A science fiction convention story

@ElicBxn (64169)
United States
November 6, 2022 9:12pm CST
No, I'm not going to bore you with all the actors I've met, mostly because I haven't met that many. So, let me start with what set me off on this trip down memory lane. I am reading the new Janet Evanovich novel. I'm about half done. In the new novel, Stephanie Plum, her crazy grandmother and Lula her crazy... well... not sure crazy whatever she is. In the novel, Stephanie, Lula and grandma have gone to a comic convention. And this is what brought up my memory. I was working the registration table, not a dealer table. One of the guest came in, a rather well known writer. I say, well know, but just a week or so prior, when I read one of his short stories, I hadn't known him. Now, Austin has a bunch of science fiction writers, on the whole I call them 'the local yokels." But I wouldn't call him that, for one thing he's a much better known writer, and he also teaches at the University of Texas. I believe he was mostly retired by this time. Oh, and 'this time' was in the 1980s. He came to pick up his guest badge and I realized that I had just read a short story in a magazine I had picked up. I told him that. Later, when I was no longer working registration, I took a bit of time and ran home to get the magazine for a signature. He was quite trilled to see the magazine since he had just heard from his agent that they had sold the story. Now this was a reprint, the original magazine had long been out of print. Dr. Oliver asked if he could borrow it for a bit. Like I was going to say 'no?' He brought it back and left it at the registration table for me to pick up, that's where we had agreed to leave it since I didn't have a dealers table. I later learned that he had taken it around and showed it to a lot of people he knew. I thought it was pretty cool he did that. Oh, and yes, he had signed it for me too. This was at one of the earlier Armadillocons. For that brief weekend, we were buds.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chad_Oliver
3 people like this
2 responses
@BarBaraPrz (51818)
• St. Catharines, Ontario
7 Nov 22
Cool. But I don't think I ever heard of him even though I'd been to my share of both SF and comic book conventions. Now, I have to look for the new Stephanie Plum novel. What is the title?
1 person likes this
@ElicBxn (64169)
• United States
7 Nov 22
The actual novel title is "Going Rogue" but since number 26 she's been going off the numbers. However, its "numbers" name is "Rise and Shine Twenty-Nine." And I had heard his name at Armadillocon before, but remember, he was still alive back in the 1980s. In fact, I believe it was pre-1985, since after the NASFC I cut back working at cons. Even before I turned 30 I was beginning to realize that my health wasn't the greatest. Now, I did still do some con work at the Doctor Who conventions we had in town.
1 person likes this
@ElicBxn (64169)
• United States
7 Nov 22
@BarBaraPrz but she calls them "Between the Numbers" and they mostly involve Diesel, so they are weird ones. Still hysterical, but weird.
1 person likes this
@BarBaraPrz (51818)
• St. Catharines, Ontario
7 Nov 22
@ElicBxn Yeah, the numbers are a bit skewed as there are about three "between the numbers" books.
1 person likes this
@LadyDuck (502372)
• Italy
7 Nov 22
I never heard of him, but I am glad you met him in person and you had the magazine signed by him.
1 person likes this
@ElicBxn (64169)
• United States
7 Nov 22
I'm glad I met him also. I'm also glad that I made him happy. He told me that he hadn't even realized his agent was still sending out some of his older works to publications.
1 person likes this
@LadyDuck (502372)
• Italy
7 Nov 22
@ElicBxn - I think that even famous writers are often frustrated, you surely made him happy.
1 person likes this