Tuesday, March 10, 2009

My Ears are Burning

Pat Elrod stumbled upon this blog and put up a lovely livejournal post linking back here and reminiscing about some time we spent together in the aftermath of a con. (I'm pretty sure it was a Forever Knight event.) I can't comment on her post without joining LJ, so I'm hoping she has a Google alert on her own name that will lead her to this post. I'm I'm glad to know that my link is helping people find and enjoy the new Highlander minisode, and always enjoy the ongoing reunion of acquaintanceship that is enabled by virtual space. Earlier today I exchanged Facebook messages with a writer of Star Wars RPG's, whom I'd met at conventions years ago and remember fondly. (Although by "today" I guess I technically mean "yesterday" -- as always when on deadline, I reverse my nights and days, writing long past midnight and sleeping past noon.)

5 comments:

Unknown said...

She mentions Boston and, IIRC, you were both at the second Dead of Winter. (The one where we were effectively snowed into the hotel all weekend.) So I'm guessing it was that.

It rather blows my mind to think how long ago that all was!

Anonymous said...

Howdy!

:waving REAL LOUD:

Nice to touch base again, it's been TOO long!

And I can't pinpoint the year, just 97 or 98. I know it was not Dead Of Winter, but another one in the same area. Byrnes had a concert, I was up front in the catbird seats, and found out that Nigel Bennett can DANCE. (Not with me, but some other lady who could actually keep up with him.)

The Highlander crew were all there along with Nigel, Natsuko Ohama, and John Kapelos. Nigel and I were working on our second novel, and he gave a reading from the first. Forever Knight was still on as I hadn't seen the last episode and had to put my fingers in my ears when he answered questions on it.

I recall getting Rachel Caine (she wrote as Roxanne Conrad then) out of the hotel room to come down to the autograph line.

Someone had put me next to Peter Wingfield, and nice as it was, I knew Rox would get a bigger kick out of it, cause she's terminal about the man. Our room was half a mile away at the other end of the hotel. I called her on the house phone, explaining the situation.

"Hey, they have me in the signing line next to Peter, would you like my chair and I'll move down one? Hello? Hello??"

I turned around and she was standing behind me with a giddy grin on her face. I figure she teleported in, cause that was some long hike from the room, and she wasn't even out of breath.

She was in a deer in the headlights state of shock all through the signing, but Mr. Wingfield was so lovely and polite about it. His momma raised him right.

Besides, I'd hung out with him, Nigel, and Jim Byrnes the day before.

In the bar, of course.

Peter introduced me to Murphy's beer, which holds its own against Guinness.

This *could* have been in Baltimore, but I just don't recall.

But you, Rox, and I had the best danged chat on the plane afterwards. Then we or you had to switch in Memphis or we left at DFW while you went on to the west coast.

I'm sure I wrote about it for my newsletter. You remember those things? What people wrote before they had blogs? I'll have to dig it out the next time I go through my files.

Cheers-- Pat

Anonymous said...

It WAS in Baltimore!

Jim Byrnes and Peter walked into the bar all sunburned from being at an Orioles game all day. Peter had never been to an American baseball game and Jim insisted on correcting that. One of them had one of those foam fingers and they were both thirsty as hell.

It's all coming back to me now....

GH said...

What a memory! I remember a trip to Joe's Crab on that visit, and the Very Special White House tour that the HL Gang went on, arranged by a West Wing staffer who was a fan. Also remember doing a "Francesca" panel with Nigel. The rest is a giant blur.

Anonymous said...

"Very Special White House tour that the HL Gang went on,"

That would be the FIRST one in Boston or Baltimore. I recall when Nigel came back from the White House, but I was on my own at that con.

The one I'm thinking of I came up with a couple of my friends, including Rachel Caine. Told them how much fun the first was, y'see.

I recall hanging out in the green room with Nigel, John Kapelos, my pal Kev, and a few others. We traded working on the set stories (Kev did stunt work back then).

At one of the BIG evening panels I had to hold the fort on my own for 20 minutes as John & Nigel were running late, so I answered questions about the book, and told a few funny stories until they arrived. Then I introduced them and got out of there.

When I went off stage John *smooched* me on the cheek just by my ear and said thank you--which put me in a state of shock for the next hour or so. I didn't wash that spot for ages! :D

Now I'm gonna HAVE to spring clean and find that convention report!