Novel Completion Queries, Day One
Posted on March 16, 2015 Posted by John Scalzi 72 Comments
Is the novel finished? NO
Today’s question: Talk about your first serious crush. It can be someone you knew, or a celebrity crush. If someone you knew, do you still know that person?
My answer: It was Karin Woo, back in 7th grade. I was obnoxious to her, she would shove me into my locker, it was lurve (at least on my end). We became pretty good friends later in life. I still know her. She’s awesome.
You?
I don’t crush. I’m weird.
Pamela. I was about 5 and she’d be about 11. We walked the same enclosed lane to and from school each day. I thought she was amazing, and she was very kind/tolerant. I got my Mum to deliver a valentines card to her home, unsigned, I asked her nervously if she had gotten any, and she said she had and she still guessed it was from me. Then she moved up to high school and I never saw her again. 30+ years and I still remember it fondly.
Mine was Dirk Benedict, Face on A-Team. I was in fifth grade and soooo in love with him.
I was oogly-boogly over a fellow in my grade at school for my entire sixth grade school year. Way too shy to say or do anything about it, and I strongly doubt that he ever realized it, but I had a VEEEERY active imaginary relationship with him that year. I haven’t seen him since we both graduated high school 40 years ago.
I looked him up once on Google out of idle curiosity and he wound up being some extremely erudite mathematics professor, if the guy who came up on Google is the same one I went to school with. Probably is; he was super-bright in sixth grade, especially in math.
Pam. 9/19 grade. She was on dance team and I was in band. She family was poor – as in dad did not work and the house had a busted foundation poor. She was extremely cute in an early 80 Lauren Hutton sort of way (complete with small gap I her front teeth). Saw her later in college and she was well on her way to being a vet – very hard working girl.
The question for me is who didn’t I have a crush on
Kerem. There’s a Turkish folktale about a guy named Kerem and a gal named Asli, their love is forbidden and the story ends with both of them being burned to ashes. I was a romantic 8 year old with a huge imagination thanks to my granpa’s tales, usually modified/cutesy versions of the cautionary tales from Koran and other folk tales (I thought he was making them all up at the time). I remember wishing my name was Asli, so my Kerem would like me just like in the story. Meanwhile, I think he was completely oblivious to my existence.
My wife.
FBoFW, it was not a straight line transition from “crush” to “beloved bride”.
I’m gonna cheat, because my first crush was too predictable: Han Solo, from about the age of ten years old, until, well, NOW. Thirty-year crushes are awesome.
But my second was a real person. Oscar Chen, the smartest boy in my class. I started crushing on him in the 8th grade, when I was about 13. Four years later, he responded. (Yes, I have stamina.) To quote Mr. Spock, it turned out that having was not so pleasing a thing, after all, as wanting.
And, yes, I still know him. He’s a great guy, but so not my type. ;)
Mine was a boy who lived down the street, we were in the same grade at elementary school. I quietly crushed from a distance until one day they were repairing the sidewalk in front of his house, and my little sister wrote “Sherri loves Paul” in the wet cement. You’ll be glad to know that I didn’t use my sister to remove the words though I did seriously consider it!
Julie Newmar as Catwoman on the 60’s Batman show…Barbara Eden – I Dream of Jeannie…and Suzanne Pleshette from The Bob Newhart Show…but strangely, Elizabeth Montgomery never did it for me….
Yeah, before grade 7 girls, after, GIRLS. Janet Dean unbelievable and way out of my league but she was nice to me. She asked me to dance the bump with her in early grade 7 to a Bee Gees tune and I remember somehow doing it successfully. Later as a result some of her cute friends wanted to dance with me too. That was the day I first learned the difference between strategy and tactics. I am sure Janet became some kind of huge real estate broker success.
I can’t remember her name. She was a friends cousin and she reminded me of Jodie Foster in Stealing Home. I would have been 12 I think. She was 15 or 16. Oddly enough I didn’t have much luck with that one.
“lurve”…? and I have a small doubt about “first crush”: first serious love?
Thanks to help a friend serious fan to improve its american level..:)
A girl when we were both in elementary school all the way through high school. Eventually became actual friends in high school, but never had the nerve to say anything about my crush on her.
Decades later, my mom mentioned that her mom said that her daughter had a crush on me. Epic facepalm, if true.
I get crushes at the drop of a hat, or practically anything else. But that was my first and longest lasting unrequited crush.
(I don’t think I got my first crush on a guy until college, or at least the first one that I recognized as a crush.)
