There are definitely some authors who think that the world outside of New York City just barely exists. Most of them are polite about it, though.
Let me offset this little bit of Stine negativity with probably the most positive author story I have:
Greg Mortenson (Three Cups of Tea) came to my store for a book signing, and then did a long talk/slide show about his work building schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan. After the talk, my wife and I took Greg and his assistant out to dinner. The owner of the restaurant had been at the talk and comped the dinner, which was very nice.
It was late at that point, and he was getting ready to drive off to his next stop. He was looking quite tired. I offered up our guest room, and he politely declined. His assistant said, “Greg, when did you sleep last?” He actually had to stop and think about it. He hadn’t slept the whole night before.
So he ended up spending the night at my place, and we talked until almost 3:00 in the morning. He is one of the most amazing human beings on the planet.
I’ve met Neil Gaiman twice, although the second time doesn’t count for much because he was in a hurry to make his plane and was just very quickly signing things before rushing off.
The first time he was promoting Anansi Boys at ALA, and we all got free copies of the hardcover. I’d heard people say before that they’d met Gaiman at signings and go on about how nice he was, and I’d been kind of skeptical about this because it seems like practically anyone could manage to seem nice in the time it takes to sign a book. But Gaiman really did come across as a very nice man who was considerate of his fans and humbled by the attention.
Aside from the book I got him to sign two Sandman bookmarks I’d snagged at the Vertigo booth. One of the bookmarks was for my sister. After signing it he stopped and said “Oh no, it looks like I’ve written [word that’s one letter off from my sister’s name]” and went back over it again to make it more clearly her name. I was impressed that he cared about something like that, especially since he’d already signed the book for me.
While he was signing I said “This is for my sister, she’s completely in love with you”, which I felt dumb about a moment later because I’m sure it came across as a really pathetic way to say “*I *am completely in love with you.” But it was true, my sister IS completely in love with Neil Gaiman. In fact, when I gave her the bookmark I said “I told him you were completely in love with him” and she said “Yes, I am.”
I once met a future Canadian Prime Minister. This was long before she had ever thought of going into politics and was the just the squeeze of a mathematician I sort of knew. When I saw them together, I thought she was his daughter, but the later married (and then divorced). Thirty four years later, she was PM for about six months, lost an election ignominously (the part went from a majority to two seats and later disappeared). Needless to say I had no reason to gush.
Another “future” was Don Kingsbury, a former colleague of mine, who has published a couple of extremely good sci-fi novels (Courtship Rite and Psychohistorical Crisis) and a fair amount more forgettable stuff. I still see him around town from time-to-time. I do not gush, but I have, on occasion, asked him questions. For example, he told me that although Psychohistorical Crisis was obviously based on Asimov’s Foundation, he changed the names (chose much better ones; imagine calling the planet Trantor “Splendid Wisdom” or a race of people that he called “The Frightful Peope”) in order to avoid copyright issues with Asimov’s estate.
I also see a published author (3 books, very technical) in the mirror every morning. Also one I knew before he was published.
I’ve met:
[ul]
[li]Ruth Starke[/li][li]Lee Battersby[/li][li]Megan McKinley[/li][li]Amina Hughes[/li][li]Juliet Marillier[/li][/ul]
Always in the context of writing workshops. They were all really nice, friendly people, and gave us good advice. They didn’t act like celebrities, as evidenced by the fact that they were happy to spend their time working with teenagers in small town Australia. I got a signed book from Ruth Starke and saw the first chapter of one of Julirt Marillier’s books before it was published. I’m quite a big fan of Marillier’s, but I’m proud to say that I didn’t gush.
Paul Auster and Siri Hustvedt (his wife) a number of times. Socially, in circumstances having nothing to do with the book business. They’re friends of friends, so we run into each other at dinners and stuff in the same social circle pretty often. One of my (four) brothers is an author, as are a couple of other relatives, so I see them all the time. A guy I work with is an author of crime fiction. He’s published six or seven books. Doesn’t sell enough to pay the bills, though (although he seems to sell enough to keep getting published), thus the day job.
Also Bill Bradley and Ted Kennedy. They’re both published authors, of course, but that’s obviously not the first thing one that comes to mind when one thinks of them, which is why I forgot to include them in my post above.
Back in college I went to a reading with Joe Haldeman. He was reading excerpts from his next book. I don’t remember which one, maybe Buying Time? This was at his alma mater, University of Maryland. I believe his brother was there also. A very nice man. He was amused that I had him sign an anthology that he edited, not a book he wrote. My copy of Forever War was at home and I was a poor student who couldn’t buy a book just to get it signed.
Paul Prudhomme signed a couple of his cookbooks for me.
I know a few farang (Western) authors here. Most are published in Southeast Asia, although one’s published in Canada, another in the US. Most of them are drinking buddies, so it’s not really a gush situation. One I was always having to lend money to, because he didn’t believe in ATM cards and always forgot when a local holiday was upon us and so couldn’t go to the bank. The best I could figure, he must have gone to the bank for a withdrawal pretty near every day, because it seemed like every holiday he was hitting me up. Always paid me back without fail after the banks opened, though, so never a problem. He has nine books out at last count and lives in Abu Dhabi now.
Kinda twiddling with this, because I’ve been graced with having many writers in my sphere of life; I’ll speak up with my friend Larry Brown, probably now since this is the aniversarry time of his death. I’ve just been thinking of him today, and what a wonderful man he was, and missing him. I’m remembering his good smile when talking about a sweet moment in life. And I’m pissed that he didn’t get beyond his early 50’s, with so much writing ahead.
