AAW - That moment you met...

Susanna here, very excited to be hosting my first Ask-A-Wench post!

This month our question came from Kay Spears, who wrote:

I have a question for the group. Years ago I attended the Book Expo in Chicago I was overwhelmed and slightly catatonic from seeing all of my favorite authors. I remember watching a group of them from afar and spent a great deal of time trying to work up enough nerve to approach. I never did and yes, I did feel like a stalker. I finally did approach Mary Balogh, but that was only because I was standing in her line for a book signing. My question to you authors (since you are part of “celebrity/famous/whatever world”) is there an author out there who you were excited/flummoxed/nervous/ squealing/overwhelmed to meet or did you, like me, hide behind a book rack?

We had a lot of fun answering this question, and it’s no surprise that a Familiar Name came up a few times during our discussion…

Andrea/Cara:

When I wrote my first book, I had NO clue that there were organizations like RWA. The idea that there were big, national get-togethers where newbies like me could go mingle with Famous Authors was both exhilarating—and a little frightening. I felt like a total fraud as I registered for my first RWA Conference, which was in Washington DC that year, but nonetheless was full of fluttery excitement as I packed my bag and headed off. A big part of the thrill was the chance to hear Mary Jo Putney, who was the keynote speaker. Her books—so beautifully written and rich with complex characters—were such an inspiration to me. And so was her speech. (Mary Jo, to this day I still remember your very funny line about one of the great perks of a writer’s life was the fact one didn’t have to wear panty hose to work every day.)

Anyway, the lunch over, the crowd all flowed out to the hotel exit to get in line for cabs. As the afternoon was free, there was a LONG line, and after an inital flurry, the cabs slowed to a crawl, so there was big wait in between arrivals. I think I had decided to go the the Mall and visit some of the Smithsonian museums and was sort of daydreaming about that when I suddenly realized the voice right behind me sounded awfully familiar. I ventured a peek, and sure enough it was the Famous Author Mary Jo Putney and a companion, and I heard them mention that it was too bad that they were going to be very late for the meeting with an editor. So  there I am, standing and trying to decide whether to screw up my courage and interrupt them. I hyperventilate, I start to sweat bullets, and then finally . . .

I see my cab coming, so I act. Turning timidly, I say, “Oh, I’m in no hurry, you’re welcome to go ahead of me.” To which Mary Jo responded with a lovely smile and an “Are you sure?” I think I nodded and squeaked “yes!" as I wasn’t capable of any more complicated words. Again, another smile and profuse thanks. As she moved past me, she said, "are you an author, too?” I don’t remember replying . . . but I do know I spent the rest of the day basking in the glow of that smile and the fact that I had Exchanged Words with one of my idols.

 

Anne:

I well remember meeting Mary Jo Putney many years ago at my first Romance Writers of America conference, in Washington. It was at a publisher book signing -- the kind where they set up a bunch of authors in a room, and then open the doors to readers for an hour, or until the books run out. I wasn't yet published in the US, but my friend Isolde Martyn was signing in the same room, and each author had to collect and unpack their own books and set them up, so I was helping Isolde. At the next table was a friendly dark-haired woman in a gorgeous black jacket with Chinese-style embroidery, also fetching and unpacking books. When we'd finished and had time to draw breath, Isolde introduced us.

"OMG," I said. "Mary Jo Putney!!! One of your books is an all-time favorite of mine."

"Really?" she said. "Which one?"

I instantly went blank on the title. And practically died of embarrassment.

"Tell me the story," she said kindly.

In deep mortification, I frantically imagined my keeper shelf, decided I had it wrong -- that the intense, sexy book I was thinking of, with the dark, exotic setting, wasn't written by this friendly smiling lady -- who was MARY JO PUTNEY! -- and proceeded to describe a book about a con-man who pretended to be blind and a con-woman who pretended to be a nun.

"Oh yes, that's a good one," Mary Jo said. "It's by my friend, Pat Gaffney."

Upon which I tried to dissolve into the floor.

Mary Jo's book, the title of which I went blank on, was Veils of Silk. 
The Patricia Gaffney book was Crooked Hearts. 


Mary Jo here. 
 
All authors begin as readers, so of course we can freak out when we meet writers whose work we love!  If I were to meet Patricia Briggs, for example, I'd surely turn into a babbling fan girl.  There are others. <G>  
 
In real life, the most dramatic might have been when I met the wonderful historical novelist Judith Merkle Riley at a Novelist, Inc. conference in Vancouver.  Her mostly medieval books are hard to describe: very witty, superbly researched, and extremely accessible because of the wry humor.  I particularly like her Margaret of Ashbury trilogy, but I digress.  
 