Ah, Carol N…. middle school crush. Brilliant, beautiful, and ended up being the co-valedictorian. Determined later on that she was merely the first in a long line of ‘unobtainable’ crushes… Good times!
The first time was when I was seven, the most recent one (still ongoing) two years ago at fifty-one…
During those last two years one of Leonard Cohen’s fairly recent songs ‘Crazy to love you’ has become my go to shower song. The lines
‘I’m tired of choosing desire/I’ve been saved by a blessed fatigue’
always make me chuckle ruefully, thinking: still some way to go on that one…
Shaun Cassidy! There was a “Hardy Boys Mysteries” episode where he was getting married and his bride died horribly, and I was so sad for him and wanted to make him happy.
Spock from first run episodes of ST:TOS.
I do recommend fictional characters for a first crush. Real people seldom respond as you imagine. I was wise enough not to ever get a crush on actors playing fictional characters I loved.
A Pontins Holiday Camp Bluecoat when I was seven-ish (it’s a 70s British childhood thing)
She had a blonde bob and reminded me a little of Agnetha from ABBA (who may have actually been my first come to think of it…) She congratulated me on winning a sandcastle building competition and I was totally awestruck.
Of someone I knew it would have to be Nancy Walker back in 6th grade. Yeah, totally obsessed. I remember the ‘closest’ I got to her was when I made some crack about something, she looked at me shocked and said, “Greg!” What can I say, it was parochial school.
Celebrity love was Olga Korbut. She was a Soviet gymnast whose smile should have melted the Cold War. I was gaga about her in high school.
My first crush would had to have been Ryan Ferguson. I liked him from kindergarten until the second grade when I moved to a new school district.
The young Audrey Hepburn.
So embarrassing, but I’m going to admit this anyway: Joey Lawrence. I loved his hair. It was so long and curly. Not like it is today. No, I’m talking Joey from the ’80’s. He was a safe crush: I knew I’d never meet him and therefore didn’t have to worry about him not returning my feelings. That, and well, I have a thing for men with hair. I just like to play with it. :)
Michael Patrick, a boy in my class in 5th grade. He held the door for me once, and that was all it took. That he was subsequently more like a 5th grade boy and less like a knight in shining armor availed naught.
Weirdly he grew up and married a woman my (now) husband had a crush on in college. Well, it seems weird to me.
Around 8 years old my real life crush was a boy named Ronnie. No idea what happened to him. My celebrity crush was Jodie Foster from a super campy movie called Candleshoe. Somehow it still took me until college to get my sexuality figured out.
Her name was Wendy and we were in kindergarten in the 70s. I don’t remember what it was about her, but that crush faded once I became an older, wiser, first grader.
The crush that stayed with me the longest was with Suzi, beginning in 9th grade. I loved her with the passion of 10,000 puppies. Stayed in love with her (or at least, my image of her) the rest of her life. Alas, we hardly stayed in touch in later years and now it is too late.
I certainly agree with the posters above — Face and Luke* were both very nice, and I had what is now a VERY well documented thing for Remington Steele, but much earlier than any of them I had a pretty massive crush on this Assistant Pig Keeper guy named Taran.
It went away, as these do, and was replaced with various guys I actually knew (three of whom actually did raise hogs in real life – only thinking about this did I just make that connection, by the way – who the heck romanticizes hog farmers? A Lloyd Alexander fan, I guess).
I recently had the pleasure of introducing my son to my first crush, who had held up well and was still worthy after 35 years. Although I didn’t tell my child that Taran was someone I felt THAT way about once upon a time. Kids just don’t need to know that.
(And I will never ever reveal my feelings for F’lar to the kids – oh, that would be uncomfortable.)
* Luke, because that’s who I crushed on when I was in single-digits. Only in my twenties did the light dawn that it was Han Solo with his wickedness and humor and more hirsute virility who was The Hot One.
Emmanuel @9:52 a “crush” is an intense, unrealistic passion for someone you don’t really know particularly well. Mostly young teens, but could be older or younger. It’s easy to laugh about them, but they’re part of the process of figuring out what’s important to you in another person.
My crushes … I can date myself by saying that the media ones were Davy Jones from the Monkees and the Professor from Gilligan’s Island. First real-person was David, in 8th – 9th grade. I wrote really bad poetry about his blue eyes. Really bad. My family moved away after 9th grade but the spark had fizzled by then anyway.
For me, it was quite literally a “little red haired girl.” So just call me Charlie Brown. She was cute as a button, but never paid me the least attention.
@Chris Davidson: You and I have similar tastes it seems. I would agree on all counts and add Marlo Thomas from That Girl. I’ll post my real life ones later.
