Another level in dorkosity
I'd like to be able to say that I took my fandom to new levels of dorkdom on Sunday, but I don't think I can. I think the 80 hours of (free) work I put in on the Annals Kelsonus Nuptis Regni back in 2002 still remains my high water mark of dorky fandom. That said, I did get to do dorky fannish things on Sunday, as I was a Tower Guard for Brandon Sanderson and Harriet McDougal's Towers of Midnight signing at the Coop in Harvard Square.
For those not in the know, Tower Guards, like last year's Storm Leaders, are volunteers who helped keep the signing organized and fun, since a couple hundred or more people are a bit much for beleaguered bookstore employees to handle. So along with five like-minded souls, I was recruited via dragonmount.com to in the words of Palpatine, "Do what must be done." In my case, that was ask trivia questions and hand our prizes. So I wrote about a dozen questions, thinking some were really easy and some really difficult, with little in the middle. Turns out I was wrong; they were all very difficult. So I made up some other questions on the spot, and they were difficult too. Still had a lot of fun asking them, and plenty of people seemed to get a kick out of it, too. As I said at the time, my Wheel of Time trivia lived up to its name.
The other incredibly, awesomely cool part was having a half-hour or so lunch with Brandon Sanderson and Harriet McDougal before the signing started. Brandon is a very pleasant and accommodating person. He answered all of our questions with a smile and good grace, and despite being on a very tight schedule (train out of South Station at 7 after a signing at3 that was expected to last several hours), he made sure to take time to hang out with us and with people after the signing. And Harriet (RJ/Jim Rigney's widow) is just a wonderful, classy lady. She was limitless in her joy and enthusiasm at sharing time with Wheel of Time fans, and was just a classy, classy lady. So it was great to meet both of them, and if we really didn't find out plot-wise anything worth sharing here, well we had a lot of fun talking to them. And really, that's all that matters.
For those not in the know, Tower Guards, like last year's Storm Leaders, are volunteers who helped keep the signing organized and fun, since a couple hundred or more people are a bit much for beleaguered bookstore employees to handle. So along with five like-minded souls, I was recruited via dragonmount.com to in the words of Palpatine, "Do what must be done." In my case, that was ask trivia questions and hand our prizes. So I wrote about a dozen questions, thinking some were really easy and some really difficult, with little in the middle. Turns out I was wrong; they were all very difficult. So I made up some other questions on the spot, and they were difficult too. Still had a lot of fun asking them, and plenty of people seemed to get a kick out of it, too. As I said at the time, my Wheel of Time trivia lived up to its name.
The other incredibly, awesomely cool part was having a half-hour or so lunch with Brandon Sanderson and Harriet McDougal before the signing started. Brandon is a very pleasant and accommodating person. He answered all of our questions with a smile and good grace, and despite being on a very tight schedule (train out of South Station at 7 after a signing at3 that was expected to last several hours), he made sure to take time to hang out with us and with people after the signing. And Harriet (RJ/Jim Rigney's widow) is just a wonderful, classy lady. She was limitless in her joy and enthusiasm at sharing time with Wheel of Time fans, and was just a classy, classy lady. So it was great to meet both of them, and if we really didn't find out plot-wise anything worth sharing here, well we had a lot of fun talking to them. And really, that's all that matters.