A Long Time Ago... Well, Yesterday, Actually
In Which I Fan-Girl Over Getting to Meet A Favorite Author
12-year old Jenelle had read just about everything there was to read in our local library’s YA fantasy section.
And so, she ventured over into the adult fantasy and sci-fi area… where she discovered something incredible.
A Star Wars book.
She had not known that any such thing existed. But she had watched the three movies… many many times with her family and her Aunt Anne, and she loved them. Thus, she needed no convincing to take this entire trilogy home.
She devoured those books and promptly went back for more. A love of the EU had been born.
Fast forward several years, to college-aged Jenelle, who was reading all the fantasy she could get her hands on. Libraries were her natural habitat, and bookstores were definitely a place you didn’t want to take her if you wanted to keep track of her. (Though, really, it’s a pretty good bet I’ll be near the fantasy section. It’s not that hard to find me… getting me out of the store… therein lies the difficulty).
What should I discover one day, but a brand-new book by Timothy Zahn, my favorite Star Wars author? But this was called The Icarus Hunt, and not a Star Wars book. Intrigued, I took it home and absolutely fell in love with the science fiction mystery novel. Not only was it a twisty-turny adventure with an ending that I never saw coming, but the world building of such epic scope and size for a book that would remain a stand alone for 22 years was astonishing.
It was also one of the first books I ever recommended to my husband, and it remains one of his all-time favorite books, as well.
I started writing King’s Warrior in college. When my friends discovered that I was writing a book, they would often ask me what kind of author I wanted to be.
My answer every time?
Timothy Zahn.
Why?
Because he was doing something different than most of the other authors I read. He was writing multiple series in multiple worlds. Star Wars books, Space Detectives, his own sci-fi stories, trilogies, stand alones, and even an urban fantasy! And he did it with excellence. Nobody else was doing that. Every other spec fiction author I knew of wrote long series in the same world. But I wanted to do what Zahn was doing. I wanted to write in different worlds and different flavors of the genre. I didn’t want to get stuck in a 42-volume series that never ended.
I have long wished that I could meet some of the authors who inspired me as a reader and influenced me as an author.
And yesterday, I finally got to.
Last week, I found out that Timothy Zahn was going to be practically in my back yard over at the Minneapolis ComicCon this weekend… and it just so happens that on the last day of the con, I had to drive over to the Twin Cities to take Derek to the airport, so I thought… why not?
I kind of thought Derek would say, “Um… Jenelle, seriously, you want to go to a comicon for 5 minutes to see one author? Are you nuts?”
But he didn’t. Instead he said, “Let’s do it! Make sure you bring The Icarus Hunt for him to sign!”
Y’all… I don’t think that’s how you’re supposed to experience a comicon…. um…
We didn’t have a ton of time, so I was praying there wouldn’t be a long line. I brought my non-legends-branded set of Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, and The Last Command, as well as my hard cover edition of The Icarus Hunt.
We walked in, bought our tickets, and then wound through the con trying to find his table. And there he was! And there was no line at all! (There was a big line a few minutes after we left, so the Lord definitely parted the Red Sea for us that we arrived exactly at a moment when he wasn’t busy)
And guys… Timothy Zahn is so nice!
I don’t usually get too star-struck about people. I mean, I can fan-girl with the best of them, but usually it’s over stories… not people. It’s not like I hob-nob with celebrities all the time, but I have met a couple of semi-famous people here and there and usually I’m just like, “Ok, cool, but they’re just people.” Right?
Um… but I will admit that I got a little bit jittery and star-struck right before we got to his table and Derek had to kind of pull me aside first and go, “Okay, those books we brought… how about you get them out?" sheepish grin
He saw us coming and said, “Ah… I recognize those books.”
And just like that, he was super easy to talk to.
I told him that his books are the reason I’m such a huge Star Wars fan, and then I fan-girled a bit about The Icarus Hunt and pretty much told him he’s brilliant. (Derek said I didn’t make a fool of myself, so that’s good). We chatted about editing and world-building and it was so so fun.
I thanked him for being an inspiration in my own author career. I didn’t tell him much about my books, because that wasn’t the point (though Derek did give him one of my business cards and he gave us a business card for an editor if I ever need an extra in return). He signed my books and let me take a picture with him, and then he shook my hand and called me, “an author of the next generation.”
If I had to pick two living authors who had a hand in shaping the person I am today, and to whom I owe a lot of the reason I write the books I write, it would be Timothy Zahn and Stephen R. Lawhead. I never thought I’d get to meet either of them in person… but I’m thankful that I was wrong.
So that was my crazy, last-minute adventure!
Have you ever met any of your heroes in real life? What was it like? Have you ever been to a comicon? Have you read any of Timothy Zahn’s books? If not, I highly recommend them all.