I’ve been a little, um… distracted.

I wrote a book. I edited the book. I landed an agent. I printed my book off and now I’m doing the final edits before I send it to beta readers, and then off to my agent. I’ve also had some medical stuff going on, like becoming a cyborg. I’ve been so up to my neck in my own book and life, that I’ve lost the thread of this blog.

The truth is, I don’t like reviewing when I’m distracted. I don’t feel like I’m giving the authors or books I’m reading the attention and dedication they deserve, so I kind of go quiet and surface again when I’m not so lost in my own life.

However, something very cool did happen. First, a bit of a backstory so you get where I’m coming from.

When I was about 14 or 15, I hated just about everything. I was a miserable teenager, both in attitude and with how I generally felt. I was very depressed and lonely and I just hated life, myself, and everyone and everything. My two big brothers were really into reading, and they approached me and basically thrust a series of books at me. They spent WEEKS urging me to read them, and I remember I finally decided I’d do it just to shut them up.

I fell in love with those books. During a time in my life when I literally didn’t love anything, and I was thinking of nonexistence with a fondness that really shocks me looking back on it, these books broke through my dark haze and made me feel passion for the first time in years.

Ultimately, these books got me started reading fantasy, and loving fantasy. These books also got me wanting to write fantasy. These books are, in a very real way, the fundamental building blocks that led me on the road I’m on today, with years reviewing books in the genre, editing, and my own epic fantasy book, an agent, and potentially, my own publication.

These books are huge to me, and so is the author.

These books are the Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn series by Tad Williams.

Recently Tad was in town for Salt Lake Comic Con. I couldn’t attend this year due to recently having spine surgery. It was too hard for me to manage a venue that big, and the idea of being inevitably bumped by someone in a crowd terrified me. However, Tad Williams, this sort of icon for me, was in town and I had to meet him. I just had to. It was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up.

I contacted his wife, who has worked as a go-between for me and Tad in the past for interviews and what have you, and she kindly worked out a time I could meet him. It was a short visit last Saturday morning. I had a funeral to attend, and he had some things going on at SLCC, but it was a visit, and it meant the world to me.

Tad is a very nice guy. We talked a bit. He signed my books, which I will cherish, and generally surprised me with how approachable and kind he was. I am overjoyed that he took the time out of his busy life to visit with me. It was absolutely surreal and fantastic to meet him. I really can’t say enough about the experience. It was really nice to be able to chat with him and tell him how his books profoundly impacted me, and really paved the way for my life to go the direction it has with reading/editing/writing things.

It was incredible, and I’m very, very lucky/happy that I got to meet him.

Here are some photos.