So I met Carl Hiaasen last night. Yeah, that Carl Hiaasen. My favorite living author. The undisputed king of that tiniest of sub-genres: comic suspense. Turns out he’s not ready to pack it in yet. And here I was, ready to step in with my two comic suspense manuscripts and assume the throne.
The guy’s friends with Jimmy Buffett–isn’t that enough of an achievement for one lifetime? Does he really need to keep writing these…books? The tireless and exceedingly nice guy has just brought out a third YA (young adult) book (“Scat,” which my son and I started last night and is very promising) and is working on another adult one as we speak. Which of course means less shelf space for me.
I had a nice, if brief, conversation with him. I do regret not pushing a business card on him with a link to this blog, or at least cramming my query letter in his jacket pocket. Still, I thanked him for all the years of entertainment and the inspiration.
Back to work.
It’s awesome meeting one of your heroes, isn’t it? I had a similar experience when I met Robert Rankin at a sci-fi convention in England. Being able to say thanks for the inspiration is a great thing.
It is, and especially when he’s so down-to-earth. I’m sure he hears it all the time, but at least it was better than blathering “I’m your biggest fan!”
I got around blathering that when I met Robert Rankin by telling him I was his Canadian fan. At that time his books weren’t available in Canada (I discovered them on a previous trip to my homeland), so my statement may well have been accurate!
Has he said anything about the “kick me” sign you put on his jacket?