And he's just as entertaining as his writing.

I left work around noon, drove down to Dayton (only a few road construction delays). There I met my former coworker Phil, who now works at Ohio State (and thus had a much shorter drive than I). I'd talked about TEA enough while he was still at U of M that he bought it and read it himself after he'd moved. We went to a nearby restaurant for dinner, and still got back to the bookshop in time to browse for a while as the chairs were being set up for the reading. After a couple of other people had sat down, I scooted out to my car for my bag of books and dodos, and grabbed seats for Phil and I in the front row.

When it was time for things to start, there was a seat still open next to me, so I sat my Pickwick on it (where she looked quite cute and amused people).

When Jasper arrived (a few minutes late) and had been introduced, the first thing he did when he got up to the podium was point to me and inqure "Debora?" (yes, that's my real name), and when I replied in the affirmative he said he was glad I'd brought my Pickwick.

He read the bit where Thursday and her dad go back in time to try to save Landen, with the lovely descriptions of what it's like to watch time accellerated. He's a very entertaining speaker with an expressive and animated face.

The crowd was small, but appreciative (somewhere between one and two dozen people). There were a lot of good questions, which I'll try to remember more of when I'm less tired. They ranged from things about Jasper's background and what the room he writes in is like, to questions about the book and characters, to a final question as to what sort of cook his mother is (after Jasper had commented on what an abysmal cook Thursday's mum is).

During the signing portion, I asked Jasper to sign the bottom of my Pickwick's foot, which now reads "Jasper V1.2 (Plock!)", and gave him a small brown dodo which I'd made on Sunday (to the mild annoyance of my mother, who thought I should be cleaning house instead). He seemed quite pleased with it, and asked me to sign it's foot. He and Mari said they'd have to find a spot for it in the office.

Jasper gave me a Goliath Corporation badge with my name on it (spelled right!), listing my department as "SOFT TOY DIVISION" and my Corporate Ladder Position as 7,426,608. On the back is a list of highly amusing rules, ending with "Thank you for not smoking or reading Daphne Farquitt novels". Of course, he also personalized and signed my books, and I'm now the proud posessor of several amusing Nextian postcards.

I made it safely home around 1am or so (there was an accident in a construction zone just north of Dayton that slowed me down), and rather than going to sleep like a sensible person, went to the computer to type this, and upload photos (which I'll put in a separate thread).

So was it worth the drive? Absolutely!

I am now seething with jealousy and gripped by a nameless fear that by the time he's signed his way round America he'll be so fed up with it he won't want to do a tour of the UK to promote WOLP.

That's a thought. Presumably there will be a tour to promote WOLP. What we ought to do is pick a venue and stage a Fforum takeover (besides all going to see him in our hometowns, of course). Birmingham seems like the most logical place ..... any thoughts, people?



- - -
I am very interested in the Universe. I am specialising in the Universe and everything surrounding it. - E. L. Wisty

Excellent. The more I hear about this guy, the more I like him.

I reckon we could get a decent quorum from the fforum in Leeds or Sheffield. There's plenty of us around here...

Rob got in before me. I was about to suggest somewhere middling up-north on account of fforumites in Sheffield, Leeds and Oldham.
Sheffield has some good pubs....

Oh Magda!! Sounds like you had an absolutely WONDERFUL time! I'm SOOOOO glad! I think it's great that they knew who you were before you hit the signing line. I love that they gave you the badge and stuff (must say that now *I'm* a little jealous! LOL) I had hoped to take a present for him, as well, but it couldn't be delivered in time for the signing. (Sigh) I had found some magnetic Escher lizards, just like the ones on the car, and thought he'd get a kick out of that. But oh well! (And I felt too stupid to ask for a mailing address!)

So what postcards did you get? I got a couple of the UA of W Cat, several of Pete & Dave's, a cover of Femole, and one with the dood and the dodo crossing roadsign.

Ah, but you got to be his first Fforumite, while I had to settle for second.

I got one of each of the above mentioned postcards. Specifically:
Thursday meeting the U A of W cat, Pete and Dave's storefront, the cover of the issue of FeMole touting the Thursday Next look (for which Thursday refused to pose, but leant her car), and the dodo crossing w/ dodo.