Interesting reading…
Sorry, I meant Steve.
My first crush (that I remember) was Helen. We were both 3. Actually I don’t remember a time when I didn’t have one. Next was my bus driver when I was 5. I took her flowers. Little did I know she had a son my age lol… I was crushed for about a day when I found out.
My first serious love was 4th grade. We dated for about 4 years. She finally broke up with me in 7th grade. Her name was Dianna. I was originally drawn to her because she was the only girl in school who, when the boys threw worms at the girls, she would catch them and throw them back instead of running away screaming.
I was in 4th grade and her name was Melissa.
My first crush was literally the girl next door. I’d say hi to her whenever we saw each other, but I never got beyond that. Then her folks moved away before I could work up the nerve to ask her out to the Prom. Always wondered what could’ve been.
I don’t think I’ve ever had a crush. I’ve had a few crushes I claimed to have, but I don’t think that’s the same thing.
I had a horrible crush for several high school and college years on a guy named Scott. I was also good friends with his brother; I still talk to him, but haven’t seen or heard from Scott in years. I suppose I could prevail upon our friendship to put me back in touch with Scott, but it feels a little creepy.
Celebrity: Susan Saint James (McMillan and Wife)
Real life: JoAnn, a girl in my freshman year of high school. I think she vaguely knew I was alive, whereas I would have crawled on broken glass for a smile from her.
Fraser, in preschool. We had a lot of play dates, and I am pretty sure we discussed marriage. We drifted apart in school (he was in the “in” group, and I was unquestionably in the “out” group), but stayed on nodding-in-the-hallway terms. Sadly, I lost track of him in college.
First crush: Dana. 4 years old, we were. I actually told her I liked everything about her, even the way she went to the bathroom. Fortunately this didn’t creep her out. She’s a happy and successful attorney on the East Coast now.
My first crush was Bo Duke. I grew up in the South. The Dukes of Hazzard was required viewing whilst I was growing up.
First crush: Sally Acorn. That lady knew how to lead a resistance movement against an evil tyrant. The fact that she was an anthropomorphic chipmunk just added to later-life confusion and anxiety.
First real crush: Amanda, from middle school. She was in the school choir, a no-nonsense attitude, and I thought she was pretty. She even liked me back. Unfortunately, she was my Dungeon Master’s girlfriend. No idea what she’s up to now; I try not to creep on people using Facebook.
John M. I was a HS sophmore, he was a senior. He had the mist amazing blue eyes and a killer smile. We hung out a bit, mostly in a roup setting. I kissed his cheek once, after an evening of walking around (in a group) holding hands. *heart flutter* I gave him a stuffed fox as a graduation present. (Takes on to know one. :D) Then he went off to college and I never saw him again. *sob*
Wow, talking about old loves makes my editing skills completely crap out.
Kathrine Hepburn, sure there was Spencer in the way, but if she ever wanted
a (much) younger gentleman, then I was available.
My first celebrity crush was Peter Tork from the Monkees. He had the best hair and great clothes. I watched the Monkees when they were on Saturday mornings in the early 70s. I was probably around 8.
My first real life crush was a boy next door named Paul. I was 5 and he was 8 – an older man! We used to walk to school together, talk at recess (the playground was gender divided so we stood by the edge of the school building to say “hi”) and play together after school). We moved when I was 6. I never saw him again.
I’m not certain which of these came first:
Gayle, a french horn player in 6th grade band with me; or Erin Grey as Col. Wilma Deering on Buck Rogers.
Sadly, I never dated either.
Most of my crushes over the years have been fictional characters; and like Granny above, not on the actors who played them. My first crush was probably Virgil Tracy on Thunderbirds (the Brit puppet show – he piloted the big Thunderbird aircraft (can’t remember if it was TB 2 or 3…)) followed by Mr Spock in OS; then crushes on Oscar Goldman in Six Million $ Man and the Bionic Woman and Commander Straker on the Brit TV series UFO…. A lot safer in the long run to have crushes on fictional characters. That way there are never any embarrassing moments with real life people who don’t reciprocate your attraction…
First abstract, not-real-person crush: Mr. Spock. Because I was born in 1965, and a female geek, and so how could I help it?
First head-over-heels desperate infatuation with an actual person: my 40-year-old 10th grade mythology teacher. Who was also my swim coach, school paper advisor, home room teacher, and teacher for whom I served as student assistant for two years. I pretty much lived in his pocket all through high school, by choice. He was brilliant, witty, creative, handsome, spoke to me in middle English, and we had whole conversations in nothing but Shakespeare quotes and Pink Floyd lyrics. Graduation felt like dying.
