Dear Mr. Martin,
You are a sick son of a gun. I don’t mean that.
I was there at the Renaissance Hotel for Balticon 50 this year, which was one of the best conventions I’ve been to all year, aside from meeting Sean Maher, Firefly’s Simon Tam, at Farpoint. You didn’t see me there, but I was in the back row watching you read a chapter that the audience voted on, to which you said, “You are some sick motherf**kers.”
I listened for a while, but then I had to leave because there was a little too much gore for me, too much blood and pus you spoke of. I thought to myself that if I had to endure any more of this, it would have turned my stomach inside out and I would have no appetite for dinner.
But you are an excellent writer, I’ll give you that. You have a strong attention to detail and you keep your readers interested as with just about everyone in the audience.
There are some things that I wouldn’t mind asking, though. I’ve heard some things about some people at Balticon who weren’t there at the beginning of the con just because they weren’t originally fans of other works of science fiction. They all flocked to the convention just because the one nerdy thing they ever really liked was the Game of Thrones series and didn’t like anything else related to the other fandoms. Not Doctor Who, not Harry Potter, not even Adventure Time or Magic the Gathering.
My question is, you’ve got such a terrific fan base, but what would you say to the people who are just there for you and don’t read much into other fandoms other than your stories?
Also, I’d like to know how it is to have such a terrific fan base so far as an author. How do you handle the millions of people who enjoy reading about your stories and reenacting them on the stage during masquerade?
I’ll admit, I never got to ask these questions to you when you were in the hallway at the con, because I was nervous and I didn’t know what to say to you. I was originally thinking about that ice bucket challenge that Neil Gaiman challenged you to do for the ALS fundraiser in finding a cure for the disease. But as you may know, I finally saw your video and I realized it was such a dumb question to ask you.
I’m sorry I didn’t speak to you sooner about it and I’m sorry that I almost hit you in the hallway as I was making a B line for the ballroom behind you. I really hope you enjoyed yourself at your first Balticon.
-The Lady in the Blue Box
P.S. I have one suggestion for you: write something a little less gore-y and less pugnacious next time.
No comments:
Post a Comment