meeting Liam

Okay, I lied when I said I was always going to post in the afternoons. I wrote this Blathering yesterday at the end of the day, am posting it this morning. Thus I once again weasel out of committing to a regular Blatherings posting schedule!

Anyway, I met with Liam O'Donnell in a coffee shop yesterday afternoon. Liam's a children's author I met in one of the Orkut writing communities; we decided to get together in person for the first time.

I find it's always a bit awkward setting up a meeting with someone you met online. Without discussing it explicitly, the general rule is to pick a public place (so if the person decides to go suddenly loopy, others will be there to help wrestle the axe out of his or her hands) and it's usually safer to opt for coffee rather than a meal to limit the possibly agony-time if things don't go well.

Realized within a few minutes of meeting Liam that I didn't have to worry, and hopefully he realized I wasn't the axe-wielding type as well. He's very cool, and we got along well. So well that when it was time to part ways I felt like it hadn't been long enough, there was still so much to talk about! I suspect we'll be hanging out again.

Anyway, do check out Liam's Web site and his blog. Among other projects, Liam has developed educational radio plays for the BBC, written articles for the National Post newspaper, adapted TV scripts for Kids Can Press, and created original comics for A&C Black Publishers and Owl Magazine. Loved the last paragraph in his online bio:

"In addition to writing for young readers, I have delivered hot food in restaurants, cold tea on movie sets, slimy fish in Dublin, bottled water in Vancouver, and bad jokes in theme parks as a professional juggler."

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