A reading with Tad Williams

So yeah!

I will say, though, that the reading was powerfully nostalgic.  As Mr. Tad Williams read his passage — a veritable word salad of strange Trollish names that no doubt sounded like an impenetrable chain of gobbledygook to the uninitiated — I was transported back to my days in college, reading until early in the morning and realizing I had class in two hours.  They say that the surest way to “get” someone in, say, a cult is to develop a secret language, and this was like the cult of Tad Williams.

I got to ask a couple of questions, such as “Why return to writing about Osten Ard after 25 years away?” And “How long did it take to look at your old notes to acclimate with the world again?”  Now, Tad did warn us his answers would be long… and they were! But long story short: he had a new way of approaching the story, and he doesn’t take notes but the fans helped him remember the details.

I had him sign some of my books “Rook”, which was my handle ever since the old MS&T message boards.  He did recognize the handle, which was pretty awesome.

“For Rook: A pleasure to meet an old virtual friend in RL.”