Over my life, I've had some pretty awesome interactions with people I've looked up to, or who are pretty famous. A couple of them happened even before I started my own journey into being a minor celebrity. Rather than give these moments any kind of order of importance, I'm going to list them in order of occurrence in my life, as best I can recollect. well... exacpt the last one.

1) The Irish Circle Trap - When I was working at a Renaissance Faire in my early 20's, I was doing a goofy little skit where I would "trap" people in a circle I drew in the gravel with my heel. One time, I caught "Weird" Al Yankovich. I even wrote a poem about it. Read it and listen to it on my Patreon.

2) At the World Science Fiction Convention in 2005 (I think), I got to meet Harlan Ellison. Anyone who knows me knows what a HUGE Harlan fanboy I am. He signed a couple of books for me and insulted my use of a camera phone.

3) At the World Fantasy Convention in 2007 (I think), my wife and I stepped off the shuttle and into the hotel. I blurted out, "There's someone famous. It's David B. Coe." I'd seen him on an awesome panel at World Con a few years earlier. We became friends that weekend. Later, David told me that was the first time anyone ever recognized him like that.

4) At the World Science Fiction Convention in 2011, I almost made George RR Martin spray coffee by asking him a question about Game of Thrones.

5) At the Silicon Valley Comic Con in 2018, I got to have dinner with Michael Moorcock, his wife Linda, and David Gerrold. It was a grand time, and they told me a great many stories about Harlan.

6) Over the years, I've had many pleasant meals with David Gerrold, and we've become friends. Even typing this weirds me out a little. But I'm also smiling. Sometimes I need to sit back and remember that my life is pretty cool.

7) At AWP in Philly in 2022, I didn't expect to have any fanboy moments, as AWP is mostly an academic and literary conference. However, I happened to run into Gary Jackson, author of the brilliant book, Missing You, Metropolis. He just happened to be in a group of people who were all hanging out. I totally fanboyed, and then we had a great conversation about gaming and Twitch streaming.

8) At a dinner with David Gerrold in Worldcon Chicago in 2022, John Scalzi happened by, and I got to tell him about how his "Who Get's To Be a Geek" post was shaping young minds. A few years before that, I was storytelling at an elementary school and had to make a rule against "nerd shaming" during my performance and Q & A. Scalzi's article is one of the foundations of my Hardcore Fanboy Philosophy.

9) Last year at LosCon, Larry Niven came to the Gallowglas Army room party and got a copy of Halloween Jack and the Devil's Gate for his partner. Even asked me to sign it.

10) A few years ago, at an LTUE (which I'll be attending next week), I was chilling out, leaning against a partition between the copy area and the bar. A kid came up to me and asked, "Has anyone ever told you that you look exactly like M. Todd Gallowglas?" That was a cool moment.

So that's it for this week's "10 for Tuesday. Well.... mostly...

At long last... I'm starting up the Hardcore Fanboy Podcast for a new season. For the second season, I'll be going more in-depth into the next couple of months of 10 for Tuesday posts.

Episodes of Hardcor Fanboy will air Friday mornings on my Patreon, where you can also hear all of Season 1.