Excitement is building here in Casa Malalux with
George R. R. Martin's SF book signing coming up later today. The signing is downtown at
Stacey's Books, at noon. There's one in the evening too, but we figured that one would be even more crowded, and since I'd have had to miss Kali class to attend, noon time it is. The bad news is that they say books to be signed
MUST be bought in the store and that they'll be checking receipts. I would have liked to get Martin's ink in some of my old
Wildcards paperbacks (he edited them), and of course in the
Song of Ice and Fire books as well, but apparently that's not possible. Not even in the new hardcover UK edition of Feast of Crows that I haven't even had a chance to read yet. Why can't we get that one signed? It's not as if they'll even be selling that edition there!
Oh yeah, because they want to move several hundred copies at $26.99 each, and they could give a shit if you got a foreign edition two weeks before the US version went on sale. We're more interested in going early to hear Martin talk, but I'm not sure that'll even be possible, as crowded as the event is likely to be. I've walked past the bookstore but never been inside, and while they've had numerous very famous people sign there, I can't believe they've got enough space for hundreds of fans to cram in, even if we fill every aisle. Or that the fire marshall would allow that if we could.
Honestly, I don't really care about the signed copies, though I would have liked to get some while I was there. I think collecting autographs is ridiculous, even ones that are real, unlike 95% of the ones they sell on sports memorabilia. What do you do with an autograph though? It's someone's name on a piece of paper. I can sort of see the point in a photo of you with someone, and having them sign it is sort of cool if they're famous, but just their name by itself is of what use, exactly?
I don't really care about the price, since the money is going to an author who deserves it, but I don't need another copy of the book, and since I don't put any real value on it as a collectible, what's the point? If I were smart I'd probably buy like ten copies and have him sign them all to celebrities, and then try to ebay those as authentic books owned by Madonna, or Lindsey Lohan, or Aragorn, or whoever. Or at least get them signed and give them out as Xmas presents... though I'm not sure how good a present the 4th book in a series would be, unless I included the first three, or just wanted to confuse people.
Signature issues aside, it should be fun to see and sort of meet one of the very few authors I really admire. I got to see Clive Barker when he was signing
Imajica back in the 90s, and was supercharged to write and succeed for a good month after that meeting. He was my favorite author, at the time. Today I'd like to meet Stephen King, more for the work he did 20 years ago than anything more recent, and I'd be curious to see if t3h insipid oozes through the pores of famous
hacks authors like Saul and Salvatore and the son of McCaffrey, but that's about it. I sometimes wish I had more of a celebrity lust, just so I could get excited about potentially meeting famous people. I only feel interest in meeting ones I admire, and since that's a very, very short list... eh.
