Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

What author(s) have you met Who would you like to meet?

It counts if you just had them sign a book at a reading but maybe you have more of a story as well.

I’ve met a few local NM authors including Vaunda Micheaux Nelson, Jennifer Bohnhoff, and Reese Hogan. I would like to meet Cuban author Yoss. I’ve only read one of his books but it was the most unusual and creative science fiction I’ve ever read! Kazuo Ishiguro would be another choice. I would want to read a few more of their books first!

I met Sarah Vowell and instead of a book I had her sign my Incredibles dvd! I've also met and gotten books signed by Mindy McGinnis, Marieke Nijkamp, Cinda Williams Chima, and Lisa Maxwell as well as a few local poets.

I would LOVE to meet Kate Quinn, Craig Schaefer, and P. Djèlí Clark.

I was on vacation with my family in Seattle and my sister and I decided to go see the Seattle Public Library while my parents were visiting some friends. While we were wandering around the very cool building, we saw a flyer for an Ann Leckie reading/Q&A that happened to be that very evening! So of course we immediately decided that we had to stay for it and now I have a signed copy of The Raven Tower.

The only other book signing I've been to was when I was in 7th grade and my school got Tamora Pierce to come for a Lunchbox Meeting where she read a little from one of her books during a lunch period. I didn't know who she was but my school librarian encouraged me to come (shoutout to school librarians!) and I spent the tiny amount of allowance I had to get a signed copy of Sandry's Book that I let my little sister borrow and she then ruined it by getting it soaked in her backpack during a bad storm. I have (mostly) forgiven her. Tamora Pierce has since become one of my childhood forever favorites and I think my adult reading life would be very different if I hadn't gone to that lunch reading.

Most of the authors I've met have been SF/Fantasy. My favourite book signing was a few years ago at Forbidden Planet in London, where Charles Stross, Benedict Jacka and Kate Griffin (aka Catherine Webb and Claire North) - three of the best London Urban Fantasy authors - were all at the same event. Another really good speaker was Ben Aaronovitch, who I got to see at a Q&A for one of the Rivers of London books, and then he did a signing after. I also met Fonda Lee at a Jade City release talk, so I felt a bit guilty later, when I didn't really enjoy the book.

Other than that, I've talked to a few at the couple of World Science Fiction conventions I've attended. The two I'd like to meet but haven't crossed paths with are Jodi Taylor (Chronicles of St Mary's), and Jasper Fforde (Thursday Next).

The most recent author I had the privilege to meet was George Takei - I saw his musical Allegiance, and he was part of the cast signing after, having made his London stage debut at the grand old age of 85! He was lovely.

I met Madeline Miller at a literary event and we had a brief chat about how I'd been introduced to Song of Achilles via a Goodreads book group (not AtY sadly!) and the same group was about to read Circe, which had recently been released. She signed my copy of Circe and wrote a dedication to the whole book group in it, which I photographed to share with everyone else. She was really very lovely.

I've met far more stand-up comedians than I have authors though, mostly because comedians often hang out at their own merch table after their show. I have a signed copy of A Book for Her from meeting Bridget Christie after one of her stand-up shows - I actually bought a second-hand copy of the book just so she could sign it, because I'd originally listened to it on Audible.

I have been at author events for Alexander McCall Smith, John Scalzi and (before the TV show) George R. R. Martin. One of the few good things about Covid was that I attended multiple online interviews/readings with authors, including Anthony Horowitz and Kazuo Ishiguro, but those don't count as "meeting"

I went to college with Patricia Wrede and I remember her telling me in 1972 that fantasy/sci-fi was a good field for a woman author (though there were very few at the time) because it was all about different views of society, humanity, etc.

I haven't ever really met an author. When I was in elementary school, Cynthia C. DeFelice came and spoke to the whole school. We had read her book Weasel, which I remember really liking, but I don't remember any details. I should reread it. (I wonder if she's been back around, Weasel is checked out of every local library. Oh! She lives an hour away from me! I never knew that! No wonder she came to our school.)

My local library had Jay Asher come speak several years ago. It was before Thirteen Reasons Why had been made into a show. I had a horrid migraine, but I dragged myself to it. I wasn't feeling well enough to speak with him as I could barely string two thoughts together, but he was engaging to listen to.

Robin, you reminded me that I also went to college with an author! Demitria Lunetta has written a couple of books, I have a copy of In the After, but I haven't read it yet. I'm sucha slacker!

Jennifer W wrote: "Robin, you reminded me that I also went to college with an author! Demitria Lunetta has written a couple of books, I have a copy of In the After, but I haven't read it yet. I'm sucha slacker!"

Ah! She and Mindy McGinnis and Kate Karyus Quinn are BFFs and have written several books together! Thanks for the reminder that I need to get to those.

Ashley Marie wrote: "Jennifer W wrote: "Robin, you reminded me that I also went to college with an author! Demitria Lunetta has written a couple of books, I have a copy of In the After, but I haven't read it yet. I'm s..."

I had no idea! I have books by both of them on my TBR, too.

I met Ben Aaronovitch at an author talk and
Jasper Fforde at a book signing. I would love to have met Jane Austen Ta-Nehisi Coates Amor Towles

I had the privilege of meeting Howard Zinn at an event a few years before he passed away and he signed my copy of People's History of the United States: 1492-Present. A lovely man.