Another old obit Whatever. A great writer friend gone on yond. Pissed, yet, peace.
One of the nice things about SF conventions and publisher tours in NZ in years past was that they tended to be smallish affairs, but often had a headline guest of honour – the convention would pay the air fares out to NZ and hotel, etc, and the guests would often make a holiday of it. And because they were small there was more chance of getting to chat with the guest of honour (and I tried hard not to gush… not always successfully to my regret).
So, to the OP:
[ul]
[li]Had a beer with Harry Harrison[/li][li]Abducted Tad Williams*[/li][li]Chatted about the Milgram experiment with Terry Pratchett[/li][li]Exchanged pleasantries with David Gerrold – although sadly he was about to chair a panel on “jackboot fandom” and I was (co-incidentally) dressed in a sort of cyborg-colonial marine outfit, and I think he thought I was one of the jackboot persuasion. (and I wish he’d finish that damned Chtorr series…) :D[/li][li]Briefly met (a very ill looking) Roger Zelazny (accompanied by Jane Lindskold).[/li][/ul]
My favourite chance encounter though – and one I can just legitimately squeeze in here because she did write one episode of DS9, was Majel Barrett-Roddenberry. At GenCon in 1994 I was wandering through the trade hall and saw a familiar looking woman sitting alone and ignored at a signing table. So I got a chance for a quick chat, and she signed a photo of “Number One” for me.
*Tad Williams and Greg Bear were in town as part of a publisher’s tour. After the official meet-n-greet Bear and the rest of their party retired to the hotel, but Tad Williams was keen to keep talking and as we had a large (student-style) flat nearby he came home with us for coffee and we got to here some very funny stories about some of his ex-flatmates. A memorable evening.
I met Bernard Cornwell at a booksigning in Charlotte back in the '80s and exchanged letters with him for awhile. We met against at a writers conference in Wilmington and spent a cigar break talking about writing. Very nice man; not at all like Sharpe (thank goodness!).
At mystery conventions, I’ve chatted with Ron Gourlart, Loren Estlemen and (briefly) Ian Rankin. I’ve also shared meals and/or conversations with Lev Raphael, Keith Snyder, and John Gilstrap, novelists whose books are worth reading.
Terry Pratchett signed two of his book at a Washington DC signing, for which I’m even more grateful for obvious reasons. And I had Michael Dirda (Washington Post reviewer) sign his memoirs, which I appreciated. He and I grew up in the same area of Ohio about a decade apart, and our experiences ran along the same lines.
My worst occasion was when Sharyn McCrumb publicly berated me at a booksigning. I had interviewed her for a feature story/ review that began with a line like “Don’t call her a mystery novelist” (she had been getting more respect as an Appalachian writer and her novels were being taught in college). For that, I received a lecture – at length and loudly – that you should never describe somebody as a negative. The publicist was so embarrassed that she sent me a basket and an apology to the newspaper.
I’ve been killed by name in two mysteries, one by Tamar Myers after I trashed her debut novel, and one by Lee Goldberg in “Mr. Monk and the Dirty Cop” after I helped proof a previous Monk book.
Now I’ve got a nonfiction book coming out late next year, so maybe it’ll be my turn.
Jonathan Safran Foer, briefly, at a book signing. I’ve had slightly more extensive contact with a number of Dutch authors I don’t think anyone here has heard of.
In the past few years, I’ve gone to book events at the library, so I’ve met a few authors and got some autographs. Most of them aren’t really famous, just good hardworking writers pushing their latest novel.
Those I actually met: Bruce Campbell, Joe Queenan, Veronica Chambers, Joshua Kendall, Robert Goolrick, Qaisra Sharaz, Marnie Old and Sam Calgione. The last one I met many other times at beer events around town.
I’ve only met one author in person, Spider Robinson. It was at a book signing in the late 1980’s, at a wonderful used book store in East Lansing, Michigan. I was tongue-tied with admiration, and didn’t want to take up more than my share of time. I had several battered paperbacks of his to sign, and he wrote in all of them(which I’ve kept of course!). In one I asked him to sign not on the flyleaf but by the beginning of a particular short story.
It was titled “True Minds” and I told him it was one of two of my favorite short stories ever. (The other is Heinlein’s “The Man Who Traveled in Elephants”) He wrote “Nobody had ever told me before they liked this story!” Whether it was true or not I don’t know, but I felt special. And I did write to him twice, and got replies. He also said, in one of the replies, that nobody had, up to that time, guessed correctly who “Kenneth”(from Lady Slings the Booze) was supposed to resemble.
If he’d ever come to Topeka I’d take him for a beer! Probably at the Celtic Fox, they sell Guinness and Bushmill’s.
I’ve met and talked with Andrew Vachss after book signings a couple of times when he’s been in Phoenix. Brilliant man and the single most dedicated defender of child abuse victims I could imagine. When he was in town last I was doing some work with the legislative committee of the National Association to PROTECT Children, and he even deferred a couple of the audience members’ questions to me, for which I was incredibly honored.
I’ve swapped email with Christopher Moore several times, beginning in 2000 or so. He’s a great guy, every bit as funny in person as his novels would suggest. I first met him on the publicity tour for Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove. He had one of the bookstore employees run across the parking lot to a party store and pick up a few packs of plastic lizards, which he signed along with the book. I’m a little irked with him that he hasn’t been back to Phoenix since the tour for Dirty Job.
(and I wish he’d finish that damned Chtorr series…) :D[/li][li]Briefly met (a very ill looking) Roger Zelazny (accompanied by Jane Lindskold).[/li][/ul]