Who are the nicest and most obnoxious authors you've met ?

[SheilaT]

13. I've met a fair number of authors, and they've always been quite nice.

Most I've met at events where they are reading and signing, and if they can do that they're generally pretty decent. I once had an editor tell me that I could not imagine how unfit to be seen in public some writers are, and they are the ones who do not go out in public.

Ones I've met that I've liked a lot: Rob Sawyer, and I sort of count him as a friend; Bob Wilson; Robin Wayne Bailey (ditto on the sort of a friend); Pat Cadigan; James Gunn; Brad Denton. Fred Pohl, Kevin Anderson, S. M. Stirling. These are all s-f writers, which is my favorite field.

I used to live in the Kansas City area and would go to book things sponsored by Rainy Day Books. Let's see, through them I've met Calvin Trillin (who I also met separately through another civic group and he's a true sweetheart), Erik Larsen, Phillipa Gregory, Allison Pearson, Martha Beck, and lots of others.

Sometimes I go to writers conferences, and the writers who show up there have always been, in my experience, nice and gracious. I suppose if you simply connect to a writer in some other way, he or she might be a jerk.

Oh. Once when I was working at National Airport in Washington DC I waited on Norman Mailer. He didn't impress me, but then again, he was simply trying to catch a flight somewhere.