Found Memory Thursday

Stuck at home with a sick child (he has a high fever but that doesn’t stop him from driving me nuts by running all over the house naked and refusing to rest), I was organizing crap here and there, when I spied a few misplaced treasured memories in the garage.

photo-13

Yes, that is amazing writer, Ray Bradbury!

I met Mr. Bradbury twice when I was an officer for our local writers’ club and he always came down to speak to a large crowd once a year ever since the club was formed more than fifteen or twenty years earlier.Β  After the talk, all the officers would then go to the club president’s home where Mr. Bradbury would regale all of us with more stories, this time more intimate and usually, I’d like to believe, the ones he would tell close friends.

In this photograph, the president asked me if I wanted to have a photograph taken with Mr. Bradbury after I had taken everyone else’s photos for the newsletter and I realized at that moment that I was actually ‘starstruck’ – or should be ‘writerstruck’ or ‘authorstruck’?

One of the most important things I learned from Mr. Bradbury was to never stop asking “what if” questions.Β  Keep asking them and write the stories to figure out the answer.

Because of that, I never have a dull moment to myself because there are just way too many questions to ask.

Aren’t there?

10 thoughts on “Found Memory Thursday

    1. One of the first authors I ever met was Elmore Leonard who wrote LA Confidential among others, and it was at a Borders bookstore. I remember how he had a curse word just about in every other sentence but he was funny and intense.

      One of my clients worked for a writers’ conference that’s more intimate than the usual ones out there and she got me in to sit in classes taught by Frank McCourt, Mitch Albom, Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, Jane Smiley and W.S. Merwin (to name a few).

      It was an amazing week and she was right about the ‘intimate’ part of it because you literally rubbed elbows with them as you got your coffee or even rode in the same car with them sometimes from one venue to another. I realized how lucky I was then although I haven’t been to another writers’ conference since that time because I sure got spoiled πŸ™‚

      With Ray Bradbury, what was cool about him was that I got to ‘hang out’ with the man because he was an honorary member in our small writers club, even if it was just to listen to him talk and talk because I sure had nothing to contribute LOL πŸ™‚

      1. My job at Harper & Row was boring to me, but it was *glamourous* in that I got to meet authors. Not hanging out with them, though. That’s really cool!

      2. Too bad I can’t do that anymore. The cost for the event skyrocketed – and my client doesn’t work for them anymore so I can’t get in with my fave authors anyway πŸ™‚

      3. 😦 Sad. Do they have bookstore author’s nights by you? I’ve gone to lots at Barnes & Noble here. Very interesting. I even saw Ian McKellen at an event for LOTR!

      4. That must have been amazing to see Ian McKellan!

        I’m so out of the loop in my neck of the woods. I was in the UCLA Writers Program years ago and lately I’ve been thinking of doing that again instead of putting my money into more massage related classes, although when I last looked its about $6500 to get back in so with a family, it might be something I need to take in small doses – and just keep writing as much as I can when I’m not taking classes.

        Besides, the muse has been long overdue πŸ™‚

      5. It WAS cool to see Ian McKellen! He was talking about filming the Khazad-dum bridge scene, You shall not pass!- while looking at a tennis ball hanging in front of a green screen.

        You should know that I’m watching Hannibal right now only because of you! πŸ˜€

  1. πŸ˜€ that’s so cool! And it was a good advice from him. There are always so many questions to be asked and possible answers if you take the time to look into both.

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