I’ve also had encounters with various authors at science fiction conventions, my favorites being Neil Gaiman, who does beautiful little drawings next to his signature, Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, who are full of excellent facts about cat whiskers, and George R.R. Martin, who wrote “The sequel is coming!” in my copy of A Feast for Crows 4 years before A Dance with Dragons was finally published.

My least favorite encounter was with Harlan Ellison, who yelled at my sister when she asked him to sign a Babylon 5 item (he was credited as a creative consultant on the show) because he only wanted to sign the things he was selling at the convention himself.

I met Seanan McGuire at a tiny convention here in Denver a few years back. She was a delight. I was my usual socially awkward self. (No major embarrassments; just tongue tied.)

Has anyone met Stephen King?
I ask because I always fear that we look up to these great authors, and they may end up to be rude.

He's my favorite author, and I would love to meet him one day.

I was able to meet Mitch Albom at an author's event and Patricia Polacco at a teacher's event. Both were amazing to listen to.

I would love to meet Jim Butcher!

Kristin wrote: "Has anyone met Stephen King?
I ask because I always fear that we look up to these great authors, and they may end up to be rude.

He's my favorite author, and I would love to meet him one day."

I too am always worried that famous people would be disappointing in reality. I would love to be invited to dinner with Stephen King at his mansion in Maine.

I also think Octavia E. Butler would have been interesting to talk to and think I might enjoy Neil Gaiman.

The only authors I have met was my grandmother June Gutmanis who wasn't famous outside of some Hawaiian history circles and I played a online war game with Leeah Taylor but never have never met in the real world.

Kristin wrote: "Has anyone met Stephen King?
I ask because I always fear that we look up to these great authors, and they may end up to be rude.

He's my favorite author, and I would love to meet him one day."

Many years ago- he used to be in a band with other writers and they performed at a fundraiser for a literacy charity I helped organize. He was really nice!

I always say don't meet your heroes- I've had some disappointments over the years, but everyone has a bad day so I won't tell people if someone was a jerk!

I just left a job and a coworker's aunt is a best-selling author and she's so nice! I didn't know she was her until we were discussing a book I just read and she said she would tell her "we share a publicist." Then I quickly did a "oh, she has the same name as the author because she is the author"

My book group met with local author M.K. Wren after we discussed her book A Gift Upon the Shore and had a nice chat about her writing process.

I also met Lauren Kessler after a reading of her book Stubborn Twig: Three Generations in the Life of a Japanese Family and we talked about families that have deep roots in the Pacific Northwest, like my family - my great-grandparents homesteaded in Washington in the early 20th century.

Do you count people you knew before they wrote their books? I had a coworker who wrote & published several science fiction novels after he retired.

Kristin wrote: "Has anyone met Stephen King?
I ask because I always fear that we look up to these great authors, and they may end up to be rude.

He's my favorite author, and I would love to meet him one day."

Same! I just found out that I have a two degrees separation from him through my cousin. Let's just that there was a lot good said about him as a person. So, that made my day. I really hope to meet him someday!

Summer Reading is over here at the library so I'm just now catching up with some stuff here.

I have met Lawrence Block a couple of times (if you want more details you can read my blog). He's one of the best.

And I met Mark Childress in Huntsville at a Books-A-Million when his book Georgia Bottoms was published. I was disappointed that he didn't do a reading, but he was nice and I enjoyed seeing him in person.

I met a little known author named Zara Raheem when she attended a discussion of her book The Marriage Clock at an author events business near my house.

The same business also brought in Liza Palmer (Conversations With the Fat Girl, the Nobodies)...she was hilarious and it was cool to see her geek out because she had just returned from a panel where she got sit by Diana Gabaldon

Abbi Waxman (the Bookish Life of Nina Hill) attended by book club via Zoom when we discussed her book the Garden of Small Beginnings...she was also hilarious and gracious about attending our club. She stayed on the call an hour!

One of my book club attendees is friends with the author of the Night Tiger, Yangtze Choo, and she also agreed to attend out club through Zoom

My local indie bookstore has MANY author events and I attend several each year.

A couple of years ago I was asked to be the interviewer for an author event sponsored (and a small fundraiser) by the Milwaukee Public Library, and coordinated by the bookstore. The author was Anthony Horowitz and it was in conjunction with the publication of his (at that time) latest book - Moonflower Murders. I hadn't read any of his books when I agreed and it was really last minute; I had maybe a week to prepare. The book hadn't even been released yet, but the bookstore owner delivered a copy to me as soon as he got the shipment from the publishers. No way I could read all of it in time, so I asked my Goodreads friends for some help in terms of questions to ask. (Thanks, again, RobinP!) I also looked at a number of interviews he'd given which I found online. In one he commented how he hates being asked the same questions over and over. So I saved a surprise question for last ...

On his website I noticed a lovely baby grand piano in the background and I asked him if he played? It was his mother's piano; she had been a concert pianist and taught him how to play. He told me (and our audience) that he played every day in her memory. We could have talked for another hour about his piano playing but we were out of time.

Afterwards the president of the Library Friends assoc asked me how long I had known Anthony! She said we had such an easy rapport she was certain we'd met before. We "met" (via zoom) exactly 20 minutes before the live stream session began.