Facebook reminded with a picture (you KNOW I got a picture of me with the Queen of UF herself!) and now I’m gonna tell you about it.
In case you don’t know who Kim Harrison is – because you’ve been living on Mars or something – let me start by saying she is probably my biggest influence when it comes to the craft of writing. I remember reading through Pale Demon and needing to stop because her prose was so expertly crafted. The flow and artistry in her writing… it’s something I aspire to every time I sit down to write.
That said, Kim Harrison is a New York Times bestselling author most known for The Hollows (Rachel Morgan) series. She’s also written in other genres like Epic Fantasy with her Truth Series, Young Adult with Madison Avery, and recently she’s gotten into Thrillers with her new Peri Reed Chronicles series.
Yes, I am a fan. No, I’m not ashamed.
The world she created in The Hollows was one of the first in the Urban Fantasy genre I’d ever read and I was such a rabid fan I recruited other people to join in on the KH kool-aide.
So, after making sure I had off from the day job, a feat that almost squashed the whole adventure, a friend and I drove the 40 or so miles to meet her.
We dressed up as characters from the series, me as Ivy, the vampy sidekick, and my friend as Rachel, the quirky lead. It worked out great cause I’m already a little vampy so I already had the clothes. But, it was JANUARY, and while I looked the part of a vampire, I FROZE MY POOR TOES OFF!
Anyway, I was nervous. The kind of stupid-making nervous you get when meeting your idols. This is pretty much how our exchange went.
Me: “Stutter, stutter, blubber, blubber, slur-every-word-you-know-into-one-long-sentence.”
Kim: “What’s that?”
Me tugging awkwardly at my full length, purple-lined leather coat: “This is my best attempt at Ivy.”
Kim: “You look great!”
Right there I died a little bit.
And the rest was a blur. She signed my book, she put a cute message in it and we took a picture. I didn’t tell her I wrote because at that time I was really only dabbling, and I didn’t tell her I thought her writing was amazing, or how much I loved her work. Really, I just focused on forming coherent sentences. But the rest of the night I was high on endorphins and adrenaline and MEnoETING KIM HARRISON!
Oh, oh! I almost forgot. Notice how we both have the same hair color? Yeah, that was neat – except hers was a wig and mine was from a bottle.
