Re: Re: Super Moon

--- On Mon, 5/7/12, Gwyn Ryan <gwynhefar@gmail.com> wrote:

> Yes, that counts.  And I'm inordinately jealous. 

Just live in England when they need crash space to stay whilst doing research. :)

Bear was saying in her LJ, sheesh -- over six years ago now -- that she wished she could get to England to do research. I was half-joking and half-serious when I replied that she could feed the cats and use our house for free when we were in the US for 1.5 weeks. She took me up on it and was a charming houseguest. The cats loved her.

We didn't have Marie Brennan stay at our house, but she needed to get to the Effingham White Horse and Weyland's Smithy for research on a Sunday when the buses weren't running in that rural part of Oxfordshire, which isn't that far from us. Bear put her in touch with us, so we wound up meeting her on Sunday morning at the Swindon rail station and drove her to the sites. We also served as herbalism 'experts', identifying the plants growing wild, which was useful for her book also.

Diana is an old friend of friends of ours -- this friend used to live in Greyhaven. She and her husband were Viceroy and Vicereine of the SCA Crown Principality where we live, and Diana had told them she'd come over to an event when they were ruling. (Hey, the SCA started at her house, after all. :) So, she did -- she attended a small tournament and feast held only about four miles from our house, and our friends were there also. All three of them then needed to attend Worldcon in Glasgow, and I had plans to attend also, so they remained at our house until it time to go to Glasgow, and four of us took the train together. I roomed with Jette in Glasgow. :)

Diana was doing research on Roman Britain, so she requested a trip to Fishbourne Roman Palace near Chichester, under an hour from us. We all went there. And Diana and our friends wanted to go to Glastonbury, and you know how much we hate that town. :) When we got there, one of the bookshops had the new paperback copy of one of Diana's books in the window. So, she went in and asked if they wanted her to sign it. They kind of gulped, said yes and went into the back for a few more copies. :)

Some of you know may know the friends, who live in Ireland, Stephan and Melodi Grundy. He writes historical fantasy under his real name and has written about Teutonic magic as Kveldulf Gundarsson.
> I've also talked
> with Cat Valente several times, and I've met Ellen Kushner
> twice and
> got to talk about a book I was writing with Delia Sherman
> for about
> half an hour at an ALA Conference.

Half an hour? Wow! (I managed to talk with Mark Rylance during the interval of the all-female Taming of the Shrew on opening night at the Globe -- but only for a couple of minutes. :) I love Ellen's and Delia's work. My friend Judy Gerjuoy lives in Finland now (we're both in the SCA over here), but she returns to the US every November to run Darkover Con. Ellen and Delia are the Guests of Honor this year. (I create the programme for Darkover Con, btw, as a favour for Judy.)

I had Juliana Finch (our own
> Fi from
> years ago) playing on the iPod.  Fawn started singing
> along and I was
> surprised, because I didn't realise Juliana had much of a
> following
> outside of Atlanta, and Fawn was impressed when I said I'd
> known
> Juliana for years :)

How is Juliana? I've lost track of her. I think I donated some money towards an album years ago.

Ellen