Seattle Says Hello
Posted on April 24, 2007 Posted by John Scalzi 28 Comments
Here’s the crowd for the first night of the tour, at the University Book Store in Seattle. They were full of awesome. And, as a bonus, I think the reading and the signing went really well. It got the tour off on a good foot, to which I can only say: Thank you, Seattle. Everyone else is going to have to work to be as full of awesome as you.
Would post more, but am about to slip into a coma, and have a morning flight. Sleep now, posting tomorrow.
‘sup, Seattle.
As we can see here, the most exciting part of Scalzi Live (and I’ve witnessed this twice) is when the rowdies in the back start throwing chairs. Meanwhile, a lone wolf will — unfailingly and in vain — try to get a wave started. It’s uncanny.
‘sup, Seattle.
As we can see here, the most exciting part of Scalzi Live (and I’ve witnessed this twice) is when the rowdies in the back start throwing chairs. Meanwhile, a lone wolf will — unfailingly and in vain — try to get a wave started. It’s uncanny.
The reading did indeed go very well. :D
Was nice to meet you in person. Hope the rest of your tour goes just as well.
(I was the guy in the hawaiian shirt, buried behind other people in the photo).
yay, there i am. i’m the guy in the nvidia shirt.
Sorry we (my wife Anita and myself) weren’t there. We are out of town (in Graz Austria, of all places), otherwise we wouldn’t have missed your reading.
There was a time in my life I spent a lot of time in that book store.
It’s great place and Seattle has some really great people.
My dyslexia must be acting up again. I originally read it as “reading and singing” and I was wondering which songs John was selecting… as if we don’t know.
Definitely a treat!
John, I enjoyed your reading. I do hope, however, you’ve written more of High Castle than what you read to us. Just thinking of you and your July deadline. ;-)
And thank you to my friends Stowe and Courtney for making the drive up from Tacoma with me. Great friends who share my geek for SF…just so hard to find. :-)
Well, damn. Someone’s arm is covering up half my face in the picture. (Come to think of it, that’s probably not such a bad thing.) You can, however, see my lovely wife quite well…and that’s really what’s important.
The reading was, indeed, full of awesome. The first chapter of The High Castle is hilarious. And meeting John in person is a real treat. Plus, all my Scalzi books are now signed!
In fact Miscellaneous Steve was so anxious to get to the end of the signing line that he nearly flattened me in the charge. However because he does undeniably have a very lovely wife I forgave him (and he apologized, being a fine gentleman as well)And it was more like a bump.
My thoughts:
1. John came out dressed in Early Simon Cowell and made sure we all understood that he was wearing clean, fresh, and brand new skivvies – must have made his mother proud.
2. The dynamics of John’s appearance were much different than most of the others I have attended. I suspect because of the Whatever that people feel very familiar and comfortable with John and are ready to give and take, tease, and joke as if he were a favored cousin or uncle you only see at Thanksgiving.
3. Because of 2, above, I think John could have read from the dictionary and got chortles, laughes, and guffaws. Clearly it was not a tough crowd – they were ready to be entertained and John is an entertainer – not just an author. Consider me entertained. Well worth the price of the ticket.
4. John pretty clearly enjoyed being there, seeing a full house, interacting with the crowd, seeing people he knew, etc. I hope he still feels that way May 10th (his birthday, by the way) when he has his last appearance on this leg of the tour.
5. I doubt that there was any danger of serial assassins making a try for John (a reference to his reading from chapter 1 of “The High Castle), but they would have had to deal with Duane, his escort from the UW Book Store who is a VLHB (VERY large human being). Until John got away from Duane I was wondering if John was in fact a hobbit.
6. Between Whatever, By the Way, Ficlets, his appearances at Cons, and this tour, it is very clear that John is at heart a salesman who takes every opportunity to market himself and to create a pool of clients/customers/readers who assume his work will be good, clamor for more, and talk favorably about his work to others to create additional demand. As opposed, of course, to others who create a perception that readers should have to qualify somehow to read their deathless prose and then feel grateful that they have been so allowed.
7. John looked younger than in his pix – or maybe its just that my eyes are older. He seemed like someone we would all enjoy having a beer with in a low rent tav. And I certainly hope that someone at Penguicon got clips of him dancing!
In fact Miscellaneous Steve was so anxious to get to the end of the signing line that he nearly flattened me in the charge. However because he does undeniably have a very lovely wife I forgave him (and he apologized, being a fine gentleman as well)And it was more like a bump.
My thoughts:
1. John came out dressed in Early Simon Cowell and made sure we all understood that he was wearing clean, fresh, and brand new skivvies – must have made his mother proud.
2. The dynamics of John’s appearance were much different than most of the others I have attended. I suspect because of the Whatever that people feel very familiar and comfortable with John and are ready to give and take, tease, and joke as if he were a favored cousin or uncle you only see at Thanksgiving.
3. Because of 2, above, I think John could have read from the dictionary and got chortles, laughes, and guffaws. Clearly it was not a tough crowd – they were ready to be entertained and John is an entertainer – not just an author. Consider me entertained. Well worth the price of the ticket.
4. John pretty clearly enjoyed being there, seeing a full house, interacting with the crowd, seeing people he knew, etc. I hope he still feels that way May 10th (his birthday, by the way) when he has his last appearance on this leg of the tour.