Carried a torch for him for another seven years.
Just reconnected on Facebook in the last two months — and 32 years later, he still takes my breath away!
First there was a boy named Kevin who ran after me on the playground in first grade. He was not a great conversationalist, however, so that didn’t go anywhere.
Later there was John Carter (his real name! he probably had never been to Mars though), who was smart and funny and very cute. I sat next to him in math class in seventh grade. Even then I was a rather outgoing person and I pursued him. We spent some time together: we took a long walk, we might have seen a movie. He even kissed me once, when I was bold about suggesting that I would like him to. But he wasn’t that into me.
There was also a boy who had a big crush on ME in fourth grade. He had a very unusual name and was in fact The Third. I looked him up some years ago and discovered that he is now a professor of theology and has lots of kids. I even emailed him and he volunteered about his crush on me. Apparently, the mother of his first girlfriend was a huge influence on his politics (conservative). I wondered whether his life would have taken a different course if he’d ever asked me out and had been in a position to be influenced by MY mother (not conservative by any definition).
First, last and always – Cary Grant
First crush – Mary, at a British expats’ primary school in Beirut, when I was ten. I saw her next ten years later (1978) and 2000 miles away in a politics lecture at Manchester University. We chatted, but nothing doing romantically. We haven’t spoken since about 1980, but she has a professional public web presence (and I spotted her in the papers once).
First telly crush – Gillian Blake from British 1971-73 children’s TV series Follyfoot. Looking her up now, I see she was/is nine years older than me.
Another TV crush was Alexandra Bastedo from 1968-69 super-talent-spy series The Champions. She was 12 years older than me (and died last year). Oddly, a friend and I won £22 in a pub quiz a few weeks ago, in one round of which we had to identify the people in ten photos, and she was one of them. I didn’t recognise her (the photo was from later in life) but luckily my mate did – and we won by one point.
A teen real crush was Biddy, lasting four years, from 13. I was at the boys’ school, she at the girls’ sister school two miles across town. The schools met formally once a week, and also had end-of-term dances… lots of opportunity for gazing hopelessly at a distance. They were boarding schools; in the holidays we were 400 miles apart. I think I said about ten words to her, and I doubt she even knew my name.
18 months after leaving school I did go out with one of the other girls from her year. She had a younger sister, who knew my name and said she and half her year had had a crush on me, which I was sadly unaware of.
I haven’t spoken to my crush or my former girlfriend since 1975 and 1977 respectively, but I am Facebook friends with another former pupil from their year, so I could find them if I had to. Also, 2015 is the 40th anniversary of our leaving school, so who knows who might show up at the reunion weekend in May. I might even go!
Dear John,
Celebrity crushes?
Well, first it was Mary Tyler Moore in the Dick Van Dyke show and then Audrey Hepburn after I saw Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
And John Astin (the one and only true Gomez) and the inimitable Fourth Doctor, Tom Baker. Basically, because I fell in love with their smiles. Seriously. I am a sucker for a guy with a great smile.
Real life? One, in public school. Heidi Timm. Never ever had the nerve to ask her out, thought she was entirely out of my league. (I had to grow into these dashing good looks and irresistible savoir faire, y’know…)
pax \ Ctein
[ Please excuse any word-salad. MacSpeech in training! ]
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I dont remember her name, think i was 10 at the time and she was way older. She got married young and had three kids, last photo i saw of her 20 yrs ago she looked miserable. My teenage crush…Nefesa Khan. Freshman year high school, she was a tomboy, very much a Muslim and me a Christian (but that wouldnt have stopped me). We were very combative towards each other, naturally i ended up liking her. We use to cut class together, i got in trouble for that eventually, either way i had 2 yrs to ask her out before she moved but i was scared of the rejection. I wouldn’t date anyone else for the next 2 yrs afterwards. I always wondered what happened to her.
Gary in the 5th grade. He was the new kid in class and it was kismet, destiny, love-at-first sight. Until he dumped me (letting me down gently, I must add) for my best friend a month later. Couldn’t blame him. Every girl in the class was chasing him and he sort of cycled through them all until he moved away the next year. Years (decades) later I looked him up on the Google.
He and his husband seem really happy together.
Third grade, Steven Bogdewicz…swoon.
One day I chased him all the way home from school (about 4 blocks) arms outstretched, lips puckered. No dice. He was probably very happy when I moved away the following year.
Last year I tried to find him through social media and found out he had died the month before.
