I’m lucky to have known a few authors pretty well, to have taken classes with some masters, and to have flashed across the attention span of a few others with my fan letters, complaints, or starry-eyed requests for signatures on their books. Some are super-famous, and some are on their way. Here’s a partial list:

  • Piers Anthony - Got a very cordial and personalized postcard back from him when I complained that a particular book wasn’t up to his previous standards.
  • John Armistead - Attended his church briefly, was a colleague at the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, and interviewed him for another paper when he was on a book tour.
  • Dave Barry - Got a postcard response from him when I sent him a quirky news item for his column. (While working at a newspaper, I was sifting through junk mail and found a press release about some girls who were making jewelry out of unused plastic tampon applicators. I sent him the info and pics. I believe his response was, “This is why we entered journalism.”)
  • Pat Conroy - Got his signature during a literature event in Oxford, Mississippi. One of my favorite writers for wringing laughter and tears out of me. He tells the greatest self-deprecating stories, and his father, who spoke at an event with him once in Oxford, Miss., was about as entrancing as a storyteller and just as funny
  • Ellen Douglas - Met her at the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss). I was taking a class with her and, to my chagrin, had to drop it due to a scheduling conflict with a required class.
  • Alan Dean Foster - Met him in the MidSouthCon hucksters’ room. I happened to have an armload of his books in USED PAPERBACKS, and although he looked askance at me, he was kind enough to sign each and every one of them.
  • John Grisham - Interviewed him for a story when he, a cartoonist, and a third person visited Mississippi University for Women, which was within my newspaper’s circulation area. (He was very nice, but I remember thinking that he needed a shave, and I was more fascinated with the cartoonist, Doug Marlette, whose books had made me laugh so many times.)
  • Barry Hannah - One of my creative writing professors at Ole Miss; he left the class midway through the semester due to illness, and Cynthia Shearer stood in.
  • Jere Hoar - Took 3 classes with him at Ole Miss - one of which had me as the only enrollee. One of my favorite professors.
  • Brian Hopkins - Met him in the elevator during MidSouthCon a few years ago when he was a guest speaker. My husband had mentioned he went to school with him, so I introduced myself and said, “Did you go to Harrison Central High School in Gulfport, Miss.?” He looked pole-axed for a minute, like he wanted to say, “Uh … does it show?” but we had a nice conversation afterward. Hubby didn’t know him personally — just knew the name of a published author who’d been a HCHS grad. (Brian was a hoot as a speaker, too.)
  • Randall Kenan - Took a creative writing class with him at Ole Miss but - to my regret - had to drop out for health reasons (I was pregnant and went on bed rest for toxemia). I was *really* looking forward to taking that class, because his look at one of my short stories helped me see some problems I was having with point of view. Darn it.
  • Lee Martindale - A rollicking good speaker at several past MidSouthCons, Lee edited an anthology about plus-size women that I couldn’t resist buying. I’m glad to have “Such a Pretty Face: Tales of Power and Abundance” on my shelves.
  • Willie Morris - Took a magazine editing class with him at Ole Miss. It was the semester his beloved dog died. A friend (who swears he helped on the expedition) told me that the dog was surreptitiously buried in the Oxford cemetery.
  • Andre Norton - Met her very briefly at a science fiction convention. All I remember is her stunning amber jewelry and the crowd’s general reverence for her, and the fact that I was so embarrassed at not knowing until that moment that “Andre” was a woman. (Pen names make me crazy.)
  • Terry Pratchett - Heard him speak at a science fiction convention, and he was just as charming in person as he is in other media appearances.
  • Selina Rosen - A smart, funny author with a gift for story-telling on or off the page. Another author I heard at a MidSouthCon.
  • Robert Sawyer - Heard him speak several times at a science fiction convention. As a writer, I found it well worth my time to occupy a seat in the audience anytime he was on the speaker list; he has great writing tips.
  • Cynthia Shearer - One of my creative writing professors at Ole Miss.
  • Peggy Webb - She was in a little theater group with my first husband, back when I lived in Waynesboro, Miss. A very fun and friendly person whose romances are a pleasure to read.
  • Zig Ziglar - I don’t know the gent, but my mom went to high school with him. (Is this “touching fame by proxy”?)

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