I'd say this happened about ten years ago. I was flirting with serious sci-fi fandom; my favorite writers at the time were OSC and the late, great Roger Zelazny. I had the chance to meet Zelazny at a science fiction symposium of some kind at BYU. That was such a treat, I could barely talk! Big, stupid grin on my face. I got to meet a bunch of people there; Dave Wolverton, Robert Forward, etc. That was the first time I ever started to develop the conception that these writers I admired so much were just ordinary people, and not the unapproachable intellectual giants I had made them out to be. I also got to interview Shayne Bell for my high school literary journal, which was a minor treat for me. I hadn't read Nicoji at the time, but I had read several of his short stories and loved them.
So by the time I got to meet OSC I wasn't quite as scared as I had been when I met Zelazny. He (OSC) came on book tour to the old Barnes and Noble in Sugarhouse (a Salt Lake City neighborhood). I had read all of his published books up to that date, even the complete Maps In A Mirror. I'm pretty sure the book signing was for The Memory Of Earth, by the way.
Now, what I didn't tell him at the time is that the very *reason* I am a science fiction fan is because of Ender's Game, which I read when I was lonely, and ten years old, and in a new town trying to make friends. Ender was my friend. I remember being utterly stunned at reading that one of his parents had been a Mormon. A Mormon! Holy crap, *I* was a Mormon! I had NO idea that Card was LDS or had lived in Utah. And it was the first reference I had ever encountered of Mormonism outside the realm of my immediate community. That someone out there in the vast wicked world knew about Mormons made me feel important. Well, the book got me in trouble twice. Once during a sex ed video when I was found to be secretly reading. Once when my Mom passed my room at 1:30 in the morning to find me reading under the covers with a flashlight. (Sounds made up but actually happened.) The book effected me more emotionally than any I had read before and probably since. The ending was so right, so enormously satisfying -- even though it wasn't the clean, happy ending I was used to. I actually cried and made a vow, right then, in the fifth grade, that I would be a professional writer because I wanted to create for other people the kind of experience that Card had created for me.
(Side note: failing miserably.)
So Ender's Game was this enormous influence on my life. So going to meet him was terrifying for me. I sluffed school (17 at this point), went to the book signing. I think I may have actually pretended to browse books while working up the courage to go say Hi. Which is laughable. But eventually I did work up the courage. There were no lines or anything, just a couple of ladies, obviously serious sci-fi fans, with whom he was discussing the possibility of an Ender's Game movie. He was panning the notion of having Elijah Wood play Ender.
I told him hello. He could tell that I was scared but could not have been more friendly. I asked him to sign my writing journal, which he did. I told him I loved his work. He asked me why I hadn't brought a book for him to sign. I stammered something about how I have all his books at home but didn't bring any to the signing. He then did something so totally amazing that it basically made my year: just the good nature of it. He bought me a copy of his book and autographed it for me.
"To Troy - Greetings from avoirdupois!"
Now I'm still not sure what he meant by this. Just one of those things the man finds funny, I guess. Frankly I don't want to speculate in case that speculation leads to me, in my paranoia, to thinking he thinks I'm scum.
Well, after a couple of minutes I felt stupid hanging around so I thanked him *profusely* for the book and bounced out of there.
I had an awesome experience with the writer whose mind I admired most; he could not have treated me any better. You hear stories about people getting to meet their heroes and ending up being disappointed. I think that would be impossible with Card, he is such a truly nice person. (The deranged Salon.com article not withstanding.)
And now, ten years later, I have tried to be funny and apparently insulted him and offended his wife. The comedy I attempted was directed at OSC, "public-figure" and not at OSC "human being." I amused myself but and meant no offense but, as evidenced by the fact that offense was taken, I was in the wrong.
Mr. and Mrs. Card: I am sorry.
Posted by TL (Member # 8124) on :
Uh, and partially what I'm also trying to say is, thank you for going so far out of your way to put me at ease when I was so obviously too terrified to talk to you, lo those ten years ago.
Posted by Rackham (Member # 8127) on :
i too haope to meet Orson someday. finally get a singed copy of EG i always wanted... makes me sad to think about how i dont have one and have never met him.
oh well the day will come and hopfully his hand wont be too tired from signing all day to do one last one.
Posted by Orson Scott Card (Member # 209) on :
TL, I remember very well that signing, and that book.
I assumed you'd look up avoirdupois and find out that it's a system of weights - which is in parallel with an alternate system of weights called "troy weights." So it was a silly pun on your name. It's the kind of mood I was in that day.
So what kinds of things do you write these days? Do you finish what you write? Do you submit it to publishers?
I'm just trying to ascertain whether you are serious about writing, or simply depressed about it.
Posted by Dr. Evil (Member # 8095) on :
TL-
I used to correspond with Roger Zelazny quite a bit. One helluva nice guy. He sent me a number of autographed items including a bibliography that no one could seem to get their hands on and a first edition of The Illustarted Roger Zelazny. Hard to believe that it has been 10 years since his death but regardless, 'Lord of Light' still remains one of the all time classics of science fiction.
Posted by TL (Member # 8124) on :
I did look it up and learned that it was a system of weights; however I did not find out about "troy weights." I just thought to myself, "greetings from a system of weights?! what the hey --?"
