Friends

[sabrinamari]

I woke up thinking about my friends. One of them lives in the city, and she has been a recent, happy addition to my life. When I was young, I read her books and marveled at how cool and wonderful she was, never imagining that I would meet her in person. As an adult, I met her through mage_imbroglio, and we unexpectedly stumbled on a mutual love of fantasy/science fiction.

Visiting her is a wonderful experience. Even though she's a generation ahead of me, we have a most playful vibe when we're together. Within moments of seeing her, I feel sixteen again, and we are suddenly both giggling and talking about all kinds of foolish and wonderful things.

The last time I saw her I hadn't even reached her door before I realized that it was cracked open just a bit. She peered out at me from behind it, eyes sparkling, excitedly declaring, "You won't recognize me!" And I didn't---she had changed her hair quite radically, and her delight in it was infectious.

Every time I'm there, I'm more enchanted by her company. She is both generous and kind, and has extended much goodness in my direction. I can't wait to see her again. I hope it's soon.

Comments

[wgseligman.livejournal.com]

Like you, when I met her I was completely surprised that she was an SF geek. She would've loved watching Jekyll with us.

It occurs to me that I may have to interview her. You know, for science.

[sabrinamari.livejournal.com]

Yes, she would have enjoyed this. I plan to bring her an offering of SF goodness the next time I visit for dinner and laughter.

[sabrinamari.livejournal.com]

Ping her on Facebook. Set an appointment.

[wgseligman.livejournal.com]

She's low on my list of potential interviewees. She's healthy, I know her, and I'm not sure she has access to any info that I don't have. I may mention this to her if you organize that TB party (and if I'm invited). I'm not verklempt about interviewing her the way I mentioned in my recent blog post.

[sabrinamari.livejournal.com]

Dear crytolos, you don't run your first interviews with the highest priority subjects. You do practice runs with friendly, accepting interviewees who can help you test out your questions and get a feel for what you are doing. It really helps if these folk also have useful responses that can shape your interview guide for the better.

But as a non-anthropologist, there's no reason that you should know this. I have a 2-3 hour workshop that I can modify for you to give you the basics in an ethnographic style of interviewing. If we can figure out a way to do this in a timely manner that doesn't stress my life, I'd be happy to put you through it.

This will probably help prepare you for the interviews you need to do for the book, and will also help allay some of your (very reasonable) fears.

[wgseligman.livejournal.com]

My "interview anxiety" has quieted somewhat since yesterday. Evidently blogging about it relieved some of the stress.

If you were offering the workshop to a group of people, I'd attend, but I feel a bit guilty bogarting your time on this issue. If you can point me to written tips, perhaps I can learn a few things on my own.

I'm going to follow your advice and start my "stranger" interviews with Oberon this weekend. I've spoken with him before (16 years ago) and I know he's a nice guy.