Adieu, Joana Russ

Hugo-winning author Joanna Russ died yesterday. I didn't know her well, but she was a crucial character in one of the choice moments of my life.

I first met her when she attended some meetings of the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society (LASFS) in 1968. At that time I'd had just one story published and two more sold, so I was definitely just a rank beginner. At that year's WorldCon, held in Berkeley, I  attended the Hugo Awards Banquet and ended up sitting at a table that included her, Fritz Leiber, and Poul and Karen Anderson. I was definitely the most junior person there, but everyone treated me politely.

Fritz won the Hugo that year for "Gonna Roll Dem Bones." As he stood up to go onstage and accept his award, Joanna was the first to congratulate him with a kiss. I was the second to congratulate him, with a handshake.

When the banquet was over, Joanna took my hand and said, "Come with me."  I had no idea where she wanted to take me. Her room, perhaps? (Yeah, dream on, Steve.) But I certainly wasn't going to argue with her.

We ended up at the suite sponsored by Galaxy Magazine--my first "pro" party. There I was, surrounded by people I'd loved all my life. Roger Zelazny, who'd just won the Hugo for Lord of Light, brushed past me and asked me to excuse him! A bearded man I didn't recognize, who wasn't wearing his name badge, asked me whether I was a fan or a pro; I said that, among fans, I claimed to be a pro on the basis of 3 sales, but in this company I wasn't sure. He said, "Well, what do you consider yourself?" We talked about writing for some time before his wife came by and suggested he put his badge on, and I learned I'd been talking to Alan E. Nourse, whose books I loved...and the current president of SFWA. He'd spent time talking to a nobody like me as though I were an equal.

Joanna went her separate way once we entered the party and I didn't see her again that evening. But she had introduced me to a whole new world, and my life was changed forever.

Thank you, Joanna. Rest well.