talking with authors

[Peter Murray]

Kathy asked:
What was the hint? "Junk mail"?

Nothing that direct. It was more along the lines of finding something to keep the cleaning robot busy, leaving me to realise that he meant the junk mail.

[singer]

i've chatted with DD and Holly black and Tamora Pierce.

[Kathy Li]

Most of my convention experiences have been at the San Diego Comic-Con, so it's mostly comic book folks whose autographs I snagged: Jack Kirby and Alan Moore are probably my prize autographs. Oh, and I've gotten chances to talk at Joss Whedon.

I never got to meet Zelazney face-to-face, although I did see a couple panels with him at World Fantasy one year. That is sooo cool!

PM: What was the hint? "Junk mail"?

[meteorite]

I'm fairly old school; most of my contacts with authors were at cons. I bumped into Roger Zelazny by accident, and only realized who he was after I overheard someone calling him by name; I had never seen a picture of him before (I got a copy of the newest {at the time} Amber novel signed). Ben Bova lectured at my engineering school once on development of space for industrial purposes. I knew enough to hand him a straight line for his favorite rant, good for 15 minutes of promoting his space consortium, and he signed my program aferwards. Although I do appreciate the chance to rub electronic elbows with authors I wouldn't ordinarily see, being in mid-Pacific Ocean.

[Peter Murray]

I went to two book signings by Douglas Adams in London, and the second time I'd been playing the Infocom Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy game, and was stuck trying to get the Babel fish. So I asked if he did hints. (He did. I got the fish.) The Infocom hint book wasn't available then.

And I didn't talk to him, but I saw Michael Moorcock at another signing - Dave Sim was signing Cerebus issues, and there was a parody of Elric in them. Moorcock didn't have to queue up with the rest of us .

[Kathy Li]

Yup. I've done it. I'm sort of semi-addicted to booksignings and sf conventions. I've talked to a lot of different authors face to face, and it's quite a different experience meeting them in person vs. online. And yes, I met DD once, long long ago (before High Wizardry was published), when I was in college. She's very cool. But you knew that.

Professional authors are almost always fun to talk to if you love books.

[singer]

have any of you talked with an author before WITHOUT using a chat? i LJ my authors.