"Ten Things I've Done Others Might Not Have" meme

[cimorene]

gacked from esorlehcar.

  1. found unadvertised hand and footholds carved into a sheer cliff face on the bear cave hiking trail at petit jean state park in arkansas.  climbed up to see where they led, taken the obvious direction to a breathtaking view over the whole of the valley between two mountains.  watched a bald eagle spiral on a downdraft as if on a movie made for me.

  2. marched (as a baby) on washington, d.c. with the national organisation for women in support of the equal rights amendment.

  3. met some of my favorite writers:  lois mcmaster bujold, patricia wrede, connie willis, jane yolen. 

  4. found out that princess di died only an hour or so after the fact from a pissing drunk redneck girl at a missouri koa campground.  not believed her until i read the paper the next morning.

  5. attended the girl scouts' national convention.

  6. gone to school dressed as she-ra.

  7. been mistaken for a model by two middle-aged japanese ladies in the gion geisha district of kyoto, japan.

  8. flown halfway across the country at great expense to my parents to meet someone i thought i was in love with but had never met in person, staying in the home of a third person i didn't even know online (devon in this case) whom my (wax_jism) hadn't even met in person either--on the chance that i was right.  for a day and a half.  and not even taken a kiss, despite leaving convinced that i was. 

  9. taken a dog through finnish customs.

  10. founded, edited, laid out, printed [at kinko's], stapled, and folded my own small-press kids' fiction magazine from the ages of nine to eighteen.

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/_divya_/]

Excellent list! Also, I hear you're a guy now at Wax's workplace? You should put that on the list. "11. Rendered male by default because of the lack of gender-specific pronouns in Finnish."

[aynatonal.livejournal.com]

My mum used to take me in my little papoose to abortion rights marches, carrying a "New Mothers For Choice," sign.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

i still have my toddler-size t-shirt--i've made it into a clingy tanktop by cutting the sleeves and neck away. i have a vivid memory from that march of sitting on daddy's shoulders waving a flag and shouting "what do we want? the era. when do we want it? NOW!"

[aynatonal.livejournal.com]

Heee! So cute :)

envy... but in a good way

[rainey-creek.livejournal.com]

I don't know you - but have enjoyed your fanfic that I've read - and am now terribly jealous that you have met Lois McMaster Bujold, Connie Willis and Patricia Wrede. Also very excited for you that you got to do that. What were they like? How'd you meet them?

you asked for it!

[cimness.livejournal.com]

i met patricia wrede at NASFiC/Noreascon, the north american science fiction convention when it was held at boston's noreascon, when i was five years old. she was working on dealing with dragons at the time, and my mother took me to a reading. she read the scene leading up to the djinn's summoning in kazul's cave and i laughed through the whole thing. apparently mom went to talk to her afterwards and she was very flattered that i was so amused.

i met lois mcmaster bujold at, i think, deep south con/bamacon in birmingham, alabama when i was fifteen or so, right around the time that mirror dance came out. we bought it in hardback at the con and had it as well as a huge stack of the rest of her books signed. i didn't have a real conversation with her, but i saw her speak in some panels.

i met connie willis just a year and a half ago at deep south con when it was held in, i think, huntsville, alabama. she was the guest of honor and the mc of the masquerade. we had several enjoyable conversations at the meet-the-guests party and a room party, later. her big theme for the weekend was attack of the clones, which she had just seen in the theatre and made a lot of fun of. our discussion of how likely it was that anybody whatsoever would fall for anakin's line--("would YOU?" she said to me, as the female closest to amidala's age present)--led to mentions of my psycho stalking ex-boyfriend, which also seemed to amuse her a great deal. she was expansive, vastly friendly and very entertaining as the mc and on her several panels. and she read a semi-documentary piece about her "pilgrimage" to check out roswell new mexico that had everybody falling on the floor laughing. unfortunately i've not been able to recall how to get it; it was published by a small press and wasn't out yet at the time.

i love science fiction conventions. i can go on longer. i've met other writers whom i wasn't personal fans of, who were nonetheless a lot of fun--mike resnick, tim powers, david weber, and the memorable david b. coe--i haven't read any of his books yet, but my mother bought children of amarid, which was just released, after making friends with him at an early room party at a birmingham bamacon memorable because it was held in the worst hotel ever.

Re: you asked for it!

[rainey-creek.livejournal.com]

This comes terribly belated, but thank you so much for sharing these memories with me. What cool opportunities! Any other authors you'd really like to meet?

Re: you asked for it!

[cimness.livejournal.com]

naturally any author i admire.

but samuel r. delany is the top of the list, followed by fred saberhagen. the latter has a fanmail e-mail address at his website, and i wrote him a fulsome little letter when i was in middle school, which he answered, inducing much squee. but i would still love to meet him in person. in fact, i might enjoy it more because i wouldn't be as intimidated by his genius.

i'd love to meet roger zelazny too--about the same as saberhagen--but i didn't discover his work until he was dead, tragically.

and also--cj cherryh, i think; i get the idea she might be kind of bitchy, and the things i most love of hers are only a tiny side project next to a lot of stuff i'm not as into. but she's a LINGUIST which i fangirl. and also, i actually DID meet her, when i was younger. i can't remember what con--and i wasn't particularly interested because i hadn't read anything by her at the time.

i'd really like to meet catherine asaro in person. we've had some contact and she knows my dad too, and she's really, really nice--which always makes someone more fun. i've only read a few of her things, but the novella that kinda broke her big (at least i've had the idea it did, but looking at a bibliography i'm no longer sure)--"aurora in four voices"--was absolutely stunning.

Re: you asked for it!

[rainey-creek.livejournal.com]

I've read some of Cherryh and rather liked it, though that was a while ago. I'd love to meet (Bujold and Willis, obviously) George R. R. Martin, or at least hear him talk. His "Saga of Fire and Ice" blows me away and he wrote this short story -- intended to be long but abandoned as he tried to make a living in the '80s -- about rival newspaper reporters in 1800s New York tracking the story of maybe Jack the Ripper that is *incredible*. Jasper Fforde (who writes about literay agency Thursday Next) would be interesting to hear talk about his books as well.

[And Joss Whedon, who isn't exactly a novelist but writes and creates. :)]

Re: you asked for it!

[cimness.livejournal.com]

you can watch the interview extras with joss, though, which is probably more information than you'll ever get about martin.

cj cherryh's foreigner series is sort of about alien first contact. her protagonist is the one human designated to act as interpreter with the aliens and the only one who's supposed to have interaction with them. it's far future and it's really more complicated than *first* contact--it's more like second contact, although the contact between humans and aliens has existed for generations at her protagonist's time. but anyway, i love what she does with language and culture barriers and The Alien there, themewise, and i'm totally in love with her protagonist and his female alien love interest. i wouldn't call her a genius or anything, but that series is one of my very favourite print series.

and martin is one of those i never got around to reading. when i was younger i read more fantasy than sf, and before i caught up on the classics i started spending half my time reading slash. :)