While in the green room before one panel, I ran into Lois McMaster Bujold. She walked up to the table around which many of us were sitting, and I noticed that she was wearing a large, silver-toned necklace. Large as in Very Large -- it was about two inches thick, and flat, and ... and looking at it, it seemed to be composed of... hugo pins. And nebula pins. And something from the World Fantasy. It was, in fact, the feminine equivalent of wearing all those hugo pins on your name-tag. But prettier. She'd taken them to a jeweller and had the necklace made.
My first thought was, I wonder what Resnick would think?
And her first words -- after our many words of admiration and astonishment fell into silence -- were, "I can't wait to see Mike Resnick's face."
Me either. And I didn't :/.
Comments
It rings a bell anyway.
She absolutely did wear it -- I think she probably skipped it for the Hugo ceremony itself, although I haven't seen pictures <g>. It was lovely, and not immediately obvious -- but once you knew what it was, it had the effect of causing both envy and a great deal of amusement. She's such a nice person it's hard to do anything but enjoy her success -- but she clearly has a sense of humour as well <g>.
(OCR == Obscure Cultural Reference)
Mike Resnick is a fairly well known SF writer (I think his best known novel is SANTIAGO, but I could be wrong), and has done some editing and some non-fiction columns as well; he's active in the fan community, he's very funny, very friendly, and not so quiet. Anyway, he's been nominated for several hugos, for either novels or short works of varying length, and he usually has a row of hugo pins on any worldcon name tag he wears (someone called him the General at one point, although I think a diminuitive of General is now used when referring to him, and I confess I don't remember which diminuitive).
It's a point of affectionate pride for Mike, and he's not terribly shy about it -- he's probably the least overtly modest hugo nominee you're likely to meet in the right circumstances, and of course Lois knows him. She's probably been nominated less often, but has won more often (she doesn't write as many shorts).
He's a terrific guy, and they both have the right type of competitive streak (mostly fun, teeny bit of edge) which just made the whole comment perfect. Ummm, at least for me. I laughed a lot <g>.
I have a not great picture of Lois wearing the necklace, sitting with her new Hugo, online. Links there to
condombag mars the shot somewhat.Lovely stuff.
And I promise to be just as astonished and dazzled when he wears it to a Worldcon <g>. Heck, more even.
So winners get a pin in addition to the rocket?
I met her when she was still married to John Bujold and stopped by their house in Ohio once to get the prototype dulcimer he made (didn't play worth a damn but fun to goof around on). She seemed so kind and friendly and generous that I keep thinking I really ought to get around to reading more of her stuff. sigh... but then - I ought to read more of YOUR stuff too. SO many books - so many damned textbooks - so little time. argh! ;-)