I got to fanboy yesterday. Phil Kosnett (the now-former Ambassador) and his lovely wife Alison have been on a west coast swing, visiting their daughter in LA and then their son in Portland, OR. And they were gracious enough to carve out time for me and Fabulous Publisher Babe™ to have dinner with them last night.

Drove down Monday morning to see one of my step-daughters for the first time since before the plague (medical issues have kept her isolated from any possible infection) and we got to have lunch and hang out with her all afternoon. That included a trip to a hydroponics shop south of downtown where I got to watch the Babe nerd out entirely with the guys that worked there and buy bulk supplies for the hydroponics facility just off my kitchen in the main house.

Then the three of us sat in Rose City Coffee off Milwaukee and talked until nearly 6pm.

I love collecting interesting people. It makes life so much better when you can sit and lose hours jabbering about all sorts of things.

Then dinner. German place on East Division. Olympia Provisions Public House. Great food. Great staff. Fabulous dinner.

Went in expecting Phil and Alison. Also got to meet Alex and Nik (up from Los Angeles) and talk to everyone for several hours over meat and coffee. Four more interesting people to sit and listen to. All of them lead interesting lives. Interesting people. Lotsa fun.

Best part was when I got to ambush Phil. Brought along my Dad’s old briefcase that I stole from him some thirty-five years ago, because it was big enough and had the hard sides I needed.

I had brought along all seven Kosnett books currently available in print. Phil got a chance to read the whole series in Advanced Reader Ebook Copies last fall, because I wanted him to know the whole story while he still had Redshirts to taunt at the US Embassy. And I’ll ship him two sets of copies of 5 & 6 in the fall. One set I’ve signed and one for him to sign and ship back to complete my set.

After dinner, I got him to sign all seven.

Best part, however was having him sign my copy of the original Star Fleet Battles rules from 1983. Gonna scan the actual rules pages and put them back in the folder, because I’m framing this one for my brag wall.

And you can see the genesis of the whole CS-405 trilogy right there in Historical Scenario SH1.0 – Sabotage.

While on a special mission during Y161, the Federation cruiser Kongo was suddenly confronted by a Klingon Battlecruiser. Fearing possible interference with his mission, Captain Phillip Kosnett ordered the warp engines brought to full power and discovered that they had been sabotaged! The First Officer and Chief engineer began frantic repairs as the enemy cruiser closed for the kill.

Sounds an awful lot like a broken JumpSail behind enemy lines, doesn’t it? And his daughter laughed that this misspelled his first name back then. (Only one L, like Alison.)

And it turned out that I was wrong on where he found me. I thought he had a Google Alert, like many of the folks I know famous enough to pay attention to that. Nope, he had a subscription to Scrib’d and typed his name in to see if he got any hits. Boy, was he surprised. At the same time, he is the subject of various fiction from the Star Trek/Star Fleet universes, and even has his own Star Trek action figure. (I’m too cheap for action figures right now, unless someone knows a way to do them for less than like $500 plus printing costs for design, et al.)

He found Queen Anne’s Revenge, and had to read it. And reach out. ’cause he’s awesome.

Finally, we headed out and got several pics of everyone. I cropped this one to only show me, Phil, and the Babe, because it’s too early in the day to check with the other three that its okay to show them as well.

From there, the long drive home. Left the house Monday morning at 9am. Got home about 11:15pm. Grumptacular kittie only partly mollified by sitting on someone’s lap and purring as we unwound. I’d had coffee in the afternoon and with dinner, which I don’t normally do, because I knew I’d need to stay sharp. It had been monsoon all the way down, but the drive back was lovely dry.

And I got to fanboy all over Phil. Better, he took it graciously, because he’s such an awesome person.

Right now, he and A live on the east coast in a Carolina vacation home they’ve kept while being assigned all over the damned world doing things for the State Department. As both of the kids are on the west coast, possibly permanently, I’m hoping they maybe decide to live close enough that I get to see them occasionally.

They both have such interesting stories to tell. This is a picture of Alison holding an M203 (M-16 with underbarrel grenade launcher) while in Iraq, apparently as a joke with the troops guarding her while she was in the field.

To counter it, I also have a meme pic that has Phil in it, originally produced by his friends at State. He’s even putting that image on the cover of a book of essays he is editing right now.

 

This is why I like them so much. And look forward to hearing more of their stories. Fantastically interesting people.

Better, now that he’s no longer a formal government employee, he’s allowed to have his own opinions. And part of that might be writing some of the science fiction he’s been such a nerd for for so long. He suggested at one point a story that was basically Murder On The Orient Express, but told as a formal diplomatic cable, by someone who’s an expert in such language.

Y’all should lean on him to do it, because even set in space on a luxury liner or transport of some sort, it sounds like something utterly unique and really fun. The Babe looked him dead in the eye and said “You write it, and we’ll build an anthology around it.”

Snicker. Not like I haven’t already done that four times between Blaze Ward Presents and the Special Editions.

So that’s my show and tell this stupendous Tuesday morning. And my utterly amazing roadtrip ADVENTURE on Monday.

Sorry that I’m taunting you over leading such mundane lines but I got to have WAY TOO MUCH FUN yesterday, after too long cooped up in the house hiding from other weirdos. And then to hang out with two sets of fun folks I could talk to for hours.

What are you doing to make your world a more interesting place, and yourself the sort of dinner guest that people can’t wait to invite over?

Shade and sweet water

b

West of the Mountains, WA