Today’s Reminder of the Consistent Awesomeness of My Wife
Posted on March 9, 2010 Posted by John Scalzi 23 Comments
I’m currently deconstructing my office, because we’re literally about to redo it from the floor up (no, really; we’re tearing up the carpet and putting down a wood floor, and by “we” I mean “actual professionals because I would screw it up”). In the process of going through various drawers full of 10-year-old operating system recovery discs and newspaper clippings, I came across this: An engraved pen my wife gave me on the occasion of my very first book tour for my very first book, in 2000. This would have been the book tour for a book on online finance that came out as the Internet bubble was collapsing, taking place the week after the 2000 election, so most of my appearances on news shows were canceled because the fight between Bush and Gore was kind of more newsworthy, and after two stops my tour was cut short because, honestly, what was the point. And then the book flopped. And then the CHUDs came at me.
So, basically, the one good thing out of that entire tour was this pen, from my wife, who loved me and was proud of me for having written my first book. And you know what: Looking back, that’s enough. This pen’s spent the last several years at the bottom of a drawer, but I think in the new office it will have a somewhat more prominent position. It’s nice to have a reminder of just who it is who has been cheering for me from the start of it all.
This post gets extra goodness points for the reference to CHUD.
Thanks for posting this! That’s so cool to see! :) And yes, I agree that it deserves a more prominent place than in a drawer.
Yesterday, I just got my first check for my writing. Officially a professyonaaal. It wasn’t much, but it’s a start. I copied it, and am going to frame it. :) Here’s hoping that someday someone likes me enough to give ME a pen!
Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!!!!!!!
Does the ink still flow?
Dr. Phil
ha! If I left a present in the bottom of my desk drawer, I’d never hear the end of it.
Oh wait.. I’m divorced..
nevermind…
Your wife is awesome, and you are a Very Nice Man to tell the world so regularly.
Okay, this is awesome :). It’s wonderful to have such support!
Awesome amounts of rockage, dude.
Oh wait, I’m NOT Ron Stopable.
Gotta remember that.
Not to go off on too much of a tangent from the Gold Pen of Awesome, but we have four cats and a dog in our household as well, and I work in an office with a wood floor. And every so often, I’ll look in a corner or under a shelf and for just a moment think that my wife has smuggled in/rescued another cat.
I am getting ready to try and sell short stories online and I suspect that my wife already has plans to be the first person to buy one.
Do you have a pen i could borrow?
That utterly rocks! Way to go, you two!
Good man.
To find a memory like that, and to hold it up and say, “Honey, look what I found,” and to have someone there to see it… well, I think you know just how precious that is.
I don’t envy many people, but today I envy you.
That’s the kind of trophy/award/recognition that’s absolutely priceless. You are one of the luckiest guys I know.
The best thing about this is that you know how lucky you are.
I’ve gotten two of those (that are black) from my wonderful fiance for our anniversary. They actually work quite well. Mine has my first initial and last name on it, and is one of my favorite present I’ve ever gotten. The memories attached to the pens are rather amazing, much like yours.
Gotta say, I’m glad that first book tour experience didn’t dissuade you from trying to get something else published!
My second wife bought me a really nice pen to celebrate my first full-time paid writing gig, around ten years ago. I’ve used it every day since then.
What Dave H. and SonomaLass said! I’m confident that’s going to be the sweetest, nicest thing I’ll read today.
You know, aside from the general awesomeness of your wife, I’m struck by yet-another-story-of-publishing-gone-awry and an author who soldiered on and became successful. I suspect all of us have stories. I know my friend Erica Orloff and I swapped disasters a while back. She’s been in the book biz for 20 years and she’s had a fair number of screw-ups and disasters and yet she’s pretty damned successful. So I shall take this story as inspiration, kind sir.
Dude, you are just awesome. And I can honestly say I’m not jealous because I know my wife would (Will?) do similar for me.
It’s good to have the home crowd cheering for you…
One of my most-oft used Simpsons’ references…always timely, always classic. You should also check out the RiffTrax for Oceans 11 where they mention that the bank also serves the CHUD casinos below.
To the spouses, our greatest cheerleaders, supporters, and therapists. Not to mention, even if they aren’t our Muse, or the person we write to, or even the first readers, are the person we go through all of this for.