I also had one of each book sent with me by a friend for Jasper to sign, and he got one each of Pet and Dave's and FeMole.

The badge is very fun. I was terribly pleased that he'd taken the time to make it up for me, and it made having brought him the dodo seem particularly apt.



--------------
"I've often said that the difference between British and American SF TV series is that the British ones have three-dimensional characters and cardboard spaceships, while the Americans do it the other way around."
--Ross Smith

And as to being recognized, I was, in fact, sitting there in the front row with a rather large stuffed dodo that looked exactly like the one on the Reader's Contributions page--which probably helped to make me conspicuous.

I'm sulking now......
Not fair
*I* haven't met Jasper

Well, I did have to drive 3 and a half hours each way to do so. But then again, he's only likely to be on the same continent as I am once a year or so, which means I can't be too picky. In any case, you'll likely have a chance.

From the Appearances page:
July 2003 - UK Launch of The Well of Lost Plots - Details TBA



--------------
"I've often said that the difference between British and American SF TV series is that the British ones have three-dimensional characters and cardboard spaceships, while the Americans do it the other way around."
--Ross Smith

I don't mind going up North to add to the numbers of Fforumites. It'l give me an excuse to visit Skiffle, too...



PSD

==========

This is the work of an Italian narco-anarchic collective. Don't bother insulting them, they can't read English anyway.

I was at the reading in Dayton last night, too, and it was remarkable fun even for someone not among the forumites. I was too shy to think of a question to ask him during that part and was mostly a dork when he signed my book, because I can't talk to people worth a damn unless I know them. It's rather cool to find this whole site, though -- I am posting about the reading in my blog and wanted a link to Jasper's homepage. I was expecting something rather typical and useless, but this sure isn't, is it?

Hi there!

Definitely not a typical and useless website. When I first found Jasper's site (while trying to figure out how to get a dodo for my Thursday Next Halloween costume - I ended up buying a pattern online) I spent hours and hours exploring it. And it's grown considerably since then.

Feel free to hang around, and to poke about. We can always use a few more Yanks on the Fforum. We're rather friendly, despite the fact that as Jasper apparently told the folks in D.C., we're all quite mad.



--------------
"I've often said that the difference between British and American SF TV series is that the British ones have three-dimensional characters and cardboard spaceships, while the Americans do it the other way around."
--Ross Smith

Welcome, Laura!

We are very friendly around here, and yes, Jasper is right, we are quite mad as well! But in a lovely and fun way. No one except PSD ever bites and when he does it, it's just for fun. We all have a blast around here. Oh, and one thing you'll find is that it's exceedingly rare for a subject to stay on topic for more than say, 4 posts. But after that it gets fun and quite esoteric.

Sheffield would be brilliant, I asked for a visit here last year after we travelled all the way to Abergavenny. I thought we deserved a return visit after setting off at a really horrible hour that should be banned. I posted about that day in the original fforum.

next time you have a get together round here will someone give me a shout, I missed out on the last one because I was still catching up.

Oh and hi to everyone in live journal, I'm roobarb,come join thursdaynext community there. I haven't posted in here for ages, I was overwhelmed by the number of flirty posts but have finally caught up :-)

Andrea

Andrea! You're another Sheffielder?



..........................................................................................

That which does not kill us makes us stranger.
(Llewelyn the dragon, Ozy and Millie)

Sarah

Welcome back about! (And sorry for the huge number of posts...)

I think we can safely say that Sheffield seems to have a majority vote (or anywhere in the vicinity...



PSD

==========

This is the work of an Italian narco-anarchic collective. Don't bother insulting them, they can't read English anyway.

yup
I didn't realise there were more of us, I've converted a few friends all over the country, they'll probably all want to come and stop if things are at the weekend. Most I know through afp or abth

A

That's so cool! Skiffle also lives in Sheffield. You'll be telling us you have cats next. ;-)



..........................................................................................

That which does not kill us makes us stranger.
(Llewelyn the dragon, Ozy and Millie)

Sarah

nope
budgie and fish

though the budgie is called sylvester and has a personality complex

Best not to introduce them to any cats, then...



PSD

==========

This is the work of an Italian narco-anarchic collective. Don't bother insulting them, they can't read English anyway.