In person, Judith was a friendly and low key professor who was bemused to be instantly surrounded by a gaggle of adoring historical writers who followed her around like imprinted goslings.  <G>  She didn’t go to many conferences and didn't realize how she was revered.  I hung out with her whenever I could, and hardly even minded when I got a beastly cold from her.  
 
Long before I met her in person, I'd named a stray kitten Merkle in a Christmas novella, "The Christmas Tart." It was a very nice kitten who got an HEA, too.  <G>
 
I interviewed Judith later for the Wenches and she was literate and delightful.  It was an honor to have met her.

Pat Rice:

I was living in rural KY when I was first published. I had devoured every Regency romance on my library’s shelves because there were no bookstores. I’d never met an author or been to a book signing. There were no RWA chapters. So my first star struck encounter with a Real Author was at a writer’s conference. That’s right, I was published before I ever met an author. I was sitting in a business meeting with all these perfectly ordinary people who I knew were writers, because this was a writers’ only conference. I’d met several names I didn’t recognize because they wrote contemporary and not Regency. Apparently Regency writers are elusive creatures.

Joan Wolf

And then I heard two women talking in the row behind me. They were discussing horses, if I remember correctly. I don’t know why I was so entranced by their conversation—probably because business meetings bore me. I heard one of them call the other Edith. Now “Edith” is not a name used widely, and my ears perked up, because Edith Layton was one of my all-time favorite Regency writers. I heard someone else refer to “Joan” and Joan Wolf was another of my heroines. I couldn’t resist it, I had to turn and check their name tags.

And sure enough, two perfectly sensible looking women—well, Edith had this full head of gorgeous red hair spilling everywhere like Medusa—sat behind me, just gossiping like any other women anywhere. And there they were, my idols. No way I could introduce myself. But the revelation that the names on a library shelf were real people, just like me, turned my head completely around.

 

Susanna, back again. I think the only time I haven’t made a fool of myself when meeting an author I like and admire was in 2009, when my book The Winter Sea was shortlisted for the RNA’s Romantic Novel of the Year award in the U.K.

It was my first time meeting anyone in the RNA (Romantic Novelists’ Association) and I was jetlagged and happy and having a wonderful time. I was taken to lunch at a lovely Italian restaurant, sitting with Katie Fforde on one side of me and a writer named Anne on the other side.

All through lunch, Anne and I talked about movies and books and a hundred and one other things, and we just had the best conversation. She left the table before I did, but because I’ve found that, when I really like a person’s company, I tend to also really like their books, I made a point of asking Katie Fforde if she could tell me, please, what Anne’s last name was, so that I could look her novels up and read them.

“Ashurst,” I was told. Then, “You might know her by her pen name: Sara Craven.”

I might know her? From my mid-teens on, I’d had a love of Harlequin Presents. I had (still have) a shelf of favourite titles by my few most favourite authors—those whose books, for me, were auto-buys. And one of these was Sara Craven.

If I’d known who I was sitting next to, I don’t think I’d have been able to say anything coherent. So I’m thankful that I didn’t know, because instead of babbling like an idiot I got to make a halfway good impression on a writer I revered.

Now that you’ve read about our “fangirl” moments, we’ll ask the same thing of you: Is there anyone you’ve met in your own life who left you flummoxed? Or is there any author you would be excited/nervous/squealing over, if you did meet?

For sending us this question, Kay wins a signed copy of my most recent book, A DESPERATE FORTUNE. Thanks, Kay, for this very fun Ask-A-Wench session!

Happy reading, and may all your future encounters with authors be memorable (in a good way!) and relaxed.

Comments

[Kathy Lynn Emerson]

I've babbled like a fool to favorite authors in more than one genre. At Elizabeth Peters in mystery, Jayne Ann Krentz in romance and Sharon Kay Penman in historicals. I went blank on the title when I tried to tell Sharon how much I liked The Sunne in Splendor and ended up telling her I loved Crowne in Candlelight instead (by Rosemary Hawley Jarman). Not my finest moment. Fortunately later meetings with all three went much more smoothly.

[Linda Manwiller]

The three authors I was most impressed with (none of which, unfortunately were of the Wench variety)I saw at the National Book Festival in Washington, D. C. These were David McCullough, Lee Child, and Lois McMaster Bujold (who is a big Georgette Heyer fan). I also remember standing in line for over two hours for Terry Pratchett's autograph - only to be forced to leave in order to catch my bus home! That was a major disappointment for me!

[Miriam Bresticker]

Many many many years ago, when I was in college, Isaac Asimov came to speak, and afterwards he signed books. I brought one of his memoirs, and he said I must have already known all of his jokes. the only other thing I remember is that during his presentation, he sang, to the tune of Home on the Range, "Clone, clone of my own, with its own X and Y chromosome...."
My mom got to meet Roberta Gellis when she spoke at our library.

