I was encouraged to go to my first WorldCon
this past year (September 2013) by prolific author L.E. Modesitt, Jr. We had a
long discussion about the pros and cons of going, and Lee certainly made the
pros sound far more exceptional than the cons.
So, because I’m a girl who’s definitely
able to follow instructions (you know, when I wanna), and because Lee gave me
quite a long list of benefits I could expect to reap by dint of attending and participating
on panels and such, I headed off to San Antonio for what was a really wonderful
convention experience.
It was the last day, and so far, everything
Lee had said would happen had so happened, other than one thing: I hadn’t run
into an editor and had them invite me into an anthology. Oh sure, Lee hadn’t
said that this was a given, but he’d made the point that many times one only
got invited into an anthology if one was right in front of an editor pulling
said anthology together.
I was in the middle of the dealer room,
chatting with Ellen Datlow, Carrie Vaughn, David Lee Summers, and a variety of
attendees, when two tall men with British accents came up and started to talk
to Ellen. As often happens when there are a lot of people around all talking to
each other in a fluid group, people move off in and out of smaller groups,
still there but talking amongst themselves. This happened here, leaving one of
the Brits and me standing near each other and yet alone.
So, I introduced myself. “Hi, I’m Gini
Koch, I’m an author.”
“I’m
David Moore,” he replied pleasantly. “I’m an editor.”
“Oh? What do you edit?”
“WELL, I’m working on an anthology of
Sherlock Holmes stories.”
At this moment I began to geek out like
David was One Direction and I was a preteen girl. “Oh my GOD, I am a GIGANTIC
Holmes fan!”
David, whose expression had been normally
pleasant until now, got incredibly animated. “Me, too! Which Holmes do you
like?”
“All of them! I used to swear I was a
purist, that I only wanted ‘real’ Holmes, but now I realize it was a lie – I
love any and every Holmes there is.”
“ME TOO! My anthology is going to put
Holmes and Watson any time, anywhere, and in any way.”
At this point, David and I were both
geeking out at the same level, having our own private Holmesian convention –
albeit a convention of two, but two really PASSIONATE attendees – while
everyone else was still enjoying WorldCon. However, as excited as we were, I’m
sure we weren’t jumping up and down. Okay, not much jumping. Okay, we probably
were, but I don’t believe there’s photographic proof, so it didn’t happen.
We were sharing our thoughts on every
Holmes we could think of. “Sherlock”, “Elementary”, the Robert Downey, Jr.
steampunk versions? Check. Jeremy Brett as possibly the best screen Holmes
ever? Check. The awesomeness of Lucy Liu as a female Watson? Yep. Older Holmes
movies? Naturally. Obscure Holmes movies only David and I had ever heard of?
Double check.
By this time, I was squealing, “I HAVE TO
BE IN THIS ANTHOLOGY!” And David was saying, “YOU’RE IN!”
I gave him my card and then spent the next
week terrified that I’d somehow given him someone else’s card.
But I had not. And the rest is history.
Or rather, the rest is my story, “All the
Single Ladies”, with a Holmes and Watson I’m really proud of. David was a joy
to work with, the book is chockfull of great stories from wonderful authors,
the cover art is beyond beautiful, and I’m still excited every time I think
about the whole experience.
By the way, the moral of this story? Do
whatever L.E. Modesitt, Jr. tells you to do – apparently he’s never wrong. And
the other moral? One can never, ever, have enough Holmes.
***
Gini Koch writes the fast, fresh and funny
Alien/Katherine “Kitty”
Katt series for DAW Books, the Necropolis Enforcement
Files series, and the Martian Alliance Chronicles series for Musa Publishing.
Alien in the House, Book 7 in her long-running Alien series, won the RT Book
Reviews Reviewer’s Choice Award as the Best Futuristic Romance of 2013. Alien
Collective, Book 9, released in May, and Universal Alien is coming this
December.
As G.J. Koch she writes the Alexander Outland series and she’s made
the most of multiple personality disorder by writing under a variety of other
pen names as well, including Anita Ensal, Jemma Chase, A.E. Stanton, and J.C.
Koch. Currently, Gini has stories featured in the Unidentified Funny Objects 3,
Clockwork Universe: Steampunk vs. Aliens, and Two Hundred and
Twenty-One Baker Streets anthologies, and, writing as J.C. Koch, in Kaiju
Rising: Age of Monsters, The Madness of Cthulhu, Vol. 1, and A Darke
Phantastique anthologies. She will also have a story in the first book in an
X-Files anthology series coming out in 2015.
Gini can be reached via her
website: www.ginikoch.com
Gina Koch is the author of All the single ladies in the Two Hundred and Twenty-One Baker Streets anthology out now from Abaddon Books!
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