Okay, my writing ... Well, I am very serious about it. I am not depressed because I know that I will succeed. I submitted one story, once, to a horror magazine. They didn't buy it but I got a positive rejection letter from the editor. ("An interesting read, but not quite for us.") I was encouraged by that because I thought the story was terrible, and only submitted it as a requirement of my writer's group. Of course that was nine years ago. My problem is that with me, nothing is ever finished, and nothing is ever right. I'm not satisfied with anything I write. I'm trying to get over this. But my attitude with writing as always been, "I want to be the best," so the people I compare myself to are people like OSC, Harlan Ellison, Stephen King, Richard Laymon, Zelazny, Clifford Simak -- I mean WHOEVER. I compare myself with the best genre writers who have ever lived and think, "This story is horrible." It's almost as if I don't WANT to be published until and unless my work is good enough to get noticed, big time, right away. Which it isn't.
I recognize that this is a terrible problem and I'm trying to figure out how to get over it.
My writing tends to be in the realm of horror or some kind of dark fantasy. Any sci-fi I write tends to be in the Philip K. Dick mold; ie it's social sci-fi -- there is no actual science.
Now that everyone has ascertained what a huge *fiction nerd* I am ....
Dr. Evil, Zelazny was dying when I met him, but of course none of us knew that. I found out about his death at the same Barnes and Noble where I got to meet OSC. Purchasing one of his books, the clerk says to me, "He just died, you know." I was like WHAT!! I was seriously crushed. I still haven't read all of his books. Since I know there will be no new ones, I want to draw out the process of finishing them. The last one I read was Creatures of Light and Darkness. My favorite is probably The Dream Master. I keep starting Lord of Light and then setting it aside. He had such a great style, didn't he? Geez, what a writer he was.
Posted by Sartorius (Member # 7696) on :
quote: (Sounds made up but actually happened.)
Of course it happened! It happened to me!
The only Zelazney I've read is One Night in the Lonesome October, and I loved it. His other books are on my To Read list, but my current library is woefully short on his books. When I start buying them, what should I start with?
Posted by TL (Member # 8124) on :
Start with the Chronicles of Amber, man. You can get the whole series in one volume now, 20 bucks. Don't be intimidated by it's size, all 10 books are shorter than one Stephen King novel.
I'd also go for a short story collection or two. He was a master of short fiction.
Posted by Dr. Evil (Member # 8095) on :
I loved Amber as it was one of the first that I ever read by him. Corwin is the ultimate anti-hero and I just loved his panache. Damnation Alley was the first of his I read and it just drew me in. TL- not sure how you can put down Lord of Light, it is just so good. I also found Lord Demon to be a nice treat and I loved Creatures of Light and Darkness as well.
My Mom spotted a clip in the local newspaper about RZ dieing and I still have that. He was just such an accomodating author to a fan in my eyes that it made reading his books so much better.
Posted by TL (Member # 8124) on :
I remember being twelve and reading Nine Princes In Amber cold. It's intruiguing from page 1 but the moment I really found myself going "Okay, this is CRAZY!" was the scene where the car gets stuck in the mud and Random is like, "Okay, help me lift this Buick," and grabs one end and starts lifting it back onto the road.
Posted by Sartorius (Member # 7696) on :
quote: Start with the Chronicles of Amber, man.
You mean, "Start with the Chronicles of Amber, girl."
Posted by Dr. Evil (Member # 8095) on :
TL-
Did you ever see the Nine Princes in Amber video game? I believe it was for the Commodore 64 but I found a ported version of it on the web years ago (it's very old). It was interesting but if you read the book, you knew how to win the game.
Great series. I was disappointed to see that someone was bringing back the series a couple of years ago using other authors to write in pace of Zelazny. Somehow it just loses it's effect.
Posted by TL (Member # 8124) on :
Oh yeah that's ridiculous. How do you sell *that* series to a book publisher?
Maybe I can get permission to continue Dune or something ...
Oh wait a sec.
Posted by Dr. Evil (Member # 8095) on :
It's all about the money and I sure it was the publisher selling it to the author(s). It's like making cheesy sequels to movies, the stories suck but the studios know that they people will come out to see it.
Posted by SteveRogers (Member # 7130) on :
Man, I wish that OSC would come to St. Louis. Then I'd have bragging rights. But I keep running into all these obstructions like Barnes and Nobles decision not to pursue inviting a writer to the area, via his publishers, even after I showed them the e-mail from his assisstant suggesting I ask them to do just that.
Edit: Why must bookstore customer service people, and most other people who work there, be so mean to me? Not just because of that either. They often discount my existence when I'm standing in line at the checkout. Or, when they are helping me find a book, they walk away and help someone else who looks lost, WITHOUT showing me where I might find the book, I mean when it isn't in the place where I thought it was and I can't find it; I'm not so stupid I can't apply alphabetical order to real life.
[ May 30, 2005, 06:14 PM: Message edited by: SteveRogers ]
Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :
You're a teenager. You are therefore, in their minds, UP TO NO GOOD.
[ May 30, 2005, 08:47 PM: Message edited by: Dagonee ]
Posted by SteveRogers (Member # 7130) on :
Why must people be biased against my age group?
Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :
Unfortunately, they have ample anecdotal evidence to support their state of mind and they unfairly extend this to cover all of you.
![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
![[Cry]](graemlins/cry.gif)
Not just because of that either. They often discount my existence when I'm standing in line at the checkout. Or, when they are helping me find a book, they walk away and help someone else who looks lost, WITHOUT showing me where I might find the book, I mean when it isn't in the place where I thought it was and I can't find it; I'm not so stupid I can't apply alphabetical order to real life.