I had the pleasure of meeting Lois McMaster Bujold (The Vor Game; Barrayar).
http://hubcap.clemson.edu/~sparks/bujold.html
She lived in Marion, OH while I worked there, and had a book signing at the local library. I didn’t need anything signed, I already had a signed copy of everything she did – she signed all her books as they came into the local B. Daltons.
Dear LCP2972:
You didn’t leave an e-mail address!
If you want to read something of mine go to http://www.saugus.net and look up the first place Adult for the 1998 Halloween Ghost Story contest. That’s the only place you’ll find my fiction anywhere. If you want nonfiction, look up my article “Watch Out for Falling Anvils” in the first issue of Teemings. Or (Plug coming) look up my book “Medusa: Solving the Mystery of the Gorgon”, now available from Oxford University Press. (Or check out http://www.MedusaMystery.com ). I’ve written lots of fiction, but I can’t find anyone to publish it. I’ve never had a problem with nonfiction. A sane person might conclude from that that he cannot write fiction. Like most writers, however, I am not sane.
I’ve hung out with Isaac Asimov, had conversations in bars with Ray Bradbury, and I edited one of Harlan Ellison’s books, for which I was castigated in the Appendix, but included in the Acknowledgements.
You are my hero, also. I love Asimov (fiction and non-fiction alike) and still tear up when I think of his death. He should still be with us. He helped me to become the person I am today.
I “met” Jack Chalker at a Science Fiction Convention in Pittsburgh, back in 1987. I was 19 and pretty shy. I recognized him from photo in a book and saw him talking to a group of people holding a 32 oz 7-11 coffee in one hand. I didn’t know what to say to him, but I knew that I had to talk to him or I would not forgive myself. This was a few minutes before a panel discussion he was to be involved with.
I stood politely to one side while he spoke and when the group broke up said: “Hello Mr. Chalker.”
He turned to me and said: “I have to go to a panel discussion,” turned around, and walked away.
I have, since, referred to Mr. Chalker as a “big, fat bastard.”
At the same convention I bought some pictures from Robin Wood. She was pleasant.
I had 4 books signed by Anne Rice at a Borders in the South Hills of Pittsburgh. She was also pleasant, despite having to sit through crowds of people. This signin was for the release of Lasher.
When my college drama department started a festival/competition for original playwrights the Dept. head contacted a number of famous writers to act as judges on the final round of scripts. One of them was Ray Bradbury, when he called to wish us luck on opening night guess who answered the phone. i talked to him for about half an hour because i was the only one in the building at the time.
Uke:
I’m impressed . You should be MY hero. Which book did you edit? What did Mr. Ellison say?
Latecomer:
See my comment to Ukulele Ike.
Regarding Robin Wood (enter brag mode) we have a picture hanging on our wall of my wife holding a griffin, done by Ms. Wood. (exit brag mode)We’ve got a lot of her prints on our walls, and a copy of her tarot.
THAT would be telling.
You just want to be able to run over to your bookshelves, look up the acknowledgments page, and expose my secret identity to the world, don’t you? I know your kind.
What did he say? Lemme see…it was a while ago…one of his comments was about an editorial note of mine pointing out that Margaritas are not made with wine…he says that he’s not a boozer, so he wouldn’t know, and calls me a “tosspot” into the bargain.
Another was about 45-rpm “albums” (actually two 45-rpm records, four songs total, bound together into one fold-out sleeve). He called me a callow youthful baby-boomer over that one. (Shows how long ago that book was…nobody calls boomers youthful any more.)
Mind you, he didn’t just respond to my notes…he REPRODUCED them, along with his comments, RIGHT THERE IN THE F*CKING APPENDIX OF THE BOUND BOOK. Sheesh.
Uke, that definitely sounds like Ellison.
Let’s see, outside of convention bumpings:
Larry Niven – left an impression, not particularly favorable.
Jerry Pournelle – brilliant blowhard. Not always big on social niceties or checking his facts.
George Martin – funny, much funnier than you think.
Harlan Ellison – exciting, in a bungee jumping kind of way
Joe Haldeman – a very nice man
Neil Gaiman – gave me as positive an impression as three brief contacts could possibly create.
Piers Anthony – good man, good friend, strange fellow.
Cal – have you checked out the SDMB Writer’s club?
My wife claims all the sci-fi name dropping in our family. She’s had conversations with Asimov, Asprin, and Katherine Kurtz. At ConClave in October, she had a 2 hour discussion with David Weber, in which he outlined the future of the Honor Harrington series. We have a caricature of her drawn by Kelly Freas. Tom Smith has dedicated “500 Hats” to our son in concert (obscure,I know, and he was dedicating the performance, not the song itself). She’s been attending cons for close to 20 years, so there are probably lots of other stories I don’t know.
