Author: Wil

WWdN reader John sent me this e-mail:

Hi,
I just realized today that you’re mentioned in the infamous Andy Warhol
Diaries. Unfortunately not by name, but it’s definitely you he’s talking
about, so I thought I’d send the quote along just in case you haven’t
seen it before.
“Wednesday, August 13, 1986
Went to see Stand by Me at the Coronet or Baronet. These four little kids and there’s the Fat kid, and the Brilliant kid and the Crazy kid. The only disappointing thing was that the kid who’s a writer they show writing about it later in life, and this really cute little kid has turned into Richard Dreyfuss! It should’ve been Richard Gere. Then I would’ve been happy.”
I’m a huge Warhol fan, so I thought it was pretty funny to stumble onto this little surprise. Hopefully, you’ll also think it’s cool.

Uh, yeah. I think this is just a little bit cool.
/understatement
🙂

My good friend J. Keith vanStraaten won’t be able to come to my birthday party, because he’s in New York working on a cool job he just booked.
He’s also got a GREAT story in Salon that you all should read.
And when you’re done with that, get even more interview madness by reading my interview with Film Threat.

The train ride home was wonderful. I love to take the train, and Andy says why better than I could.
I listened to my iPod, while I read three issues of PS238 (if you haven’t read it yet, RUN to your local comic shop and pick it up. It’s awesome), the newest PvP, and re-read one of my favorite stories of the last few years, The Red Star. I forgot how powerful The Red Star’s first few issues were . . . I’m glad I have it in Graphic novel form to carry around.
Graphic novels are great, because they’re more durable than traditional comics, so they can be read without damaging our precious first printings, heavy enough to be used as a weapon in dire circumstances, and their shiny covers can be used to reflect the sunlight and signal a plane, should the reader become lost or stranded.
While I was at Comic-Con, I reached the following conclusion: John and Judith Kovalic are two of the greatest people on this planet. Matter of fact, I would travel to pretty much any con that John’s going to be attending, just so I can hang out with them again.
And just because hanging with John and Judith wasn’t enough, I also got to spend quality time with Steve Jackson, and almost missed my train because I was geeking out with Scott Kurtz and Aaron Williams.
And just because that isn’t enough, I got to meet the guys from Penny Arcade.
And just because that isn’t enough, I just saw that I am in today’s Penny Arcade.
I’d better stop before I hit the top of this bell curve of coolness.

I’m in the train depot in San Diego, totally getting online through a WiFi hotspot that’s sponsored by bandwidthbay.org.
I think it’s beyond cool that I can sit here, and blog from my iBook!
Comic-con was really fun, but way too big. There was so much stuff to see, and so many people trying to see it, it’s all just a blur.
Oh! Know who I met today? Tiffany Taylor. Oh. My. God. She’s beautiful. And she took a picture with me.
I’m wearing my The Cheat shirt from Homestarrunner.com, and when I was walking around the con this morning, several people shouted “It’s The Cheat!!” to which I replied, “Hang on! We’re taking this baby to the moooon!!11!”
(Yes, just like On*Star, I pronounced the “11!” at the end of that sentence.)
Oh shit. My train is boarding right now. I gotta go!

Yesterday, I was on my very first author’s panel. I sat with *real* authors, who have written several books. I felt like I was playing dress-up, while I sat there with them, but I was surprised and validatied when I discovered that the way I approach writing was similar to the way they do.
The whole time I sat up there, I kept thinking to myself, “I can’t believe I get to sit here with these people!” and hoping tha tnobody noticed that “one of these things was not like the others” and that thing was me.
After the panel was done, I moved to the autograph area, where I signed copies of Dancing Barefoot for about 90 minutes. It was so cool!! There was a HUGE line of people, and everyone seemed very excited to read my book.
Something else happened yesterday that has never happened before: this guy had to pay us ten bucks, but only had a hundred. We didn’t have change yet, so I told him, “That’s okay, just get change somewhere and come back. I trust you.”
He thanked me, walked away, and never returned. It’s the first time I’ve ever been taken advantage of like that in my life.
I didn’t have time to check out the convention floor yesterday, but Anne is heading back up to Los Angeles today, and I’ll get to spend the day totally geeking out. Check the audioblog for geeky details.