Humiliating (But Great) Geeker Freakout

Today at the yarn store I was ringing up a lady's purchases, thinking that she had good taste, when she handed me her check.

I looked at the check. I looked at her. I looked at the check. I looked at her. Finally blurt out, "Are you the Patricia C. Wrede?"

PATRICIA C. WREDE CAME TO MY YARN STORE TODAY!!!!!

She was very nice. Her friend explained that they were in town for WisCon between effusive babblings of joy (from yours truly.) I told her that The Enchanted Forest Chronicles were my favorite books when I was a kid, and that I saved my money so that I could buy them all in hardcopy, I told her that I also loved Caught in Crystal and that when I was a kid I checked it out of the library over and over, that I had read her books to the kids in my After School Program last fall and then gone online and seen that she had written more books, but I hadn't found them in a bookstore yet.

I am sure that I came off like a complete crazy person and Patricia C. Wrede, if you're out there, I'm not usually like that. I'm usually really reserved and private, but you have to understand, you are the hero of my childhood. Reading those books made me want to be a writer. Reading about how amazing and awesome Cimorene was made me want to be that awesome and amazing. The female characters are great, and I wanted to be them! (Mendenbar also rocks.)

My sister's online handle is the name of one of the cats in Calling on Dragons, after I bought the hardbacks, I gave my brother the paperbacks and he read them over and over again, I have a sketchbook at home full of painstaking drawings my fifth grade self did of her characters. I have read these books literally dozens of times - anyone suggesting upwards of thirty times would not be accused of crazy talk - and they basically sparked my voracious love of reading as a child.

She's the first writer I read who played with the reader and had funny little references. I just remember how clever I thought she was when Cimorene posted that sign about "No Salesmen or Rescuers THIS MEANS YOU!" and how delighted I was by The Wicked Stepmothers' Traveling, Drinking, and Debating Society, Men's Auxilary. I wanted to learn Latin because of these books so I could conjugate Draconis with Cimorene, and this is where I learned the expression, "Rare as hen's teeth." I also learned that you never trust a wizard, but magicians are okay, that everybody gets lonely, even the King of the Enchanted Forest, and that gingerbread and apple cider almost always make people feel better.

I babbled like a monkey, but I just hope she took it in the spirit in which it was intended: utter delight and admiration. Honestly, I'd made such an ass of myself already, I only wish I remembered that I had my camera in my bag. I could have asked for a picture!

Who is the hero from your childhood it would render you incoherent to meet?