Boil me in lead, she's back before breakfast!
Yesterday work was completely intolerable. That's because it was an impediment to the single greatest event of my life...in the past year at least. I got to meet Emma Bull and Will Shetterly.
After a slow day with me annoying everyone by bouncing around the store, Ryan picked me up around 5:30. I was deathly afraid that traffic would be horrible, but it was a total breeze. I guess God is a Will & Emma fan too.
We had enough time to stop by my place, which was good since I had crashed at Anabelle's the night before and wanted a change of socks. I grabbed my books to be signed and we sauntered down to the University Bookstore. We were plenty early; there were just a few people there, but by the time it got going there was a sizable crowd.
Emma came out first and played and sang a few songs; I had anticipated this because Will mentioned it in his blog, but I had been hoping she'd play her own songs. Instead, she played a few Western-y songs, since her new book is a retelling of the gunfight at the OK Corral.
Will came out then and read a bit from the beginning of his new book, The Gospel of the Knife. I love that title, because it sounds completely like a high fantasy novel, but it's not. As he put it, "According to James Frey's terms, it's a memoir." It sounded interesting, and I'm quite eager to read it...although, I admit, slightly less eager than I am to read Emma's.
Emma came back and read a bit of the first chapter to her new book, Territory. Marvelous, of course, and I want to read it right now. I didn't buy either book, however, because I'm really trying to finish my own story, and I can't get anything written if my head is in someone else's world. They'll just have to wait.
They fielded some questions then, about their books and writing as a craft and why they moved to Arizona from Minnesota etc etc. Emma also mentioned in the course of one answer that her next project was going to be to develop a novel based on the short story she wrote for Terri Windling and Ellen Datlow's Green Man anthology, "Joshua Tree." Some of the questions were boring, some interesting, and finally I got the balls up to ask them one. I asked what often comes to them first: a character, a setting, a thread of the plot. They answered, I admit, as I predicted they would: that it varies from project to project. Will mentioned Cats Have No Lord in his answer, and I suddenly really wanted to ask him how he justified ripping off an entire scene from The Princess Bride in that book, but we ran out of time. Let's face it, I had dozens of questions to ask them, dozens, but I was too geeked to think of them.
The signing line went by quickly, and I got Will to sign my copy of Elsewhere ("Huzzah!") and Emma to sign the first edition copy of War For the Oaks that I picked up recently ("Rock 'n' roll!"). I mentioned how Elsewhere was responsible for me meeting one of my best friends, and Will was delighted. I also gave them the cookies I had baked just for them (The Topless Cowboys recipe that Erin, Mary and I made up), and Emma was ecstatic. She bemoaned that she wouldn't be able to taste them right away, lest her fingers get greasy and mess up peoples' books. I hope they enjoyed them...God, I am such a geek.
Ryan asked me afterwards if it had been "all that you hoped for and more," and it was. They were both completely and totally awesome, and I am as lunch have gotten the chance to meet them. I found out recently that they do correspondence writing workshops, where you mail them your book/story/screenplay/etc, and they both critique it and send you feedback. I am going to start saving money now so I can hopefully afford to have them do it when my story is finished. The $300 per novel price tag is intimidating, but maybe they'll cut me a deal since it's really a short novella...or a long short story, I haven't decided. Either way, I am certain now that it would be worth it.
Now I'm off to work, and when I get off at 10 Ryan and I are going to Borders to witness the insanity. It is a complete coincidence that I wore my blue and silver Ravenclaw tie today...no, really...*cough*
After a slow day with me annoying everyone by bouncing around the store, Ryan picked me up around 5:30. I was deathly afraid that traffic would be horrible, but it was a total breeze. I guess God is a Will & Emma fan too.
We had enough time to stop by my place, which was good since I had crashed at Anabelle's the night before and wanted a change of socks. I grabbed my books to be signed and we sauntered down to the University Bookstore. We were plenty early; there were just a few people there, but by the time it got going there was a sizable crowd.
Emma came out first and played and sang a few songs; I had anticipated this because Will mentioned it in his blog, but I had been hoping she'd play her own songs. Instead, she played a few Western-y songs, since her new book is a retelling of the gunfight at the OK Corral.
Will came out then and read a bit from the beginning of his new book, The Gospel of the Knife. I love that title, because it sounds completely like a high fantasy novel, but it's not. As he put it, "According to James Frey's terms, it's a memoir." It sounded interesting, and I'm quite eager to read it...although, I admit, slightly less eager than I am to read Emma's.
Emma came back and read a bit of the first chapter to her new book, Territory. Marvelous, of course, and I want to read it right now. I didn't buy either book, however, because I'm really trying to finish my own story, and I can't get anything written if my head is in someone else's world. They'll just have to wait.
They fielded some questions then, about their books and writing as a craft and why they moved to Arizona from Minnesota etc etc. Emma also mentioned in the course of one answer that her next project was going to be to develop a novel based on the short story she wrote for Terri Windling and Ellen Datlow's Green Man anthology, "Joshua Tree." Some of the questions were boring, some interesting, and finally I got the balls up to ask them one. I asked what often comes to them first: a character, a setting, a thread of the plot. They answered, I admit, as I predicted they would: that it varies from project to project. Will mentioned Cats Have No Lord in his answer, and I suddenly really wanted to ask him how he justified ripping off an entire scene from The Princess Bride in that book, but we ran out of time. Let's face it, I had dozens of questions to ask them, dozens, but I was too geeked to think of them.
The signing line went by quickly, and I got Will to sign my copy of Elsewhere ("Huzzah!") and Emma to sign the first edition copy of War For the Oaks that I picked up recently ("Rock 'n' roll!"). I mentioned how Elsewhere was responsible for me meeting one of my best friends, and Will was delighted. I also gave them the cookies I had baked just for them (The Topless Cowboys recipe that Erin, Mary and I made up), and Emma was ecstatic. She bemoaned that she wouldn't be able to taste them right away, lest her fingers get greasy and mess up peoples' books. I hope they enjoyed them...God, I am such a geek.
Ryan asked me afterwards if it had been "all that you hoped for and more," and it was. They were both completely and totally awesome, and I am as lunch have gotten the chance to meet them. I found out recently that they do correspondence writing workshops, where you mail them your book/story/screenplay/etc, and they both critique it and send you feedback. I am going to start saving money now so I can hopefully afford to have them do it when my story is finished. The $300 per novel price tag is intimidating, but maybe they'll cut me a deal since it's really a short novella...or a long short story, I haven't decided. Either way, I am certain now that it would be worth it.
Now I'm off to work, and when I get off at 10 Ryan and I are going to Borders to witness the insanity. It is a complete coincidence that I wore my blue and silver Ravenclaw tie today...no, really...*cough*