Visit with Lady Dragon...
Sep. 1st, 2004 04:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
senoritafishYes, I did get to see Anne McCaffrey and her son Todd last Friday night at the Barnes & Marmoset in Huntington Beach. The ad for it had said a reading and discussion as well as a book signing. I don't have her latest, so I grabbed a few favorites off my bookshelf (rather dusty ones at that), and after helping John gather some clothes for Avalon and get her dressed to go to her grandmother's (she was going to spend the night and go with her to the Aquarium of the Pacific for her birthday), I took off, thinking I was going to be too late to hear anything.
I haven't actually read anything of hers for quite a while, but I loved her Pern books. I would've liked to meet her if only for them. I have a tiny silver dragon hanging from a chain around my neck that I seldom take off, a gift from my mother that's very special to me.
When I got there, I realized there were far too many people for a sit-down listening session. There were several hundred people in line already; the end of the queue snaked around through the stacks and at the front, it turned back and forth, amusement park style. It turned out Anne and Todd were running half an hour late; we in the back could tell they'd arrived because of the applause at the front of the line.
This was quite a diverse group of people. Old, young, parents who had brought kids, older guys who appeared to be ex-marines (if their mode of dress was to be believed). The guy directly behind me was a fiftyish marathon runner who had been to each of her signings here in southern California, and told me Anne had invited him for tea, which he planned to take her up on when he went to Ireland for a marathon there. The guy behind him was a older tech guy, who was very knowledgeable, but didn't realize he was bordering on being overbearing. He began talking about anime to the people behind him, and started an ethical debate with the girl in the family behind him on whether the wolves killing the townspeople or the town destroying the forest in Princess Mononoke was right or wrong. At that point, I butted out until he changed the subject.
When we finally arrived at the table after nearly two hours of standing in line, Ms. McCaffrey looked tired, but not much different than her photo in the back of the book jacket of Damia's Children(1993), which I'd brought with me. She looked at the post-it with my name on it, and told me she used to use my name as a nickname in high school - "I got bored with plain Anne," she said, "and went by Leeanne until I went to college. Then I started using Anne again."
They were gracious enough to pose for a picture - they had a store employee there just for that purpose - and Ms. McCaffrey was amazed this woman managed to figure out how to work everyone's cameras.
With the amount of people who showed up for this signing, I felt bad for Sean Russell who came a while ago. He came all the way down from Vancouver only to have a dozen people show. However, in a way, it was kind of nice for us because it gave those of us who did come more opportunity to ask questions and chat with him.
I haven't actually read anything of hers for quite a while, but I loved her Pern books. I would've liked to meet her if only for them. I have a tiny silver dragon hanging from a chain around my neck that I seldom take off, a gift from my mother that's very special to me.
When I got there, I realized there were far too many people for a sit-down listening session. There were several hundred people in line already; the end of the queue snaked around through the stacks and at the front, it turned back and forth, amusement park style. It turned out Anne and Todd were running half an hour late; we in the back could tell they'd arrived because of the applause at the front of the line.
This was quite a diverse group of people. Old, young, parents who had brought kids, older guys who appeared to be ex-marines (if their mode of dress was to be believed). The guy directly behind me was a fiftyish marathon runner who had been to each of her signings here in southern California, and told me Anne had invited him for tea, which he planned to take her up on when he went to Ireland for a marathon there. The guy behind him was a older tech guy, who was very knowledgeable, but didn't realize he was bordering on being overbearing. He began talking about anime to the people behind him, and started an ethical debate with the girl in the family behind him on whether the wolves killing the townspeople or the town destroying the forest in Princess Mononoke was right or wrong. At that point, I butted out until he changed the subject.
When we finally arrived at the table after nearly two hours of standing in line, Ms. McCaffrey looked tired, but not much different than her photo in the back of the book jacket of Damia's Children(1993), which I'd brought with me. She looked at the post-it with my name on it, and told me she used to use my name as a nickname in high school - "I got bored with plain Anne," she said, "and went by Leeanne until I went to college. Then I started using Anne again."
They were gracious enough to pose for a picture - they had a store employee there just for that purpose - and Ms. McCaffrey was amazed this woman managed to figure out how to work everyone's cameras.
With the amount of people who showed up for this signing, I felt bad for Sean Russell who came a while ago. He came all the way down from Vancouver only to have a dozen people show. However, in a way, it was kind of nice for us because it gave those of us who did come more opportunity to ask questions and chat with him.
