This week’s prompt is about authors I’ve met, and let’s see… there’s been quite a few, since I’ve been to cons, but let’s stick to the ones that felt important at the time or have really stuck in my head!

1. Robin Hobb.
   She did a reading in the local Waterstones when I was a teenager, and me and my mother were reading her books at the time. Of course we went, and asked questions after the reading.
2. Alastair Reynolds.
   I got my sister back into reading by letting her try Century Rain, sitting on the floor in my room next to the shelves. She whipped right through it and has read it many a time since! So when I saw he was doing a signing in Cardiff, and my sister was around, of course I dragged her there — and though she was very shy, did manage to help her go up and talk to him.
3. Jo Walton.
   Back in the days of Livejournal, we followed each other, and she was very kind and encouraging, and we’ve hung out on a few occasions when she was in Wales (when I still lived there) or at a convention I was attending.
4. Ada Palmer.
   I met her through Jo Walton, and have heard her sing stuff from Sundown. Needless to say I then enthusiastically supported the Kickstarter, and it is not uncommon to hear me somehow attempting to sing both parts of “My Brother, My Enemy” while doing chores (it doesn’t work very well, but I have fun). I have also read (some of) her work, though!
5. Marie Brennan.
   This was at a con and I haaaad to get my books signed. She had actually read my reviews, I was stunned!
6. Tanya Huff.
   I got books signed for both me and my sister, since we both loved (different!) books of Huff’s quite a bit; my sister had been going through some stuff, and Tanya Huff wrote a very kind and encouraging note to her.
7. Scott Lynch.
   My wife is a big fan, and we had a whoooole odyssey trying to get to his signing due to two pairs of my jeans falling apart while at the con. We ventured out, found me new jeans, and made it back in time for the signing. Whew.
8. Martha Wells.
   I didn’t have anything to sign, and it is in the queue for the signing bewailing that fact that Lali of Portal Bookshop came to my aid! I don’t honestly remember if I even said anything coherent to Martha Wells. Worldcon is quite overwhelming, and I think I might’ve been fairly done, ahaha.
9. Rainbow Rowell.
   I went to this signing with another blogger I’d met at Angry Robot’s “Robot for a Day” one-day working-at-a-publisher experience. I don’t think I’d read much of Rowell’s work yet, but she was kind and friendly, and made me reaaally want to read more of her work.
10. Sarah Pinsker.
    Okay, this is actually cheating a bit because we haven’t met in-person (nor spoken for a very long time), but we used to be part of the same invite-only discussion group on Goodreads, The Alternative World. It’s unbelievable how much influence those folks had on my reading!

I’m surprised how difficult I found this to put together, but I guess it’s partly that I’m not super into readings and signings, so I go to them less than some other readers. They stand out to me most when they’re just a little bit meaningful on both sides, like Marie Brennan having known about my book reviews… even though of course it’s all in a day’s work for authors who are signing at bookshops and conventions.