While my kids were in grade school, one of the ways the school got money was to entice the kids into selling magazine subscriptions, lured by Weebles, fuzzy do-nothing toys, that the adult hucksters successfully convinced my impressionable children to want as status symbols, subsequently guilting me into buying unwanted and usually unread magazines. It took 10 subscriptions to get a Weeble, so I would peruse the glossy catalog for something I might like.
To my disappointment, Playboy was not offered, and I don't like sports, woodworking or cooking, so there wasn't much for me. However, a new magazine, Aboriginal Science Fiction, caught my eye and for as long as it was printed, I subscribed. I read a lot of great stories in that magazine. One of my favorite author's was an unknown George R. R. Martin.
One of the few things that draws me back into downtown Portland, Oregon is the most famous bookstore in the world, Powell’s. I’ve seen articles about Powell’s in newspapers in South Africa, Australia, Great Britain & Hungary just during the times I was visiting those countries. I would take my family to Powell's at least once a month, and often go to book-readings by the authors. It was the only time I ever bought hardback books, let alone at list price, because I figured any author that hosted me was worth my support. I collected literally 100s of autographed books and keep a lot of them in my library to this day, though I have given away some to people who I know would appreciate them.
Most authors I'd never heard of before; 3 out of 4 times I didn't even finish the autographed book I'd bought, but there were enough home-runs to make the gambling worth it: Lee Child, C.J. Box, Robert Jordan, Alafair Burke, and one time, George R. R. Martin. I made a special trip to go see him; I didn't even know he wrote whole novels. The book he was reading from was called "Game of Thrones." I couldn't wait to get into it, and was completely wowed. I waited not-so-patiently for his other books, one time getting so excited that I bought the same book a second time because I didn't recognize the title from years previous. I used to comment to my friends, “This would make a great TV series if they could figure out the special effects.”
Author Readings
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Martin Hash
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Author Readings
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Shamedia, Shamdemic, Shamucation, Shamlection, Shamconomy & Shamate Change
