otherearths_outthere

Today I don't have time for a long post, as I'm working on a Narf Verse story (poor Rodney is freaking!) but that brings to mind: what to you guys do when you have the germ of a story idea? How do you grow it, flesh it out? Do you sit around drinking coffee and staring into space envisioning the scene and blocking the characters as they walk around bantering with each other? Do you free write or are you a plotter? Do you write outlines, powerpoints, spreadsheets, and 8x10 glossies with pictures and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one? Do you lie in bed at night writing sex scenes during your happy time?

Inquiring minds wanna know!

(remember when it was okay to have an inquisitive personality? so much so it was part of an advertising slogan for E.F. Hutton and then the National Enquirer? lol)

You guyyyyyys you guys the most awesome thing has happened, and all because of wpadmirer, who is the coolest, sweetest person. Also, fandom makes miracles happen.

So a couple of weeks ago when we were all posting the covers of our favorite/most influential books, wpadmirer noticed all my SF and asked if I liked Haldeman, which, of course - I was planning on posting The Forever War as one of my books. For anyone not familiar, it's a military science fiction novel from the POV of a soldier who manages to survive not only a large number of engagements with the alien enemy, but because of relativity, he survives into the future of humanity by his FTL travels. But the key bit and why the book stayed with me was how much society changed over time -- so much so that being queer becomes the norm and being straight is considered "queer." In fact, the protagonist, as a staunch cishet, gets called the "old queer" -- and as a baby queer, you can bet this had a huge impact on me. To see gay people even survive into the future and be codified as normies was so beautiful. I must've read the book fifteen times before I hit college.

Anyway, I told wpadmirer I was going to post The Forever War and she told me she and her husband were dinner friends with Joe and his wife, Gay, and that she could swing getting it signed for me. Interested?

Are you kidding?

I went digging in my storage for my childhood paperback copy and when the jenga puzzle of my storage closet defeated me, I biked to Borderland Books in the Haight to purchase a new trade paperback. What a wonderful bookstore. I met the sweetest girl there who is just now discovering science fiction for the first time thanks to the Dune movie series. The store owner and I got her started on some suggestions. The stars in her eyes when she realized the treasure trove that lay before her...

I sent the pretty new trade paperback to wpa with a note to Joe about what the book had meant to me growing up. The dear, sweet man signed it and drew me a little alien:



wpa immediately express mailed it to me, and it arrived today. I almost cried when I opened it to see what he'd written. But even more importantly, just communicating with Joe and his circle of friends and knowing we all shared this moment of connection across the years to wee little me who felt the hope that a visionary writer can provide...

That's everything.

Thanks, wpadmirer.