[Nancy L Gessner]

I used to 'haunt ' book signings'. I met Mary Higgins Clark and Carol Higgins Clark twice great ladies. Erma Bombeck who was a very tiny little lady despite what she wrote about being fat! Chris Van Alsburg signed a first edition of "The NorthPole Express" before anyone seemed to know who he was. I waited for Bob Hope in the rain and he proved to be very funny indeed. I found out that Edith Layton lived not far from me and frequented a local used book store that I went to but never had the chance to meet her. I love following the Word Wenches. Please keep the books coming!

[Dana Selkirk]

By the time I went to my first writers conference, I'd heard so many stories of "what not to do" that I was too timid to approach any published authors because I worried about bothering them or coming off as pushy. I just don't want to be that gal/guy, you know?

So, I was sitting in a big fluffy chair in the hotel lobby and reading a book on my smartphone when a woman plopped into the chair across from me and struck up a conversation. We'd been talking for quite a while before I realized she was Christine Feehan, whose books I'd read for years. Any time she ran into me in the halls after that she'd say hi and ask how I was enjoying the conference. Just the kindest, most welcoming person, and to someone she didn't know all.

It's embarrassing to me now that I never did say how much I'd enjoyed her books. :-/ Kind of ridiculous, really, to have had such trouble with that.

Fortunately, I'm not that little mouse of a person anymore. :-)

[Anne Gracie]

Hah, Kathy, I completely understand your boo-boo. *g*

[Anne Gracie]

Linda, you've named several of my favorite authors. Don't know David McCullough, but judging by the company he keeps maybe I need to buy one of his books.

[Susan/DC]

Several years ago the RWA conference was in Washington DC so I got to go to the open book sale/signing on the first day. Several of the Wenches were there, and I think I helped make Julia Quinn's day when I said I'd very much enjoyed her "Mr. Cavendish, I Presume" because it turned the lost heir trope on its head. I was so very impressed with how gracious the Wenches were despite the crowds, and MJP guessed that I was Susan/DC from a comment I made to her. It was one of the Best Events Ever -- I left floating on Cloud 9, and if RWA is ever in DC I will definitely make it a point to go again.

[Virginia Taylor]

Ha ha, that's funny. I had lunch with Nora Roberts and I hadn't read any of her books. Back then she was a smoker and so was I so I was told by the non smokers to take her somewhere to have a cigarette. I would rather have died because I didn't know what to say to her. She understood, apparently, and she asked me who my favourite author was. I cleared my throat and said Patricia Gaffney and mentioned Crooked Hearts. She discussed the story with me and told me that Patricia was a very good friend of hers. The worst moment in my life, kindly smoothed over by a lovely woman.

[Karin]

I went to the book signing/sale at the Historical Romance Retreat in Spokane last fall, my very first time to meet some of the writers whose books I have been reading for decades. And there were a lot of them there, they had an amazing lineup of authors. I was pretty much awestruck, and wandering around in a daze. My mind went blank at least once when I tried to tell an author about my favorite book of hers-I think it was Madeline Hunter, and the book was By Arrangement(of course I remember it now). But the most amazing of all was to chat with Mary Balogh. She was so charming and lovely, and made me feel like we were friends.
But the most famouse author I've ever met? That would be James Baldwin, and it wasn't at a book signing, it was at a bar in the Upper West Side neighborhood of Manhattan.

[Janice]

Most of the writers I've met or known have been science fiction writers. I have met several demigods of that genre and was I impressed? Yes and no. When they weren't talking about something interesting to me, they were just very ordinary guys. But at least they didn't bore on about football or politix or bebig themselves in my presence. I think the only ones who really impressed me were J. Michael Straczynski, Harlan Ellison, Larry Niven and Fred Pohl, because they treated me like a person, not just a(nother) fan.

I think the only romance writer I've spent more than a passing moment with is our own Anne Gracie. I had met Anne at a Heyer group tea back in the day, when she was just getting started, and had somehow stayed in touch. It's been a pleasure to follow her career and see her getting even better with each new book. I had the pleasure of having dinner with her a few months ago when she was passing through LA. We had a great conversation, and I hope she enjoyed the evening as much as I did.

[Anne Gracie]

Thanks so much, Janice. That original afternoon tea of the LA Heyer group was such a treat for me -- on my way to my first-ever RWAmerica conference, where my first book was a finalists in the RITA for best first book. All the Heyerites were so kind, and I wanted to give each of them a book, but alas, I only had one copy to give away.
And that dinner we had in LA last year was lovely. I'm so pleased we've been able to stay in touch all this time.

