I really like comic conventions. They tend to be far more diverse in terms of age, race, gender and sexual preference and that’s exciting. I also like being in Bard’s Tower https://www.facebook.com/bardstower/. Alexi always ensures we have a could position and I’m able to watch the cavalcade go past — gorgeous costumes and excited little kids running like Dash from The Incredibles and sounding like twittering birds in their excitement. Grandmothers and grandfathers rocking their Wonder Woman and Captain America outfits. People stop and visit. Ask about your books, ask about writing, how to start, what’s it like, etc.
And on Sunday at the Phoenix Comic Fest I had the most delightful interaction. An elderly gentleman walked up to chat with me. He looked to be late sixties or early seventies (I was off by a lot, he was actually 84), but he asked how long it took me to write a book. I said I liked to have a year so I could get it right and do it well. He then told me he could neither read nor write, and told me about an accident where he was struck in the head when he was a child of 8 or 9 and that the good Sisters believed it damaged him so that he could not process the written word. He told me about how he served in the navy during the Korean war and how he got a job with Ma Bell/AT&T in nineteen fifty four because the guy doing the hiring knew his uncle back in Pennsylvania and wanted to help a fellow Irishman. Despite being unable to read or write George was good with electronics and so he worked for forty years, and saved and bought stock and he told me he was now a millionaire and he was using all his money to support literacy programs all around the country.
I found the entire experience to be wonderfully inspiring so I wanted to pass it along.
