s Wife) and my favorite novel (God GAme). I was the ONLY person to have brought books for him to sign- including a friend who owned a book shop! L He signed all three & we chatted about religion in recent movies he hadn’t mentioned- the Branaugh Frankenstein & Pulp Fiction. He was quite friendly & gracious, and eager to chat with anyone who wanted. Cool man.