Scott
Oh, and not sci-fi, but my brush with greatness: I sold popcorn to Ozzy and his wife. They were seeing “The Color Purple”
We had Ginsberg as the guest of honor at a peotry reading I took part in back in college. It was quite a coup for the organizers, and he was very polite in critiquing the type of drivel that college poets produce.
I live in the tiny little Washington town where Frank Herbert lived the last years of his life. There are (were) several of his books, autographed, in the public library. A “friend” of mine and I, in high school, were discussing this when I made a crack about stealing the books from the library to sell. I thought you could make a few bucks on autographed copies of the Dune books, ya know? Just as a joke. Well, apparently the bastard actually did it. This is the same guy who was recently arrested for statuatory rape. (I have cool friends).
<Hijack>
This is way off base, but I corresponded briefly with Peter McWilliams just before he died. I was actually personally hurt when I found out he had died. If you’ve never heard of McWilliams, take a minute to look him up.
</Hijack>
And he’s not really a “legend,” but. . .
I have a friend who went to someplace in which James “Scotty” Doohan was doing a public appearance (some car dealership or something). My friend said that there was only one other person “in line” for autographs, and he tried to get Scotty to write a personalized autograph with the line “I can’t change the laws of physics.” Scotty told him “No, that’s too long, and I don’t have the time.”
I used to argue with Cherryh and Raymond Feist online. But I suppose that is not quite the same as real life contact. I did have more interaction with them than a chance meeting at a convention would probably allow.
MR
I had a female FOAF who was a teaching assistant assigned to Ginsberg when he was teaching a poetry seminar at a big western State University. She told me they spent all their time after the class meetings rating the attractiveness of the male students.
It’s entirely possible that any of your classmates to whom he responded “Your poetry is like the Sunflower Sutra! Neal Cassady woulda LOVED you!” ended up in the sack with him.
Hey!!
That’s what he told me! 
I crashed (& was tossed out) of one of Sturgeon’s gorgeous daughter’s parties.
Took a writing class from Nancy Kress.
Not really scifi, but I met the great Swedish writer Yorga Borga 3 times. (He’s kinda trans-genre).
And Allen Ginsberg tried to pick me up in a men’s room after a reading once.
Vaguely amusing anecdote:
I did a pitch once for a computer game and said “It’s like LOTRs meets Spider Robinson’s Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon.” The person I pitched it to pitched it to somebody else, who pitched it to somebody else. The game got dropped, but somewhere along the way somebody picked up an option on CTS to try to make it into a TV pilot. After a couple of months they gave up. But Spider, if you’re reading this, the 50K or whatever you got that option is just our way of saying “Thanks”
nothing that bad …
from what I remember , she said he would beat them and cuss them for hours on end though.
it’s been a lo o o n n g time since I worked that 7/11.
Tristan–“Man, I wish I had been born earlier…”
Me too, I would have been dam near a stalker to the great
one,I spent a week being depressed when my dad told me he died.
Held Damn Fine Irish-style wake for him though…well without the body.
I doubt Mrs. H. would have let me borrow it.heheheh
I tried to send you one via the board,nogo,
no biggie
mine is sane as my username here, at hotmail.
I’m going to go read your anvil story,fits in good with stuff happening here/now,or the title strikes a chord anyway.
is it possible to hijack a thread you started?
I have heard about a chat feture of this board,is it still about or was it wafted into the bosom of Abraham at the fabled AOL switch-over?
maybe I’ll just go read “About this message board” ,or something,but that seems like cheating
heheh
/hijack
I disagree. I think Doohan is an acting legend. He inspired so many engineering students at the Milwaukee School of Engineering that they gave him an honorary degree.
That’s strange about the autograph. When I got his, he had quite a line, but still shook my hand and made comments about the book I had him autograph. (A Star Trek synopsis book. He signed near the picture of him electrifying the hull of the Galileo 7.)
George Takei is really great at signings. I waited an hour before he signed the same book as above near a picture of him fencing in the episode “The Naked Time”. Without asking, he signed it D’Artagnan. :D:D
Don’t forget his second-best work, “Kaddish.” I met AG too, in '95 at the Beat Reunion at NYU while he was flirting with a classmate of mine. I got him to sign my first ed. of Cosmopolitan Greetings, though he said something like, “What is this, a conference or a fucking book signing?” But I was young, stupid, drunk, and had found out my wife was pregnant 2 days before. I also thought that Ferlinghetti was a homeless guy who’d wandered in off the street, and that McClure was some guy who was going to steal my book from Ginsberg’s hands as it was being signed.
I have pics of all of the above, BTW, and will see what I can do about getting them scanned if anyone’s interested.
Scroll down for a hijack, if you’re interested. Skip if you’re not…
I’d not be averse to selling my autographed “Cosmopolitan Greetings” if someone’s interested. I also have an autographed first of David Foster Wallace’s “Girl With the Curious Hair” that might be available for the right price.
OK. That’s the end of the blatant commercialism.