5. I doubt that there was any danger of serial assassins making a try for John (a reference to his reading from chapter 1 of “The High Castle), but they would have had to deal with Duane, his escort from the UW Book Store who is a VLHB (VERY large human being). Until John got away from Duane I was wondering if John was in fact a hobbit.
6. Between Whatever, By the Way, Ficlets, his appearances at Cons, and this tour, it is very clear that John is at heart a salesman who takes every opportunity to market himself and to create a pool of clients/customers/readers who assume his work will be good, clamor for more, and talk favorably about his work to others to create additional demand. As opposed, of course, to others who create a perception that readers should have to qualify somehow to read their deathless prose and then feel grateful that they have been so allowed.
7. John looked younger than in his pix – or maybe its just that my eyes are older. He seemed like someone we would all enjoy having a beer with in a low rent tav. And I certainly hope that someone at Penguicon got clips of him dancing!
I might add that I have a better understanding of the whimsical gifts of Athena now that I suspect her father is a believer in the old sayings “You have to get older but you don’t have to grow up!”, and “It’s never too late to have a happy childhood!”
In fact Miscellaneous Steve was so anxious to get to the end of the signing line that he nearly flattened me in the charge. However because he does undeniably have a very lovely wife I forgave him (and he apologized, being a fine gentleman as well)And it was more like a bump.
Had I known it was you, Old Jarhead, I would have apologized more profusely and chatted more. My lovely wife walks much faster than I do, being younger and trimmer than her pear-shaped husband, and it’s all I can do to keep up at times. Plus, I spent several years in Philly and I’m still trying to temper the Philly “addytude”, where throwing an elbow and an epithet is considered good manners. (This is not meant to be negative…I have very fond memories of my time in Philly. I haven’t had a decent cheesesteak since I left.)
Hi MKK!! I see you!
Hi MKK!! I see you!
“Had I known it was you, Old Jarhead, I would have apologized more profusely and chatted more. ”
I thought about that, but I live with this terrible fear that the first time I ever identify myself in real life with an on-line handle I will suddenly sprout Spock ears and instantly transmogrify from “fan” i.e. someone who loves the genre, talking with fellow afficianados, and keeping track of authors and artists, to a “FAN!” in the sense of the slightly-to-very creepy. By and large the crowd last night appeared objectively pretty “normal”. John could have been an author of sociological treatises and I don’t think the look would have been much different.
Old Jarhead:
“I live with this terrible fear that the first time I ever identify myself in real life with an on-line handle I will suddenly sprout Spock ears”
Now you know what I just go as “Scalzi’ online most of the time.
Old Jarhead:
“I live with this terrible fear that the first time I ever identify myself in real life with an on-line handle I will suddenly sprout Spock ears”
Now you know what I just go as “Scalzi’ online most of the time.
Wow, that is a good amount of people there! I went to readings in NYC that didn’t have as many people! Hawesome!
Thanks for a fun experience! It’s sure going to be a long year waiting for The High Castle though. You must narrate the audio-book!! :-)
It was an excellent event all around last night. Thanks for coming to Seattle, John!
And thanks, especially, for starting your tour a mere 2 blocks from my apartment. Most appreciated! ;)
Sorry to have missed you, John; someone at work decided I needed to be the main speaker at an Exchange 2007 roadshow in Dallas on the same day, instead of assigning me to one of the other 8 dates I wasn’t speaking at.
Sorry to have missed you, John; someone at work decided I needed to be the main speaker at an Exchange 2007 roadshow in Dallas on the same day, instead of assigning me to one of the other 8 dates I wasn’t speaking at.
Heh.
Hi Scorpio.
I don’t think anyone got pictures of the Saturday night dancing. It was too damn dark in there. At any rate I hope it was.
MKK–still walking with a limp
Miscellaneous Steve: have you tried the cheesesteaks at Philadelphia Fever (on Madison, at about…23rd, I think?) Would be interested in your opinion of them; they’re the best I’ve had since moving to the Left Coast years ago. (When I was a teenager, an aunt lived in Philly, and I’d visit her for a week each summer, so I acquired a taste for those lovely carbohydrate bombs.)
Miscellaneous Steve: have you tried the cheesesteaks at Philadelphia Fever (on Madison, at about…23rd, I think?)
I haven’t, but I will now. Thanks for the tip!
I missed you too… I work downtown but live 2 hours away from the event, in Poulsbo, and my kids need me at home on weeknights….
HOWEVER…
I wandered by Elliott Bay Books in Pioneer Square on my lunch break today, since you’d mentioned you toured and signed books at various locations while you were in town, and what did I find? Signed copies of both Ghost Brigades and Last Colony! Way cool. I’m poorer now; hopefully you’re a little richer.
Thanks!
I missed you too… I work downtown but live 2 hours away from the event, in Poulsbo, and my kids need me at home on weeknights….
HOWEVER…
I wandered by Elliott Bay Books in Pioneer Square on my lunch break today, since you’d mentioned you toured and signed books at various locations while you were in town, and what did I find? Signed copies of both Ghost Brigades and Last Colony! Way cool. I’m poorer now; hopefully you’re a little richer.
Thanks!