Trying to maintain some dignity

I'm standing in line clutching a small pile of books under one arm and struggling to free a hardcover from its shrink wrap by using a pen to stab a hole in the resistant plastic. The nice man behind me turns out to be experienced in these matters – having just bought the same book down the hall moments before – and he helps me get the book unwrapped without pen marks. His girlfriend looks at my stack of books: "A really big fan, huh?"

We're at Foolscap IX. The author guest of honour is my absolutely favourite author of all time: Charles de Lint. The artist guest of honour is Charles Vess, who has done the illustrations for several special edition de Lint books as well as doing graphic novels with the likes of Neil Gaiman.

The two Charleses are side by side at a table at one end of the room, and the line curves around the entire circumference of the room and out into the hall. Though Foolscap is a small bookish science fiction/fantasy convention with a casual and unpretentious atmosphere (on the first day, my partner, Russ, ended up talking to Vess for twenty minutes in the hall without even knowing who he was; that says a lot about Russ as well as about the convention), most people don't want to just randomly bother the guests of honour with requests for signings and so are taking advantage of this clearly designated opportunity.

The couple behind me in line are newer fans of de Lint's. We discuss what their favourites novels are so far and I push my preferences on them. We mostly discuss the books done by big publishers: Memory and Dream, Someplace to be Flying, and one of the new books, a YA called Little (Grrl) Lost. We all agree on loving the Crow Girls and of thinking that Little (Grrl) Lost was an excellent book for twelve year olds but only a light fun book for adults.

My companions know I'm a hardcore fan because I'm carrying de Lint books published by Subterranean Press (Medicine Road and the book newly freed from its shrink wrap, Promises to Keep) and other rarities such as Vess and de Lint's picture book, A Circle of Cats. They don't know me well enough to recognize how excited I am: that I am speaking too fast and bouncing too much as we wait.

I get to Charles Vess first. He signs a graphic novel for Mike (my ex-coworker) and signs and doodles in the novels I've brought where he did cover or interior art. He is very nice.

Then: Charles de Lint! He is a very unassuming man. Quiet. He would be easy to overlook if he wasn't the center of attention. He chuckles at my excited re-telling of how I'd pre-ordered Promises to Keep back while it was still supposed to be The Newford Collection and had been eagerly waiting for its publication and arrival since March and it had arrived on Friday afternoon, only hours before we were to leave home to come to this very convention and then I'd just managed to get the plastic off of it while in line, just in time for him to sign it...

He signed my books – each one a little different – making sure to spell my name right. And then I moved aside so the next person could have their turn. And I must confess that I hugged those books tight to my chest and once I was in the hall and out of earshot of everyone but Russ, I squeeed. Twice.

I'm such a de Lint fan-girl.

Charles de Lint was interviewed twice during the weekend and did a casual concert (with his wife, MaryAnn) during a question and answer period. He did a formal concert one night, but Russ and I missed it to eat the best pizza we've ever had.

I enjoyed listening to him talk about his creative process, about how he wanted to be a musician and somehow ended up an author, about the struggle to get published in different categories than the one the publishers have put you in. A couple of random things that stuck with me:

Because he first wrote fantasy books for the adult market, he had a hard time breaking into young adult books, and then had to convince publishers that he could write a children's picture book. No matter how successful you are in one genre or category, you have to start over almost from scratch every time you want to change your area of specialty.

He doesn't talk about his works in progress for the same reason he doesn't write outlines: he discovers the story as he writes it the first time, and once he has told the whole story, he starts to lose interest. If he talks about it, he feels like he has told the story and he doesn’t want to write it anymore.

Finally: His next book is going to be called Dingo and includes some Australian mythology! It's almost done, and that's all he would tell us.

Excuse me for a moment: Squeee!

Shortened version cross-posted to charlesdelint.