[Nicola Cornick]

I absolutely love these stories of fan moments! I've become tongue-tied over favourite authors more times than I can count. The most memorable was Michael Wood, the historian, whom I met at a literary festival and blurted out that he had been influential in making me want to study history. Fortunately I didn't mention how great he had looked in his first TV series in his leather jacket and that our tutors scheduled his programmes at 8am and he was the only person we would get out of bed that early for! He was absolutely charming to me and it was good to discover he was as lovely as he seemed to be!

[Sue McCormick]

As a copy editor and a long time Science fiction fan, I have always been aware that authors were people. (Also, I was a daughter of one of the best known elementary school principals in St. Louis — my father had standing in both the city and the state educational area), so I grew up with the "child of a prominant" awestruck meetings. This has saved me from much of the scenes you you have spoken of.

However (and all SF), picture fans (including a newly published author) weary at the end of a convention, in an elevator going out to pack up the car, so as to clear up the room. A voice calls out "Hold that elevator." We do, and man and wife join us. Dead silence, the door holder forgetting to release the button. As most veteran, I recovered first. I choked out "Good Morning, Dr. Asimov" and he told us how happy he was about the new "respectability" SF was gaining in the main stream.

Story 2, at another Lunacon (NYC convention). I was telling the guest of honor about a conversation at my job, when I set to a temporary worker, "Oh do you know Ch- — I don't know Mr Delany" and he graciously said, you can call me "Chip" any time you like.

And prior to these, the author I DID NOT meet. Bob and I were on the planning committee for the St. Louis convention (Archon) and working very hard on it (as all committees do) when my job was moved from St. Louis to New York. I had lots of seniority, and so could have vacationed in time to return for Archon, but my husband had a brand new job, and so no vacation time. So we neither one of attended the ONLY science fiction convention Stephen King ever attended! The author we never met. (Besides, it was Bob who read Stephen King, not me.)

[Sue McCormick]

*...said to a ..."

[Susanna Kearsley]

Yes, Kathy, like Anne said, we all understand this one (and most of us have done it, too!) I'm particularly bad at remembering titles.

[Susanna Kearsley]

Meeting Terry Pratchett would have been wonderful -- I feel your disappointment in that one.

But I'm glad the other three met expectations!

[Susanna Kearsley]

...and now I'VE got that song stuck in my head, too :-)

Along with a song Asimov included in his novel "Caves of Steel", in which the humans taunt the alien "Spacers" with a racist song set to the tune of "Mademoiselle from Armentières" (the old song with the "Hinky Dinky Parlez-Vous" refrain), which I've had stuck in my brain for coming on forty years now.

Evidently it was a particular skill of Asimov's :-)

[Susanna Kearsley]

Nancy, those all sound like great author encounters! And no embarrassing incidents, either. Well done, you!

[Susanna Kearsley]

Dana, it's always nice to find out that someone whose stories you love is a really nice person on top of it all, isn't it?

Thanks for sharing this.

[Susanna Kearsley]

Susan, I don't know when RWA will be in DC again, but in 2019, from July 24-27, it's going to be in New York City, and that's only a few hours away from you by train: https://www.amtrak.com/alternative-to-buses-new-york-city-washington-dc-train

So hopefully we'll get to see you there!

[Susanna Kearsley]

Virginia, every story I hear about Nora is a good one! In New Orleans a couple of years ago I was supposed to meet a friend in the conference hotel lobby for late night drinks, only the event I was at was running late so my friend ended up having to wait all alone in the lobby.

I felt bad about this and was worried, but when I finally managed to get there, I found she wasn't alone at all -- Nora Roberts and HER friend had spotted my friend sitting all on her own, and they'd gone over and were keeping her company.

There was quite the party going on around my friend when I arrived. And I, of course, had missed it all :-)

[Susanna Kearsley]

Karin, meeting James Baldwin in a Manhattan bar is a hard one to top, I think!

Thanks for sharing all this with us.

[Susanna Kearsley]

Janice, we love Anne, too!

She's a wonderful person (and writer).

[Susanna Kearsley]

Ha!

I loved Michael Wood and his leather jacket too, back in the day!

He definitely made history more...interesting...for me :-)

[Susanna Kearsley]

Sue, I would have loved to have been in that elevator with you.

My American agent is Shawna McCarthy, who also worked with Isaac Asimov, and one day I plan to buy her a big round of drinks and just hear all her stories.

[Anne Gracie]

Susan, I don't know if we met at that conference or not — I think I was there -- but if you or any other Wenchly Readers ever meet a wench, please let us know you're a regular reader of the blog. We'd be thrilled to meet you in person.