First celebrity crush – either Paul Darrow (as Kerr Avon in Blake’s 7 – I think I fell for him when I was about eight or nine) or Alan Alda as Hawkeye Pearce in M*A*S*H (by about age twelve).
My current partner is tall, dark-haired, and has a good line in snark when he wants to let loose. My kinks remain consistent.
My real-life crush was a guy called Brad. Not reciprocated.
Jemima (Heather Ripley) from the movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. I was six. I cried when it was over, knowing I would never hold her wee, pale fingers in mine. My dad asked me why I was crying. I blamed it on the child catcher to hide my love. Never has this been told, until now.
Hardy Kruger. In shorts. In Hatari. At the drive-in. I think the first grown man I’d ever seen in shorts (that’ll tell you how long ago it was). Whoooooo.
My crushes were teachers. My first grade teacher, Miss Nobui who was charming and very patient with a certain pain in the backside kid, my high school German teacher who was one of the most approachable people ever and a college lit professor who I actually dated (after I had graduated). All wonderful people though I would die if I met them now considering how over the top I was. A certain girl at UCLA who is special beyond words and was very patient with my one-sided expressions of love and of course the beautiful woman who married me.
Remember Farrah Fawcett’s poster? Full fan boy sighs even now.
My first “famous” crush was the British singer Petula Clark. I was heartbroken when I found out she’s married some French guy. I mean, what’s a rich French guy closer to her age got that I haven’t got. Of course I was 6 at the time so what did I know.
First real crush was Connie Elting. We rode the bus together. I was 7, she was a Senior in High School. Beautiful red hair, great smile and agreed to wait until I got old enough to ask her out on a real date. I’m sure her boyfriend Max didn’t appreciate me very much but he got the last laugh. They married right out of High school and have been together ever since. 50 years or so by now. Farming, raising kids and grandkids and enjoying their lives.
Now that I think about it, she may have had more of an influence on me than I thought. My wife is a red head…
I don’t know that I’ve ever “crushed” on anyone that I can recall. Going googly-eyed over celebrities always seemed rather … silly/unreal/creepy/I’m not sure what exactly … like they’re not people you’re ever going to meet, and even if you did it would never work out, so why bother? (Granted some of them are very pretty, but thinking that Benedict Cumberpatch or ’80s Annie Lennox are hot isn’t the same as crushing on them).
Crushing on people IRL seems even less appropriate, since they’re real human beings and not mindless lust receptacles. Certainly there have been people I’ve thought were pretty, and people I’ve wanted to get to know more, but once I do get to know them, it seems wrong to regard them sexually.
I’m also uncomfortable with the idea of casual sex (involving me, not necessarily in general); it seems wrong to have sex with someone you don’t know or like as well. So intimate relationships have just sort of passed me by. You can’t really miss what you’ve never had, but I do kind of regret the lost possibilities.
The cutest girl in my sixth grade class. She thought I was a dork. Turns out she was right ;-)
Given the definitions and reactions here, I don’t think I do the crush thing. I was attracted to Patrick Tobin in the fourth grade, and we traded visits to each others houses a couple of times (we were both “blessed” with many many siblings, I have five and he had 13) but it never was more than being friends from my end, and quite likely not even that from his. Last I heard his family had moved out west and at last notice had a total of 22 children.
Gene Wilder in Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. I was 7, and oh, those amazing eyes.
We will NOT be distracted by first crushes or other questions! Are you ABSOLUTELY sure the novel isn’t finished? Totally? Not even a LITTLE bit finished? Finished but just needs a slight reread?
That would be the lovely and talented Illya Kuryakin. Swoon.
(And yes. I also love Ducky, and all the characters in-between.)
My first boy crush was David McCallum as Ilya Kuryakin. My first girl crush that has never faded to this day is Diana Rigg as Emma Peel.
Celebrity Crush: Ike Eisenmann (I think I was about 7 – should have been a sign.) None since.
Batman – I learned to read because I thought he was amazing and my family got sick of reading the comics to me (I was about 4 at the time). Prince Philip from ‘Sleeping Beauty’ since he was the only Disney prince with an actual pulse. James West from ‘Wild, Wild, West’.
Then I saw ‘Star Trek’ and it was all over. Never had a serious relationship with anyone who wasn’t a nice East Coast Jewish boy…
Fictional Telzey Amberdon from James Schmitz; Real: Lynn from Spearville KS (blanking on her last name, and then we moved and Pam Gass in Trenton. We moved in 9th grade and I didn’t hit 100 lbs until I was a junior so was to shy to say anything.