Note to self: dig up book before posting dates. That was May 17, 1994 when AG signed my book. My daughter was born in January of 1995. I was married in June of 1989. I was born in 1968. My wife was born in 1966. I will not forget these years or dates. I will not forget these years or dates. I will not forget these years or dates.
My dad had breakfast with Isaac Asimov once. I don’t remember what the occasion was, but he was working for Reader’s Digest at the time, so it presumably was related to that. The thing of note, though, was that Asimov accidentally walked out of the restaurant with his (cloth) napkin stuck in his belt…heh. I heard this story once after doing the same thing myself.
Harlan Ellison calls me on the phone a few times a year (usually to ask if any of his books have been reprinted, but recently to ask if he could quote me – though he hasn’t yet, as far as I know).
I went to Isaac Asimov’s funeral, but I only saw him in passing (as a very junior editor-boy) a few times before that.
I spent a very fun evening at a party in Connie Willis’s room at a Lunacon a few years ago. (No, Connie’s not a huge superstar, but she should be.)
I ran down Terry Pratchett after breakfast at Worldcon a few years ago, to convince him to sell a book to me (his agents were dragging their feet).
Of course, I am a science fiction editor, so it’s not really fair for me to compete in these kinds of anecdote wars.
I met Zelazny at a very small con. I’ve told this story before, but it’s recyclable. I introduced myself to him, and he was very tolerant of my jibber-jabber. I told him his novels got me through a rough time in middle school, and that I was sure he heard that from a lot of people. During the signing, I joined another fan in pointing out a continuity error; he was gracious, and admitted that the error resulted from changing his overall plot outline after he’d begun the series. An interview was conducted publicly, during which he climbed all over a table. He told an interesting anecdote about Philip K. Dick, who I believe was already dead at the time. I came away feeling that I’d met and observed a very special person. Damned shame that he died so young.
stofsky, you’d sell your autographed copy of an AG book? Why? Surely it wouldn’t bring enough money to make it worthwhile parting with it!
AG signed a copy for me, too: at the end of one of the classes that he was guest-lecturing in (fascinating man, BTW… prior to hearing him speak, I really hadn’t understood much of his poetry!), a line started with students wanting him to sign books… everyone had a copy of Howl, which was the book we were studying in class. I, however, had a copy of Plutonian Ode (hands-down my favorite AG work!)… after signing maybe 20 copies of Howl and suddenly having a copy of Plutonian Ode thrust before him, he stopped for a second, looked at the cover, then looked up at me for a moment and smiled! I think he realized that everyone had copies of Howl because it was required reading for the class, and that I had Plutonian Ode simply because I LOVE it (it was not on the reading list). After smiling at me for a moment, he opened the book and instead of simply signing his name as he had done in the copies of Howl, he proceeded to draw a really cool mushroom cloud around the words “Plutonian Ode” on the title page (he signed his name underneath it)!
I wouldn’t sell that book (or the memory) for anything!!!